My son started with the post office in September and just finished his first holiday season.
Here is what I have learned.
Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, there is a tremendous amount of overtime work.
New people work 60- 80 hours per week - usually over 7 days.
They only get a day off, if they have put in 80 hours in 6 days - which is 13 hours per day - and he did hit that bar a couple times.
If he had a couple 16 hour days, early in the week, then on day 5 and day 6 - he'd get off after 9 or 10 hours - as they do not have anyone working more than 80 hours in a week.
So, with your newest people working so many hours -- that might contribute to some of the problems in December.
The more experienced people are putting in a lot of overtime, too.
They can't hire temps to help in Dec because it takes too long to learn the system.
They try their best to perform their services to the same level during Dec - as the rest of the year, but the sheer volume is mind-numbing.
Amazon has also made a huge difference in the load. It's a whole new segment of work that has been growing.
The PO has had to adapt - and it must be challenging to calculate exactly how many packages will be showing up from Amazon.
The PO delivers packages (not mail) on Sundays - and my son recently showed up, expecting that his crew would handle the normal 1,500 packages that they are staffed for on Sunday and there were 3,000 packages. They were out until 10 PM. And this was in January. How is the PO supposed to know how many items people are going to order on a day to day basis? And you know - we are all expecting that overnight or 2-day service and we get really annoyed when things are late - so it is tempting to blame the guy in the truck.
Amazon says they plan to start doing their own delivering. It will be very interesting to see if they can replicate the service that the PO has been providing. I wonder if they really understand how complicated it is to establish a network of people who really want to race around meeting deadlines for minimum wage.
I asked my son if they ever hold mail over for the following day and my son looked at me like I was nuts. His response was something like, "Yeah, right. If we leave anything for the following day, it just guarantees that the following day will be unmanageable." Yes, they do have an occasional light day -- but it's less than once a week. Maybe a couple light days per month.
Anything that cannot be read by a scanner has to be handled by a person - and those people are also consumed by the December tsunami.
So yes -- if the scanner can't read it - it will take longer. It is probably hard to know if any of the workers go rogue and just dump mail in a corner somewhere - for days on end. My son assures me that they do not do that at his station. They are eager to get everything out the door - and on it's way. But, it could pile up somewhere else along the line.
Over the years, I have noticed that mail sent to smaller cities and towns arrives more promptly than mail going to large urban areas. And - yes - there are things that simply disappear. But, most of it shows up eventually.
Handling mail does not look that complicated from the outside - and we all wonder why they can't perform a simple task of reading the address and putting it in the right mailbox -- but now that I know what it is like on the other side -- I realize that they have all kinds of issues - and they are actually trying really hard. They have many rules that are strictly enforced. They are vigilant about watching that every scanned package is accounted for. If they get back to the station and they forgot to scan a package, they have to go back out and find the package and scan it. No exceptions. The scanners have settings to record exactly when the package was scanned -- so the carrier can't just scan all the packages at once and then deliver them along the route. So there is a whole level of watching the packages that surprised me. Of course, they can't do that with all the envelopes. However -- they do some spot checking. I've seen my carrier scanning each piece of mail that he puts in my box.
My son has confirmed that there are some wonderful people who are devoted to doing a good job.
And then there are inept people who are giving it a try and probably won't last.
And there are old people who are simply worn out and waiting to retire who can be a little hardened.
It is a system that has to adapt to changes (like Amazon) and they are trying ---
Personally, I am no longer addressing envelopes where the address is difficult to read. I make the address very clear, using beautiful block printing.
My son told me that they are told to only look at the address - and ignore the names --- so, I put all my fun into the name -- but I keep the address very clear.
My son feels like some customers are sympathetic and reasonable in their dealings with him - and other customers are angry before the conversation even starts. He was a communication major in college and spent 10 years in the restaurant world, so he has a lot of experience at service. He takes it in stride when someone needs to vent about something. I've enjoyed learning about the PO - and it will be interesting to see if he sticks with it. They do have all kinds of jobs besides delivering.
Most of us have bonded with a mailman at some point - my favorite will always be *Dave* -- and since he has retired, I've been ornery about the different people who have been on our route. But, I'm going to be nicer to them - because I realize that being appreciated might help them through their day.
And finally -- I am going to start sending my holiday mailing in November. It won't make a difference -- but, I can't bear to add to the load - plus - it might insure that my mail doesn't get lost.
