[img]583|left|Eric L. Wattree||no_popup[/img]It is easy to criticize the Postal Service. Everyone does. Like Congress, the agency has become so dysfunctional it is an easy target.
It has not, however, been my intent the past nine months to drag the Postal Service through the mud for the joy of it. Rather, postal workers are drowning in a cesspool of corruption and injustice that is destroying their health, well-being and home lives. It is imperative every American take heed to what is going on because the U. S. Postal Service situation signals a pronounced change in the nation's attitude toward poor and middle-class workers. The Postal Service is suffering from the ailment that led to the collapse of Wall Street.
The bonus program for its top executives has been an attempt to emulate private enterprise, and it has led to the people at the top focusing more on their own greed than to the agency's mission, to serve the public.
Since bonuses mainly are based on the way they look on paper, their primary motivation has been to curtail service to the public, steal wages from their employees, and cook the books to make them reflect a totally false reality.
As a direct result of the self-serving policies of a handful of corrupt executives, the Postal Service has lost the confidence of the public while lowering the morale of employees.
Lying Builds Momentum
Since the Postal Service’s projections are based on the inaccurate data of books routinely falsified on a daily basis, every year the situation worsens. This has been going on for so many years that the only way management can keep its head above water is to lie, cheat and steal just to justify the lying, cheating and stealing they did the previous year.
This has led to management live from hand-to-mouth. Their creativity is going into their greed, and covering up their actions instead of trying to come up with innovative ways to address the problems.
They are trying to find a way to lower the cost of labor, for example. But they are approaching by grabbing a handful of water. In attempting to save revenue, they trump up meaningless charges against their most experienced employees in an effort to push them out the door.
Savings Are Minimal
They violate their own regulations against the discrimination of employees with job-related disabilities. Most seriously, they break federal law by falsifying government documents to rob gainfully employed workers of their hard-earned wages.
Even then, they only save enough revenue to get their hands wet. Most revenue they had hoped to save is dripping through their fingers. Their corrupt, shortsighted policies are costing the agency in grievance litigation; the loss of experienced personnel, and the costs related to poor employee morale, such as higher sick leave usage, higher accidents rates, a rise in inefficiency, and the unquantifiable cost of passive aggressiveness.
If these executive managers were not so preoccupied with their greed and getting by one day at a time, someone might have developed plan allowing experienced retired managers and craft employees to return at half salaries.
Retired employees would jump at the opportunity. Not only would the Postal Service benefit from the knowledge and expertise of retirees, it could save a tremendous amount by not having to pay benefits. Such a program would get employees to decide to retire.
Many undoubtedly would conclude that by drawing their retirement then coming back to work for half of their salary would be more cost efficient than staying. Working a three- or four-day schedule would give them the best of both worlds.
Kinks may have to be worked out. The net effect, though, would resolve numerous problems with one common-sense administrative decision.
Next: How to raise productivity and employee morale.
Eric L. Wattree is a writer, poet and musician, born in Los Angeles. A columnist for the Los Angeles Sentinel, the Black Star News, a staff writer for Veterans Today, he is a contributing writer to Your Black World, the Huffington Post, ePluribus Media and other online sites and publications. He also is the author of “A Message From the Hood.”
Mr. Wattree may be contacted at wattree.blogspot.com or Ewattree@Gmail.com
Religious bigotry: It’s not that I hate everyone who doesn’t look, think, and act like me – it’s just that God does.
