Excessive Emails — Leadership Doesn't Get It!

Excessive Emails — Leadership Doesn’t Get It!
By Dee Perez
NAPS Northeast Region Vice President

Nearly every email or phone call I receive recently — during and after work — is from an EAS employee who, metaphorically speaking, is teetering on the edge. When I was hired in 1989, I had no idea my aspiration to become a postmaster would evolve to such a high degree of responsibility.

Now, there are not enough hours in a day or days in a week to do everything required. Nor did I ever think I needed a degree in psychology or had to answer numerous emails from people with fewer responsibilities than I have as a postmaster.

I’ve mentioned the number of emails to many postal leaders; I understand they receive far more than we do. Compliance is one thing, but repeated emails throughout the day are a waste of time and prevent EAS employees from doing important work with their employees.

Excessive, daily, repeated emails prove the senders have nothing else to do. Instead, they should be in the field helping EAS employees who work open-to-close because there aren’t enough of them. Perform a 4584; do an 1838C in an office. I can’t believe sending emails is an eight-hour day, yet it is.

The email senders should select two days a week to address NPA compliance concerns, not six — especially after the USPS reduced NPA box scores for FY25.

Responsible EAS employees are required to read each email to determine whether it pertains to them and their office. If the email is superfluous, they may miss an important scheduled meeting or fail to be on time to address or explain a failed process.

Everyone’s mind is constantly racing. The challenge is trying to figure out how to accomplish all these tasks while also subconsciously worrying about family and personal relationship concerns and how to balance each. As a reminder, your family is first! Then it’s you and the USPS somewhere thereafter. As our NAPS Secretary/Treasurer Jimmy Warden always says, “When everything is a priority, then nothing is a priority.”

EAS employees do not even have time for a meal. God forbid you step out of your office to clear your head for a few minutes, only to return to find your inbox flooded again and you are late for a Zoom meeting.

Solution 1: Those who flood us with emails daily, six days a week, send each topic twice a day. Once in the morning at 10 and again in the afternoon at 3. This five-hour gap between emails will allow the sender to monitor only those who have not yet completed the task.

Then, the email sender can send their next scheduled round of emails at 3 p.m. to those who have not complied, rather than sending them to the entire original email list, thereby reducing email volume.

I understand this will take some time to organize an email list for those who haven’t complied with the first email sent at 10 a.m. However, if this becomes an inconvenience — having to look up non-compliant offices and just emailing those who have not obeyed by 3 p.m. — then come back to the AOs. We missed you!

Solution 2: EAS employees need to develop the skill set of recognizing the sender, reading the subject line, determining the importance, then hitting the delete button to manage their voluminous emails. And stop replying “all!” Just reply to the sender.