Postal Service employees everywhere now have access to a new cutting-edge human resources (HR) system to meet the demands of the information age. Rollout of the technology phase of the PostalPEOPLE initiative, the largest implementation of its kind in the federal government or private sector, was completed in October.

This massive undertaking is helping the Postal Service to increase efficiency and reduce costs while giving employees individualized information and access to human resources-related applications, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, said Anthony Vegliante, chief human resources officer and executive vice president.

Using SAP software, the new platform replaces a system that once consisted of more than 3,800 Postal Service HR professionals relying on more than 200 processes and some 70 systems to support nearly 700,000 employees. Now, those HR professionals, free from repetitive, manual processes, can focus on the Postal Services strategic focus to better align the workforce and meet present and future challenges, head-on.

The result is a single view of the employee that improves service to our employees, customer satisfaction and our ability to conduct business, said Vegliante.

Completion of the nationwide rollout enables the Postal Service to introduce two significant new services to employees. First is a new self-service tool for managers, which provides managers, postmasters and supervisors with information and resources online to help manage the workforce, perform administrative tasks, and assist their employees with skill development.

A second service has been launched on the organizations intranet site, allowing employees to perform job bidding anywhere they have access to the Internet. This enhances ease of use for bargaining unit employees and provides them with a new way to access the job-bidding system.

The PostalPEOPLE initiative most notably includes the Shared Services Center in Greensboro, NC. The full-service facility is staffed by professionally trained career postal HR personnel who provide assistance to employees who need to speak directly with a person.

Additional functionality will be added in the coming year, leveraging this technology platform to further streamline and enhance HR functions within the Postal Service.

An independent federal agency, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that visits every address in the nation, 146 million homes and businesses, six days a week. It has 37,000 retail locations and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to pay for operating expenses, not tax dollars. The Postal Service has annual revenues of $75 billion and delivers nearly half the worlds mail.

I set up a rule in Outlook to dump the emails unread as they arrived, but I couldn’t resist having a look at a few first- here’s a sampling of what some of our dimmer co-workers had to say:

“How in the world did you get my name. Do not send this crap to me or use Postal E-mail for this unauthorized mail.” (From a “National Account Executive”, who apparently doesn’t know he’s in the email directory)

A mgr Emergency Preparedness sent out copies of a Snopes article (not the right one)

A Postmaster in Washington State took time from his busy day: “I don’t know what you folks have to do in Flushing, New York, but obviously you have way to much time on your hands. Stop sending this as this is an official site designated for postal operations only.”

And from a contractor who has no sense of irony: “Everybody, please, stop hitting “reply all” to say how much you hate this email. We all do. And we’re all tired of deleting the umpteen million “I hate this email – stop sending it to me” that are coming through. Thanks.”
Of course, he sent his plea to “all”.

From another National Sales Manager: “EVERYONE—-JUST STOP SENDING!!!!!!!!!!” sent to all, of course!

And a manager of Customer Services in Oregon: “I did not ask for the e-mail, I did not send, it on and it is cluttering our e-mail system unnecessarily. STOP NOW!”

A manager of Customer Services in Michigan twice sent this pathetic cry:”I did not send this to any of these people and I do not want it. Somebody sent it to me and now I am in the loop. Can you make it stop?????????????????? “

A postmaster on Long Island: “Why are you sending this to me? Do you know me?”

USPS News Link: Inappropriate e-mails waste time and money

This particular email hoax has been around in one version or another for almost ten years according to Snopes.com, the best source for info on urban legends, hoaxes and scams. The version of the email posted at Snopes (collected in 2004) is almost identical to the one I received yesterday.

As annoying as this kind of thing is, there is a certain entertainment value to it. The email is typical of a forwarded chain email in that the actual text of the hoax is far down the body of the message, below the list of those who forwarded it. That makes it easy to trace where the message came from, and who was dim enough to send it on. This one started with a clerk in California, who forwarded it to a dozen or so people. After a few more forwards, it went to the Washington DC area, where it bounced around a few more times before heading for Arkansas, where it was forwarded via a couple of district mailing lists to a Postmaster, who unaccountably forwarded it to some finance related mailing lists, which is how it ended up in my inbox.

There are both management and bargaining unit employees on the list of forwarders, none of whom apparently had any doubts about a message that included phrases like

“My brother’s girlfriend got in on this a few months ago. When i went to visit him for the Baylor/UT game. She showed me her check. It was for the sum of $4,324.44 and was stamped “Paid in full”.

(So not only are these folks gullible, they apparently don’t know how checks work? Oh- and an honorable mention for the District Finance Manager who, on receiving the message, promptly replied to “all” informing the recipients that the message was a hoax and not to forward it. Ummm, thanks for the valuable insight.)

How to fire an employee

by Dan Sullivan

July 6 – The Postal Service’s Ergonomic Risk Reduction Program (EERP)is premised on a simple lie. As it says on page 2 of the slickly produced booklet promoting EERP, “The Postal Service has a long history of attention to ergonomics.”

Forget about the letter sorting machines that destroyed a generation of postal clerks’ wrists and hands.

Pay no attention to the current automated letter and flat sorting machines that are destroying another generation of workers shoulders and backs.

“The Postal Service has a long history of attention to ergonomics.”

Which is like saying George Bush has a long history of attention to the U.S. Constitution and civil liberties.

Unfortunately for Barbara Brzozowski, this long history of attention to ergonomics hasn’t made the Postal Service a very safe or secure place to work.

Last month the Buffalo, New York postal clerk was thrown out of work under the Postal Service’s Reassessment Program, a scheme to dump injured workers on the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP) rolls.

Her only crime appears to be getting hurt while working on one of the ergonomically unsafe flat sorting machines at the General Mail Facility in Buffalo that the USPS pays so much attention to.

Her injury was typical. She’s worked 21 years for the Postal Service and the repetitive lifting of 3^rd class tubs of mail had left her right shoulder a mess. In April 2003 she filed an OWCP injury claim. After a year of therapy and light duty work, she tried to go back to work on the flat sorting machines.

“Each time I attempted to go back to my job, though, the shoulder area would swell and become inflamed again,” she says.

So she was given a job verifying bank mail and mail for local box holders on the night shift.

“Management claimed they had nothing for me to do during the day, though they had off-the-job injured employees working days.”

Then in March 2005 the EERP Coordinator in Buffalo asked for volunteers from the limited duty section to do some light office work. Barb volunteered and got the job. Eventually she began helping out the Safety Specialist and the Medical Emergency Response Team, which shared an office with the EERP Coordinator.

Soon the work was keeping Barb busy eight hours a day.

But unknown to her, the Postal Service was already in the middle of testing a new program to dump injured workers on the OWCP rolls and have the Department of Labor train them for work outside the Postal Service.

One of the first places the Postal Service began testing what it called its Reassessment Program was in the Western New York District, where Barb worked.

She didn’t know it, but soon she would be nothing more than damaged goods to postal bosses.

In December of 2005 the local APWU notified employees that the Reassessment Program was coming to Buffalo. A few days later Barb was told by postal bosses in charge of the program to go to her doctor for an updated medical report.

Barb describes what happened next:

“In January I went to have my records updated and did not hear another word until I got a letter saying to show up for a meeting about the reassessment program. They don’t interview you at all. Nor do they contact any of your current supervisors to see where you are working or if you’re being productive.”

Barb’s meeting was on June 5, 2006. She was met by Mary McNeill, the District boss in charge of getting rid of injured workers, Manager of Distribution Operations (MDO) Mike McMann and two other bosses. She was told there was no work for her, handed some forms and told to complete them and mail them back to the Postal Service.

Barb tried to argue with them by pointing out the work she was doing and questioning them about other work that might be available in Buffalo and elsewhere. But the postal bosses had already made up their mind and weren’t much interested in what she had to say. After the meeting, the bosses confiscated her badge and marched her out of the building.

Since being shown the door, Barb has tried to use annual and sick leave while waiting for her OWCP paper work to get processed. But so far the bosses haven’t acted on her leave request.

She’s trying to use her leave after hearing that some other injured workers are still waiting for their first compensation checks more than seven weeks after being thrown out of work because the postal bosses gave them the wrong information about which forms to fill out.

“One of the other clerks sent her form in and OWCP sent her a letter back asking her why the Post Office had sent her home,” she says.

She’s not sure how many other workers injured on the job in Buffalo and outlying stations have been dumped on OWCP so far.

“There were six of us that went within the first two meetings for sure. I have heard that quite a few were also let go at the stations but that is just through stories that have trickled my way.”

Of course the Postal Service isn’t talking. Postal officials haven’t responded to requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act and all questions have been referred to the unions, which they say have been briefed on the outsourcing program.

Sue Carney is the APWU Director of Human Relations. But she doesn’t seem to know much more about the program than anyone else outside the Postal Service.

Right now the Reassessment Program is being tested in the Western New York Region and the Pacific Area. Final approval to go nationwide with the program is expected soon.

“When it is approved, they do not expect a rapid expansion,” Carney says. “It is being estimated that two to three postal districts per year will be reassessed.”

In a recent email she wrote, “We are still raising concerns/pointing to violations with USPS as it relates to this program and our Step 4 dispute. Once I am comfortable that we have all relative information and that it is accurate I anticipate providing a summary report to the local/state presidents and national field officers.”

In the meantime, more and more injured workers like Barb Brzozowski, whose only crime was getting hurt at work, are caught up in the dragnet as managers use the Reassessment Program to quietly sweep away their obligations to injured postal workers.

LA Times: Making a (Power)Point of Not Being Tiresome

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And I liked this quote on telecommuting from Congressman Frank Wolf (R-VA): “There is nothing magic in strapping ourselves into a metal box every day only to drive to an office where we sit behind a desk working on a computer.” Amen. Especially when the “office” is a cubicle. (Hey- you think Wolf could get telecommuting added to the Postal Reform bill?)

Cubicles: The great mistake