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EAS vs. EAS—We All Need to Get Along

EAS vs. EAS—We All Need to Get Along
By Dee Perez
New York Area Vice President

We are our own worst enemy. And you thought it was Postal Service Headquarters! Everyone should ask themselves, “Why am I yelling so often?” “Why am I in a bad mood at work nearly every day?” “Why do I take it out on my peers and staff by disrespecting them?”

I can’t answer these questions for you, but if you constantly are troubled or upset and take it out on your subordinates, you should seek help through the Employee Assistance Program. Maybe it’s due to the stress of the job and all the responsibilities that come with it. Need I remind everyone you raised your hand for this job?

Next you’re going to tell me the job was different when you raised your hand. Yes, this is true. Unfortunately, change is inevitable in every job and title.

Here are your options:

• You can accept it and adapt to it.
• You can seek professional counseling to help you overcome the changes.
• You can leave and look for employment elsewhere if the job has become so intolerable you no longer can control your temper or displeasure for every little failure for which you are responsible.

When you are disrespecting your subordinate EAS employees on the workroom floor in front of all the other employees, this is a red flag you are losing control. Call the EAP!

Remember, there is nothing we do that should send someone over the top every single day in the USPS. If you can’t respectfully engage with your subordinate EAS employees without losing your cool or belittling them, then you are wound way too tight. Taking it out on your subordinate EAS employees never is the right thing to do.

You need these people to work for you—not hate you. Don’t make an enemy out of your EAS staff. The only way you are successful is when you and your staff are on the same page and focused on the very same goals, every day.

If you have an EAS staff member who constantly is arriving late to work and appears to be a mess and out of control when they arrive every day, this person will struggle in completing basic job functions. Have a respectful sit-down, remind them what the job entails and ask if there’s something you can do to help them.

The same goes if they are not taking care of business. Do they need additional training or one-on-one mentoring from you, providing you are not the problem? If you can help resolve their problems, you will gain a dedicated and loyal EAS employee on your staff forever. If you can’t help, then recommend they call the EAP for help. Either way, you win because you listened and provided guidance.

I’m writing about this because, as a NAPS advocate, I encounter a lot of corrective actions being issued. Unfortunately, it’s primarily EAS employees versus EAS employees. When this conflict, which leads to corrective action, takes place, I’m privy to hearing both sides of the story. Inevitably, there is some type of work conflict that has been going on for some time that now has surfaced over a service failure as an excuse for one EAS employee to severely punish the other.

If you’re a higher-level EAS employee, why do you want to severely hurt people all the time? This tells me something about your character, unfortunately. How about trying to work with your people? We are not a military institution.

People, if you can’t get along with your manager or for whatever reason you don’t like them, then look for another location in which to work, providing you first have tried to work things out. Ask to bring in your MPOO or a NAPS representative to help resolve the issue. Perhaps the problem is with your area manager or MPOO. Ask for a one-on-one meeting and see if a local branch NAPS representative is available to attend.

It’s incumbent on every EAS employee and higher-level manager to try and work together without issuing corrective action disguised as payback for a service issue failure. If you consider yourself a leader, you are supposed to bring people together—not divide them.

Understand your role. Nobody in a USPS Headquarters leadership role will tell you it’s okay to yell and disrespect someone in front of their employees, ever. However, we all know they themselves treat each other this way. Not all, but some do. And yes, in my opinion, they, too, need some help.

We all need to work together and get along. Above all, we must be 100% honest with each other all the time!