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A Thanksgiving Prayer: Treat EAS Employees Respectfully!

A Thanksgiving Prayer: Treat EAS Employees Respectfully!
By Dee Perez
NAPS New York Area Vice President

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope every EAS employee can enjoy this special day with their family and loved ones. Hopefully, there will not be a Zoom meeting Thanksgiving morning.

This holiday allows me to reflect on how things were. There was a time when EAS employees were paid time and a half as supervisors—not T-time, which came later in the mid-90s.

In those days, we paid the craft overtime because of the mail volume. Today, we pay overtime because USPS Headquarters cannot figure out how to hire enough people. In my 34½ years of service, I’ve never seen this challenge.

It’s only a matter of time before USPS Headquarters realizes EAS jobs also will be difficult to fill. Who is willing to step up and take on the enormous responsibility of always being second-guessed, disrespected, abused and made to feel inferior to their Chief Retail & Delivery Office (CRDO) team directors and leaders?

Today, everyone wants to be a higher-level manager who calls the shots because it’s easier to call the shots as opposed to taking the shots. The problem is those stepping up to call the shots barely have spent a day in the front lines taking the shots. The Peter Principle is alive and well in today’s USPS.

The Peter Principle is a management concept developed by Laurence J. Peter that contends people in a hierarchy tend to rise to a “level of respective incompetence.” Employees are promoted based on their success in previous jobs until they reach a level at which they no longer are competent; skills in one job do not necessarily translate to another.

Today, CRDO directors and their managers are taking advantage of newly categorized USPS Headquarters employees: delivery support supervisor (DSS) and postal operations support specialist (POSS). Both positions are being abused. CRDO directors and their leaders use this new category of employees to drive numerous hours to a destination, then back— often working 10-12 hours a day while being paid for eight hours. Unfortunately, these employees are intimidated by their superiors to not request additional pay, which they certainly are entitled to request and receive!

Who says the USPS is losing money? The USPS sent an estimated 600 DSS and POSS EAS employees to Florida for a three-day training seminar.

A CRDO leader informed all his DSS employees that, when they arrived on their travel day, they all had to perform a retail Gemba in a local office or “do training to be gainfully employed.” Mind you, there are hundreds of these people attending the CRDO training-worshiping roadshow. Some traveled six hours from a different time zone. This doesn’t take into consideration the half-day training on the last day, plus the hours traveling home. This is abuse!

I hope the karaoke Thursday night costume party on Sept. 28 in Fort Lauderdale was well worth the travel expenses and provides a return on investment!

The CRDO concept has pointed out some issues that have made everyone aware of service shortcomings in operations. However, their delivery of the message is disrespectful and rude to their subordinates. It’s no longer acceptable; nor can it be tolerated any longer, family!

How do these CRDO directors, leaders and managers sleep at night? The way they treat everyone below them, thinking they are more superior than the people they manage, is beyond me. Who’s holding them accountable? Perhaps a climate survey from EAS employees that measures these CRDO directors and leaders is what really is needed.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving. And if you’re in a Zoom meeting, request to be paid! Sign a nonmember today.