THE EFFECTS OF BEING DUR’D
As most of you know by now the DUR (Delivery Unit Relocation) process is being implemented across the Lakeland District. According to the District this is the “ save all ” program of them all for the postal service, and they are going to take it across the country. Aren’t we lucky. But most of us who have been involved with this program know all too well how flawed it really is, and that the projected savings the District Manager has been proclaiming most of last year are not going to materialize at all. All they’ve done is take the moral of most of the employees involved to an all-time low, and taken the word “ service” completely out of the picture.
Last August 24th we were informed that our routes were going to be relocated to the Kewaskum post office on the 26th of September. I, and the carriers, were given 30 days notice. We had no advanced warning that we were even being considered for such a move. About a week and a half after that those Postmasters that were to be involved in this move had a meeting with the District Manager and his staff. We were informed on how successful this type of move had been earlier in the year, and that the projected savings to the post office were going to be in the millions of dollars, I believe he said about 2.6 million, or something like that. When the question was asked as to what the actual cost was in relation to that first phase of the program he couldn’t provide an answer, and neither could any of his direct reports; the manager of operations support, nor the manager of finance. And neither could give us the actual savings that resulted in that first phase, even though that was about 6 months ago. Amazing, no concrete savings to speak of, nor the cost involved, but hey, we’re going ahead with the next phase.
When the manager of operations support was asked as to how the decision was reached as to which offices were to be involved in this next phase, can you believe that she answered that she looked at a map and then drew some lines! Did we take into consideration if the offices were on the same star route ( that would be a plus), or the make up of the roads involved; one office on one side of a major interstate, and the receiving office on the other side when there was another office closer to the one losing the routes that could have easily accepted those routes? Nope, she drew lines on a map.
You could tell there was a lot of “thought” that went into this next phase. When we asked the District Manager as to why we were not made aware of this before we received that urgent email to inform out employees of the date of the move , can you believe that he said we could not be trusted to not leak it out to our employees of the possibility that their routes were being considered for relocation. That they would get upset and then the unions would be involved, etc. I guess as Postmasters we are not trusted enough by our District Manager to be told something and to keep it confidential. Makes you feel real good, right? Wouldn’t you think that if something as major as this is; moving delivery routes out of one location to another, effecting service to a huge delivery area, causing employees to have to drive a further distance to work, etc., you would want as much information that you could get? And who would have first hand knowledge of all of those questions? Bingo, if your answer is the Postmaster, then you win the “ common sense “ award. Something that our District is sorely lacking.
Oh, I forgot to tell you that a few weeks before the 24th of August our office, and others, were visited by our POOM’s team leaders, or in this case her 2 Poom-ettes, as I call them. They spend 5-7 minutes in your office, looking around, don’t tell you why they are there, and then they leave. If you are alone and on the window you don’t even have a chance to ask them what was going on. The cloak of secrecy.
In our area there were 6 level 18 offices that lost their routes, in my case 5 K routes and a J route. This phase of the DUR process had the most level 18’s involved at one time, so why wouldn’t you take the time to do a little investigating first? Nope, they don’t have the time, its full speed ahead. They were going to put a few routes in a level 20 office until the Postmaster pushed back and said he had no room. Did they believe him, no. They paid a second visit to his office and discovered that yes, he was right, they do sort their parcels out on the dock ( enclosed), so I guess he doesn’t have the room. Now why didn’t they see that the first time? Oh, I forgot, they don’t tell you the reason that they’re there so if you’re not sorting parcels at that time they wouldn’t have known it.
I was adamant that this was not a good move for our office, and I contacted our NAPUS National President Dale to make him aware of the situation going on here in Wisconsin. I had talked to President Peg and I knew that she had been in contact with the District Manager about this DUR program, but he wasn’t giving her any answers. I’ve known Dale for a long time and felt comfortable contacting him. He did have a meeting with the Great Lakes Area VP later in the month concerning the DUR process here in the District, but as I gather all the District Manger did was expound on the projected cost savings of the program, and that was that. As I said I know Peg has been working extremely hard on this issue, there are a lot of offices in our state who have been adversely effected by this, and she is getting nowhere with the District Manager. As for Dale and the National Office, I guess they are not putting very much emphasis on this program, I never did get an answer from him as to the result of his meeting. I don’t know if it was because his term was winding down and he was bringing on board our then President-Elect Bob or what, but I am disappointed as to the non-reaction we got from NAPUS National after that meeting with the GLA VP.
On the 25th of September our routes did move, and what a fiasco it was. The local Poom-ette was in charge of the move, and of course on that Friday afternoon when the outfit he contracted to move the cases still had not arrived at our office by 3:00pm I called his office to ask him where they were. I should have known better, it was Friday afternoon, he was gone for the day. Well the truck did arrive at 4:15pm, two young guys to move 5 rural cases, and a pick-up type truck pulling an enclosed trailer. I knew right off the bat they were not going to fit all the cases into that one trailer, this was going to take 2 trips. These two guys were not experienced in moving rural cases, or any postal equipment for that matter, but they did the best they could. I left with the route books, edit books, etc. for Kewaskum and informed my clerk that whatever they couldn’t fit into the trailer they should leave on the dock. She was to lock the office and not wait for them to come back. Good thing, they left with their first load around 7 pm. Poor Monica, the receiving Postmaster in Kewaskum, had to stay in her office until well after 9:00pm. And my office was not the only one to experience this well-planned move, others in our area also had late trucks and carriers waiting past 6:00 in receiving offices for their cases to set-up. What a first class operation. I won’t even go into the condition of the cases once they did get to Kewaskum, lets just say it fits the type of day that it was, disastrous.
You know, I had been the Postmaster there in Campbellsport for 19 years, and for 19 years when I would unlock the back door of the post office and walk inside; the lights were on, the radio was playing, 8 people were there working away, talking, making noise, moving the mail, etc.. After the routes left and the morning that I unlocked that door; the building was dark, no noise at all, no one was there except me, and there was no mail. That is not a good feeling, believe me. I did not work my way up the ladder to become a level 18 Postmaster, and a manager of people, to now be back to square one.
To say that I was bitter is an understatement, my feelings for the USPS will never be the same as they were before. This move made no sense, the carriers didn’t like it, and still don’t, parking at that facility is an accident waiting to happen, and that is unfortunate. I do not believe level 18’s should be involved in this program, period. You’re talking offices with 5-6 routes, some rural and city delivery combined, and offices with very large delivery areas. In many cases, from the flash reports I’ve seen, the receiving offices can’t handle the added workload. I find it amazing that in some of the larger offices that received routes, the hours in LDC 43 are double what they used SPLY, and far more than what would have been used in the original offices of the routes that were moved had they stayed back home. But hey, we’re saving money here, right. And to top it off some of those receiving offices are using overtime in their function 4 area, something us level 18 and lower offices are not too familiar with, unless its POOM approved.
Aside from losing your routes, the next step is to downgrade your level 18 to a 13. My illustrious POOM then informed me that we need to look at staffing this office like a level 13, that means a Postmaster and a PMR. Now, no offense to the level 13 Postmasters, but level 18 communities are much larger than a level 13 community, which means there is much more revenue. That means more business at the window, more bulk mailers, and in my case a weekly periodical mailer. You know they didn’t give us 2 POS units up front because of our routes, the revenue was there to justify us having 2 units, also due to the population of the community and the delivery area. The routes may have moved, the community did not, they still come in for their daily mailing needs. Now we’re going to staff that window with one person, who is also going to sort the mail that now arrives anywhere from 8:45am-9:15am into 305 PO Boxes while working the window at the same time with no help. This is an office that normally had a clerk on duty during the day and the PM as the back-up on the window, and that’s after all the mail is sorted into the box section . So what kind of service do you think we are providing now? Not the kind that I want to be a part of, that’s for sure.
And then we’re going to train a PMR on not just all the normal window duties, all of our services, putting up the box mail, etc., but we also have to train that person how to use the POS system, verify bulk mailings, and periodical mailings. This blows my mind, and how long do you think that person will stay on board? I can see a never ending revolving door, with the Postmaster having to take up the whole workload.
I pushed back during the month of October, writing letters to my POOM, the District Manager, the Manager of Operations Support, etc.. In all I kept referring that we are a level 18 community and need to be staffed as such, not with 3 clerks as when we had the routes, but at least with 1 career employee to work with the Postmaster in order to continue to provide the level of service to this community that they’ve experienced in the past. Why even the Customer Service Variance report shows that we are justified 1 career employee, but apparently that is only used when its to the advantage of the District, who cares about service to our customers.
The result of my pushing back, I pull into the parking lot of my office one morning and there to greet me is our District Manager, and a lady whose title I can not remember, but I think she comes out of retail. Anyway he informs me he is going to spend the day with me. Now mind you, only a few weeks before that I had someone from operations support spend 2 days doing a function 4 on our office, now I have the District Manager. He did spend the day except for an hour when he went down to Kewaskum to see what was going on there, the lady only half a day. I found it completely ridiculous when she tells me that in her opinion we only needed one POS unit, and that after she had only been there for a little more than an hour. The D.M, well most of the time he was on his cell phone or lap top, but he was in the building. At the end of the day we talk about his observations and he informs me that I need to improve the work flow in the office, from the box section to the front counter. That should help me get the mail up before 10:00 because on that day the mail arrived at 9:15am and I didn’t get it all up until 10:30am., I was also working the window.
The following week one of the Poom-ettes comes out with 2 guys from maintenance to help rearrange the workroom to be more efficient, they spend 6 hours in my office. After all the moving of shelves, break-down tables, the safe, cabinets, etc., when all is said and done we now have more steps between where the box section parcel shelves are and the front counter than we had before. I’ve only been the Postmaster there for 19 years, our productivity scores have been very good so I thought we had a good layout for the work-room, I guess I was wrong. We do not have a screen line, so from the front counter you can see all the way to the back of the building, and of course the box section off to the right front. You can imagine what my customers were saying as they saw all this moving going on. This was to be more efficient, and then the “ coup de grace”, they were instructed to move my computer desk out of my office and onto the workroom floor so that I can see my customers. This was by order of the District Manager.
I’ve been on many details in my Postmaster career that took me to a lot of offices throughout this state, and in many offices, especially those that have a screen-line, there is a bell on the front counter. For whatever reason our District Manager felt that I needed to be in full view of my customers, no need for a bell. What do you think that smacks of?
To say the least, the result of having ones routes taken out your office has had a serious effect on the health of some of our fellow Postmasters. The District, after the fact, now comes out with the we are concerned approach, and we want to make sure you have contacted EAP if you have any issues.
If they would have put any thought into this at all they would have prepared people for the pending results of the move, to many this is a life changing event.
I’ve been around long enough to know that the postal service does need to make changes in order to survive in today’s economy, but this program is not the way to go. We have somewhere around 84 Districts across this country; that’s 84 DM’s, their staff, all the direct reports, etc., people who do not “ touch “ the mail. Why don’t we start with consolidating the Districts, think of the money we could save in just the salary of the DM’s involved. Now that’s a savings you can see on paper, not projected savings. Remember back in the Marvin Runyon days, we had those big buttons you wore that said “ I touch the mail”, which meant that you worked with the mail every day. You either worked the counters, process and sorted mail, delivered mail, moved the mail, etc., but you touched the mail everyday. You were the one that made the revenue that paid the salaries for those that didn’t touch the mail. The postal service needs to look at downsizing those departments that do not touch the mail everyday, not the ones bringing in the revenue.
This past month I’ve read 2 articles that dealt with the need to provide service to our customers, we need to adhere to the 5 minutes or less waiting time at our counters. One article was by the GLA VP Jo Ann Feindt, who stated that nobody likes to wait in line, and that many will leave and go to a competitor if they feel they will have to wait more than five minutes. The other was by the Deputy PMG Pat Donahue who also stated that we needed to get back to adhering to the 5 minute rule, we need to provide the best service possible to our customers before they are not our customers anymore. My question is, doesn’t anyone from the District Managers office read this stuff? Or do they think they don’t have to listen to that stuff, they set their own playing field and rules. The result of this DUR process is the extreme lack of service to our customers of the effected routes and the communities. Whether it be customers being confused as to what office their mail is at when they want to pick it up, or to pick up parcels, going to the wrong office for certified’s, etc., or now having to wait in line because your post office is only manned by one employee. The only type of service we give now in the Lakeland District is lip service, because when your POOM tells you that your customers will have to adapt to your new window hours and the fact that there is only one person at the window, that is not giving service in my book.
Back when I was complaining about my routes being moved, the cost involved with it, the added hours in route evaluations because of the additional mileage the carriers would get, I was told by our acting Manager of Delivery that we’ll get it all back during our mandatory rural count next year. I shouldn‘t concern myself with that, just make the program work. Well guess what, count is over. I know in my case our former routes went up an hour or stayed the same, none went down. Plus in talking with other Postmasters in our area who lost their routes, those routes also went up in evaluation. So where is the savings now? Think someone might have egg on his face?
If you haven’t heard by now, I did retire the end of February, and to be honest, the relocating of my routes played a major part of my decision to retire. I was blessed with a very good staff at Campbellpsort, clerks and carriers, they made it a joy to come to work. I did enjoy my job, but to be honest I just don’t have the same feeling about the postal service that I had for the past 25 years as a Postmaster, the District does not care about service, and it certainly does not care about its Postmasters. To this date Peg still has not gotten a cost analysis of this whole DUR’s process, what are the actual costs involved, and then what are the actual savings. Not projected, but actual savings in black and white. What are they hiding? Maybe they don’t really know, wouldn’t surprise me, that’s for sure. Well, I can give them one actual savings, they aren’t paying a level 18 salary in Campbellsport anymore, so that should make them happy. We had 3 ptf clerks in C-Sport; 1 resigned in November because she wasn’t going to travel 50 miles to her new office for split shifts, 1 just started as a ptf carrier in Fond du Lac, and the 3rd one is the OIC in our office. As of this date, which is over 6 months from when the routes moved, there is only one other level 18 whose clerks have been moved out, that leaves 4 level 18’s whose clerks still have not been notified as to when and where they are going to be transferred. What a way to treat employees, thank you so much for all of your hard work and dedication.
To those Postmasters who so readily accepted when the POOM called to say that they were thinking of putting additional routes in your office, I wish you would have thought of 3 things before saying, “ we’ll make it work”.
Number 1; how it was going to affect your fellow Postmaster- his or her quality of life, the clerks in that office, and the carriers involved. Number 2; how it was going to affect your employees, the morale of your office, the congestion it was going to bring and the safety issues that could arise. And number 3; if you’re not going to go up a level in pay why in the world would you want to take on the added workload of more routes and more employees, which means more headaches. If you think you’re doing your POOM a favor, well let me tell you from my experience as a past State President, there are some POOM’s who have a very short memory, and if you make a mistake will turn on you in a minute. They cover their own back, period. And if you thought they were going to give you additional staff to handle the new workload, well I have one question for you, did you get it yet? I didn’t think so.
I apologize for this being so lengthy, but I wanted to give you the whole picture of how the District pushed this phase of the DUR program through with a damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead attitude. They didn’t do their homework and they know it. With the lack of cooperation that Peg has received from the District, the not sharing of information, I can only feel for her. I know she is doing all that she can, and we need to support her as much as we can, her plate is very full. We all need to stick together because believe me when I say no one, and I mean no one, cares about Postmasters at the District office. For the most part it is only your fellow Postmaster that you can talk to and that will watch your back, and you’ll notice I didn’t say all Postmasters, because unfortunately there are some out there now who only care about themselves, and I wouldn’t trust them as far as I could throw them. Your organization is there and ready to help you as much as they humanly can, please remember that. Take care, and God Bless.
Randy W Geier
Postmaster Retired-YES!!!