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A Legendary District Manager Has Retired

A Legendary District Manager Has Retired
By Dee Perez
NAPS New York Area Vice President

This is not a column in which I decided to glorify an extraordinary man. He is a living, breathing, ordinary human being who happened to be an exceptional and extraordinary district manager.

He was a leader to us all in the New York Area and highly respected by all his peers, craft leaders and NAPS—not for one year, but throughout his entire career. A man and leader like this who gave 42 years of dedicated service in many different leadership roles for the USPS and was highly respected is extremely rare to come across.

In June, I will have worked for the USPS going on 35 years. I have yet to seriously contemplate another leader who might have been able to walk a mile in this man’s shoes while making the transition from yesterday’s old-school USPS into today’s new-school USPS world.

He wasn’t an Evel Knievel type of guy. However, making the transition from the old to the new USPS world was akin to jumping the Snake River in the Grand Canyon without being in a rocket to propel you across. But he made the jump and transition successfully!

This man is former District Manager Frank Calabrese, New York 2. USPS Headquarters, in my opinion, should bring him back on contract so he can mentor USPS Headquarters leadership, as well as his former peers. Heaven knows every state and district could use a leader such as Frank.

He was a highly respected and very engaging individual who told you how it was, with no nonsense or filter. You clearly understood his message and position, but, more importantly, he explained why. Not only was he naturally humorous—I’m sure he could do stand-up comedy and talk for hours if given the opportunity—he was (as we New Yorkers like to say) a stand-up guy.

What set Frank aside from everyone else was not just his accumulated knowledge of the entire agency because that was the easy part after 42 years of service. What made him different was he truly cared for those who worked for him. He wanted to see everyone be successful and gainfully employed.

Frank wasn’t a leader who enjoyed hurting people. When corrective action had to be issued, he worked with NAPS and was miffed about why an individual brought this on themselves. He was a service-oriented guy—it was all about the customer all the time. He understood he had a boss and orders had to be followed, but, ultimately, he understood we all had to answer to the customer.

The one thing that stood out to me about Frank, besides his frankness and humor, which I loved, was his dedication to the USPS 24/7, which is rare. We all understand the agency requires this from its leaders. In my opinion, USPS Headquarters acts as if your family is second to the service.

However, Frank took care of his family and was able to walk that fine line between family and service 24/7. It’s a balancing act few can do, but he was able to keep both his family and the Postal Service as number one.

Frank was a walking, talking, quoting encyclopedia; I can’t list them all because this would be the basis of another column itself. But, in future columns, I will slide a quote in, if appropriate, and start it off with FC’s initials, then the quote itself, in honor of Frank.

He always was able to see the other side of the issue and honestly rationalize it, with what needed to be accomplished. At times, Frank would become hyped up over new processes from junior USPS Headquarters leaders because they disrespected senior district managers.

However, when this occurred, his message, which filtered down to my level, was this: “Treat your employees respectfully while holding them accountable, for God’s sake!” As well as: “I get more support from a used, 10-year-old pair of underwear.”

New York will miss you, boss!