Thursday, January 08, 2009
Ending thoughts of 2008 at our house....
It's been close to a month since my last post and much has happened, most mundane, ordinary stuff, but a few important items.
Christmas at the Post Office has changed dramatically since I started in 1988. At that time an employee's life during December was consumed by the demands of work. Seven day weeks, 12 hour days were the norm. It didn't end with Christmas. January brought sale catalogs and a boost in advertising that ran through May when volume would tail off until the back-to-school sales began, then the process started again with the first Christmas sale mailings in September.
With automation of the mail stream much of that work is now performed by machines and what took 10 employees 10 hours to do, now 1 employee can complete in two and a half. The only part of the mail stream not impacted by machines at the delivery office level is parcels.
They still must be sorted individually by hand, but this year with the weakening economy, even that is suffering reduced volume. I don't have any hard numbers to substantiate it, but past experience and just the "feel" of the mail flow tells me times have changed.
Even as little as a couple years ago in our office I worked straight through, 7 days a week, from Thanksgiving to Christmas. This year the change is so dramatic, my manager was entertaining approval of leave during that time, something never before considered during December.
Overtime was needed only in the case of personnel shortages, i.e. sick leave, out of the office for other duties, etc. There were only a few instances of OT required due to mail volume, and that only in the case of processing parcels.
To those who think of the Postal Service in terms of a stodgy old government bureaucracy, over populated with excess employees, outdated practices and costly inefficiencies, you are out of touch with today's business.
While there are certainly areas needing improvement, as in every business on the planet, cost cutting and service improvement is the name of today's game. Employment is down some 100,000 from it's peak according to 2007 figures and 2008 has seen even deeper cuts with 50 million fewer work hours used compared to 2007.
There are several early retirement offerings currently in process and depending on the results other measures are being considered to cut costs and employee levels. From what I'm hearing, everything is on the table.
Mail volume is down overall with a total of 202.7 billion pieces delivered in 2008, or an average of 675 pieces of mail for every man, woman and child in America. Still that's a decline of 9.5 billion pieces, or 4.5 percent, compared to the previous fiscal year. That is substantial and these numbers are for the FY ending September 30, before the worst of the economic decline began to settle on business and individuals.
In the midst of this the service is deploying a new Flat Sorting System that will automate even more of the mail stream, further reducing the need for clerk craft employees (that's my area) and heavily impacting delivery employees who will receive a substantial amount of their mail ready to go to the street.
While I'm trying to secure a transfer to South Carolina in the midst of this changing business environment, I really have no idea what all this could mean for my future. Even with a 20 year work history, transferring into a new plant could put me in a precarious position if that plant is required to reduce it's "complement" (that's "employee levels" to the rest of you).
Finding out where I would stand as a transferee has been pretty tough to ascertain. Still, the fact that I need to be in South Carolina has not changed simply because the economy or my employers business model is changing.
So you can see there are some challenges ahead for those of us at the Postal Service just like the rest of the nation. We are not exempt. Even while we move the mail (40% of the world volume), bringing people together via their written communications and packages we are constantly looking for ways to reduce costs.
Unlike other delivery services we don't add surcharges for fuel or economic hard times. It cost the same to send a letter across town or across the nation. From the US Virgin Islands to Guam, from Chicago to a soldier serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, it still costs only 42¢ to mail a letter.
"We are all in the same boat on a stormy sea and
we owe each other a terrible loyalty." - G. K. Chesterson
Labels: change, economy, mail, Postal Service, South Carolina
Thursday, December 04, 2008
Heros...
Last night I had dinner with a hero. A co-worker, Ellie Celeste, had her “coming out” of sorts, 2 days after returning home from her hospital and rehabilitation for the 2nd time. Eighteen friends gathered to celebrate with her and celebrate we did. But first, some background.
Ellie is a sixty something lady, originally from New York City, who loves horses, dogs and people. Not always in that order. For years she has bred and trained horses, mostly Lipizzaners, some of which have made their way into well known shows featuring these beautiful animals.
Additionally, she operated stables and a carriage ride business in New York City, and after moving to Florida about 10 years ago she again boarded horses and offered riding classes for kids, specializing in therapeutic riding. Her dream was to do this full time when she retired from the Postal Service.
That all changed on February 16, 2008. On that day Ellie was returning from the Lady Lake Post Office about noon after conducting a test on the mail. Traveling across Florida on Highway 42 east of Weirsdale, a trip she had made many times, Ellie was ever alert.
Though this route is the shortest path from her home office in Daytona Beach to Lady Lake, it is also wrought with potential peril. Twisting through the rolling hills of central Florida, Highway 42 is loaded with blind turns, unseen roads and driveways emptying into it and traffic snarled by the slow pace often punctuated by impatient drivers taking terrible chances.
This particular February Saturday was bright and sunny; the temperature was in the low 70’s, the rolling countryside covered with scrub oaks in their winter dormancy punctuated with the deep greens of pine and cedar. It was a perfect example of Florida’s best time of the year. As Ellie drove she thought of her plans later that day. Caring for her horses, riding classes, it was a great to be alive!
Little known to Ellie, at that moment, Jeremy Halfacre and his passenger Ray Jenkins were racing her way. Halfacre was at the wheel of a borrowed lease car which he wasn’t authorized to drive on his suspended license.
Halfacre had minutes earlier rolled through a stop sign in Eustis. A sheriff’s deputy, observing the violation, gave pursuit until he saw the reckless manner of Halfacre’s driving. Little did the officer know that in addition to the minor traffic violation, Halfacre was wanted on a drug charge, that’s why he sped from the officer’s pursuit.
Halfacre merged off of County Road 450 onto Highway 42 and was headed her way at over 90 miles per hour. While the officer had long since stopped his pursuit, the driver of a forest service truck, listening to the officer’s exchange with his dispatcher, observed Halfacre’s car as it passed and followed at a distance to keep him in sight.
Halfacre, thinking he was still being pursued, sped away, swerving in and out of traffic. He came up behind some motorcyclists out for a leisurely ride and cut into the oncoming lane just as Ellie’s car rounded the curve. Halfacre swerved and his car, sliding sideways at 70 miles per hour, slammed into Ellie’s postal car at a combined impact speed of 130mph. Jenkins was killed instantly.
The impact crushed the 2006 Chevy Malibu Ellie was driving, ramming the steering wheel into her chest, breaking 3 ribs and puncturing her lungs. The seat frame slammed into her spine fracturing it. As the floorboard collapsed, her legs had nowhere to go and the bones in her legs and her knees were shattered, her right femur breaking through the skin and jamming itself into the console.
Glass from Jenkins’ car and her windshield peppered her with lacerations, embedding itself such that months later Ellie was still finding pieces rising to the surface of her hands, arms and face. Through it all, she remained conscious and alert.
If not for the air bag, Ellie would have died. There were times in the coming weeks when she wished she had, but right now she was trapped and just wanted out. The forest service employee probably saved her life by staunching the blood flow from torn arteries.
Miraculously paramedics were nearby the location of this deeply rural accident scene and they rushed to provide immediate care while other emergency workers raced to dismantle the Malibu with the “Jaws of Life.” The doors and roof had to come off the crushed car before Ellie’s mangled body could be extracted and air lifted to Orlando Regional Medical Center.
While the doctors at ORMC worked feverishly to save her life, Ellie lay in a semi-conscious state and down the hall, the man who had inflicted this insult to her body was himself receiving medical care.
Come back in a few days for the rest of the story.
"We are all in the same boat on a stormy sea and
we owe each other a terrible loyalty." - G. K. Chesterson
Labels: accident, Ellie, emergency, hero, jaws of life, Orlando Regional Medical Center, ORMC, postal, Postal Service
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Giving thanks...
Eph 5:20 "Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;" (KJVA)
If you’re reading this Thanksgiving Day, I was scheduled to work today, but flexibility being the watchword, that has changed, YEAH!!.
I had originally planned to be off this week and was considering making the trek to be with my parents and siblings this day, that or spend the week working on a failed shower pan.
Well, things didn’t work out where I would be able to work on and complete the shower, but neither was I able to make the pilgrimage north. One of our employee’s heart problems revisited and for the second time in 3 weeks he had to undergo a cardiac stent procedure.
With the downsizing the Postal Service is undergoing, we no longer have the redundancy of employees for which the service was once legitimately criticized. That redundancy is no longer the case and the reductions continue with voluntary early retirements taking effect in January ’09.
Two strong healthy people can distribute mail in our office for a short period of time, I know because I did it the first time this employee went into the hospital. But now, if I were to take the time off, the two people left are both near or past retirement and neither are in the best of health themselves. Attempting to run the office for a week would most likely, for them, result in their needing to take sick leave to recover from the physical damage they’d incur.
So, I find myself working this week, the first time I would have had Thanksgiving week off in 20 years of working for the Postal Service. Additionally, the little known secret is that even though there is no window service or mail delivery on a holiday, many larger offices still must staff to one degree or another otherwise the mail the following day would be overwhelming and most likely delays would occur.
However, with the overwhelming changes occurring in the Postal Service, we are downsizing our staffing across the board and extending dependency on automation processes to increase productivity and further reduce staffing.
The Postal Service is not immune to the shrinking economy. Our business depends on mail volume and that volume is dropping. Many factors come into play, the rise of the Internet and electronic billing and remittance being primary.
We learned Wednesday that except in the major processing centers, there will no transportation running to delivery offices on Thanksgiving Day and thus no need to provide even minimal staffing in those office. I have no doubt that this seeming minor change will save millions of dollars in avoided costs on this holiday.
And with that additional bit of knowledge, I no longer am required to work this Thanksgiving Day, and that's a good thing.
So, with all this change and uncertainty am I complaining, Nope. I’m thankful. Thankful for so many things. Thankful for my job. It’s been a source of income security for 20 years and provided for my family in many ways.
I’m thankful for my family. For their love and patience with me, even in those times when I challenge their patience.
For my parents, for their nurture, their provision, their guidance, their love. For being an example to follow and a source of strength in times of trial. For their expression of love and in doing so were an example of God’s love to me.
For my brother and sister. I left home before we developed those close relationships so often depicted in film and book. But then, I’m a different kind of independent individual and those kind of relationships would be difficult for me to maintain for any length of time. Still, I know their love is secure and when I have needed their support, they have been there for me, without fail.
For my wife, Karen. For the same reasons listed above, I’m not an easy person to live with. I can often be distant, quite, uncommunicative, and stubborn and sometimes exhibit unloving behavior. Still, she is patient and continues to love me, even after these past 8 years of ups and downs. She really deserves a medal.
I’m thankful for my health. The past two years has really brought this home with the cycling accident I had in February ’06 and the subsequent two surgeries. The long rehabilitation and just in the past few weeks returning to my bike. It’s a joy to be able to physically challenge myself. Many my age are unable to do so, their bodies failing them either due to genetics or abuse.
I’m thankful for my home. Yes, even with the damaged shower. Our home is a blessing and a refuge. In the six years since we built we’ve realized it is probably too small for this time in our lives and there are things I miss, like a two-car garage. But many have no garage, live in an overcrowded home with several generations under one roof and, recently, a significant percentage of homeowners are losing their home. Some due to imprudent financial decisions, some simply victims, oh how I hate those words, of our present economy.
I’m thankful for our grandchildren. Don’t see ‘em often enough, and frankly, when we do I’m often ready for their parents to pick ‘em up before their parents are ready to do so. Still, Camron and Katie are great kids, healthy, active, energetic, imaginative, inquisitive and intelligent. What more could you ask for.
I’m thankful for technology, though sometimes I’d like to take that technology and toss it out the window. Technology helps keep us closer. Families that would barely know each other develop cyber-relationships when there would have been little contact otherwise. Some of you are reading this on Facebook where I have recently had the pleasure to reconnect with friends thought lost years ago.
Speaking of those friends, I’m thankful for each of you. The imprint you’ve had on my life is indelible and while some more than others, each friendship and relationship has served to mold and shape me in ways that has made me the person I am.
Most of all I’m thankful for the love, grace and mercy of a loving God who really does love me. Some folks think of God as a stern, judgmental, unforgiving master who seeks their obedience, respect and fear. The God I know loves me; he really does, and seeks his best for my life. It’s my duty to seek out his will and conform my life to it, not out of fear but out of love and devotion to him.
So on this Thanksgiving Day, as I work, I will do so with thanksgiving in my heart and a song on my lips. For I truly have much to be thankful for.
"We are all in the same boat on a stormy sea and
we owe each other a terrible loyalty." - G. K. Chesterson
Labels: family, friends, holidays, Postal Service, Thanksgiving