Sour Taste

No one's going to want to read this. This is just a gripe, gripe, gripe session. I keep saying "this is the final straw" at the post office, and they keep piling them on. If I am ever missing, you'll have to dig under the haystack that is now on top of me. It's not just me, it's all postmasters especially the poor misunderstood small town postmasters.

There have been a few things happening lately that I think will cause others to take a stand and say, "enough is enough already". I sure hope so. I know there are 3 of us postmasters in CT who have something unique about our offices that no other office of our size in CT has, and therefore, we should be treated differently. We are going to start fighting for this. Wish us luck!

Now here's some griping. A few months ago all carriers were given a grievence settlement for "fletters". This is a new term for flats (large envelopes and magazines) that are sorted on flat sorter machines and have letters (now called fletters) accidentally mixed. in. Some carriers got over $600. lump sum check--every carrier got some kind of check. Guess what? Not all carriers (mine included) has their mail sorted on flat sorter machines. Yet they all got checks!

Okay, if that's not enough...here it is a couple of months later and I don't know what happened but the carriers are getting another lump sum check for some reason. Carriers get cost of living and step increases, so I don't know what this is.

Okay, that's the way it goes. Then my clerk comes in and says he got a letter at home--all level 5 clerks are going to be raised to level 6--which means a higher pay scale for him.

Well, I guess I should be happy for everyone in my office. NOT! A couple of years ago the post office changed things and postmasters now get raises based on "performance". My raise is based on cutting my employees hours, keeping down expenses (including snow plowing, electricity, etc.) and especially by how much more revenue we can bring in--we have to bring in more than the year before. When you work in a town with no businesses, and more people using the computer to pay bills, etc, how are we supposed to bring in money? The mail volume is down.

So, my carrier gets two lump sum payments for doing nothing. My clerk gets a grade increase for doing nothing. I have to cut expenses and sell more stuff in order to make a raise--note that my clerk does some of the sales and he never asks anyone if they want insurance or any extra services which we are required to ask--why doesn't he? Because he does not care. His raise does not depend on it. He gets costs of living and step increases automatically. Now a brand new clerk starts out at $19.11 I'd say that's overpaid!

If a clerk in my size office is at the top of his pay scale, and the postmaster is at the top of his pay scale, the postmster (boss) only makes $1.99 more than the clerk. I can't imagine that happening in real businesses. I can't imagine anyone starting out at $19.11 an hour either.

Well, there I've griped. Do I feel better? No. Send donations. That will make me feel better. :)