Every EAS Employee Has To Be the Cop on the Beat

Every EAS Employee Has To Be the Cop on the Beat
By Dee Perez
NAPS Northeast Region Vice President

Why do EAS employees need to be the police on the job? Because upper management holds you accountable. As a result, you need to hold USPS leaders accountable for their behavior toward you. Postal leadership also has to be held accountable to the memorandums of understanding to which NAPS and Postal Service Headquarters have agreed over the years when they are violated.

Everyone understands we are working in an environment where 100% of EAS employees who have been around for a significant time no longer recognize our daily mission. I’ve said this before: We must adapt and change with the times and accept the technology available or the USPS will become a dinosaur. No matter how difficult it is, you must learn to adapt to how USPS leadership wants to run the Postal Service until you retire.

As the EAS cop on the beat, you have an obligation to monitor your superiors to make sure they are not violating the memorandums of understanding on which NAPS and Postal Service Headquarters have agreed. It also is your obligation to demand that you always are treated with dignity and respect.

If a USPS leader violates your rights and treats you disrespectfully, first, stand up for yourself! Second, report them to your branch president so they can investigate. If the branch president can’t resolve the issue, it then goes to your area vice president; after that, the regional vice president is involved. Follow the chain of command. Most importantly, don’t ignore the disrespect and suffer in silence.

NAPS has a standard operating procedure at naps.org under “Documents” regarding meeting abuse during telecons and Zoom meetings. Please follow this procedure if it applies to you.

As the cop on the beat, you are helping every EAS employee who may be suffering in silence and fear. Some USPS leaders love to intimidate their subordinates and create an atmosphere of intimidation; they think this method gets things done. Instead, this method disengages EAS employees.

The USPS needs engaged EAS leaders. You can stop the abuser, but it takes every EAS employee to participate, stand up for themselves and back each other. NAPS has your back!

I understand that no operation, especially Customer Service — where the search light shines the brightest — is perfect. Obviously, errors occur from time to time, but, before you know it, you are in a Zoom meeting waiting your turn to explain why the failures took place while a simple email could explain it all.

Instead, you are made to wait your turn while the clock ticks (and prevents you from doing the real work needed to accomplish your daily tasks) in order to explain your office business failure while your peers watch and listen. Information shared by leadership is vital during a Zoom meeting, but your day-to-day business is none of the business of other EAS peers or USPS leaders.

The current operational grind is difficult. NAPS understands you don’t manage robots; you are not a robot. You can become ill from overworking open to close. It becomes very stressful.

For EAS employees who work open to close, six or seven days a week, insist your nonscheduled days and vacations are honored. It’s not your fault you are not allowed to use 204(b)s. However, USPS Headquarters needs to help each district determine the best way to remedy this situation without giving the APWU a grievance it can win.

This simply cannot continue any longer! You do no one any good if you are sick and stressed out, which also affects your family. The intense, cold-hearted work environment seems justified by leadership, which links it to NPA and seeks to eliminate the agency’s $9 billion in losses.

Fact: 40,000 post offices need to produce a savings of approximately $225,000 per office to eliminate the $9 billion debt. EAS employees must be the cops on the beats if they want to work in a respectful atmosphere. This starts and ends with every EAS employee every day!