Postal Employees

Am I reading that correctly where the plan is to go to a MWF or a TuThSat schedule on the window?

It's not really clear, but it looks to me like they want to reduce the number of hours the window is open, PLUS make us clerks go to a MWF or TUTHS schedule. It makes absolutely NO sense to split a clerk's schedule like that though, and the FTR clerks will buck it every step of the way. Besides there's contractual guarantees for FTR's that this would violate 6 ways to Sunday.

SOSDD The current contract governs us (even after it expires) while new contract negotiations take place.

Here's how I interpret it. I work a level 18 office. Currently we don't close for lunch. For about a week before congress made the PMG undo everything we started closing for 1 hour for lunch. I expect that to come back.

Second, I don't think they are planning on making FTRs work MWF or TTHS. The way I read it is to adjust the window operating hours so maybe MWF they are open longer and TTHS they are half days or whatever fits. Personally I think it's crazy the hours some offices have while others are barely open long enough to sell a stamp. Today I have been on without a lunch for 7 hours so far because we don't close for lunch and I am alone at the moment. I welcome a chance for a break.

PostPlan cut hours at thousands of smaller post offices throughout the nation with very little pushback from customers or Congressmen so this isn’t really much of a stretch. As long as community post offices aren’t closed completely customers seem to adapt with very little complaint.

First of all it's just a power point screen shot. That is simply somebody's attempt to capture as many of the high points as possible to spur the memory of anyone getting the entire presentation. There's probably an accompanying audio track or written text. So this spurs some questions, but there's not a lot of substance to work with. But window opening hours will not correlate to clerk work schedules or hours. That's part of what would have been explained in the audio and/or written text.

There may or may not be much logic, but at the big picture level, there will probably be a little bit.. But when you get down to the local level, the plan hits reality and how well PM's can adjust the ideas. So some ideas will have to be thrown out at the local level or adjusted to fit the local community. So my suggestion is to ignore this power point until we can get the rest of the context. Also remember it has to conform to the contract in regards to job bids and hour guarantees. They can make changes to job and hours, but there's a contractually agreed method of implementing those changes.

Stating that there was "very little pushback" from customers and congressmen over PostPlan is not accurate. There were actually lots of problems.

How will window hours not correlate to clerk work schedules or hours? I am sure each office has different situations so in some it may not have any impact. I can only explain what I experienced at my location and a few surrounding offices. My office, which does not close for lunch started to close for lunch shortly after the date of this slide in October. It immediately reduced the clerk hours by 5 hours for the week. That equates to roughly 260 hours per year. That's one change in one office and it was implemented, not just theorized. In fact it makes it possible to operate the office with one clerk and not require any overtime. As it currently operates it requires 2 clerks everyday or I get overtime. We have no FTRs, just one PTF.

Our neighboring office that's a level 22 was also required to close for lunch. They usually have 2 clerks on the window at that time so that means less required clerk hours. We constantly get requests in our area for clerks to come just cover lunch breaks at other offices. I would imagine it would reduce this beg, borrow, steal requirement we currently play between offices and reduce overall clerk hours.

Of course these only lasted about a week before congress required the PMG to reverse every decision he made. This entire slide is probably a moot point at this time. Anyway, good discussion.

A lot of my customers quiet going to the actual post office and instead now go to the local
Hallmark store. They say the customer service is much better and they get served faster. I don’t blame them one bit. I too use hallmark if I need to do anything.

Sadly, the Postal Service becomes less relevant with each passing year.
Amazon delivery vans now dominate my neighborhood each day.