For Better or For Worse
Filed under Labor
Tags: best places to work, worklife
Recently Glassdoor.com announced the winners of the second annual “Employees’ Choice Awards” for Best Places to Work.
The Top 50 were selected from more than 37,000 companies reviewed by the nearly 100,000 employees who completed a 20-question survey on Glassdoor.com in 2009. Only companies who received at least 25 votes were included on the list. The survey questions relate to employees’ attitudes about:
- Career opportunities
- Communication
- Compensation and benefits
- Employee morale, recognition and feedback
- Senior Leadership
- Work/life balance
- Fairness and respect
Loading ...Southwest came in number one with a 4.7 rating on a scale of 1 to 5. United Airlines and Gibson Guitar are at the bottom of the reviewed companies with a 1.9 rating. FedEx scored a satisfactory rating of 3.8. Neutral ratings were given to UPS (3.1) and the Postal Service (2.8).
What are your thoughts on the current workplace environment? How can it be improved?
Has the workplace environment in the Postal Service gotten better or worse over the last 10 years and why?
This topic is hosted by the OIG’s Risk Analysis Research Center (RARC).
48 Responses to “For Better or For Worse”
Pages: « 5 4 3 [2] 1 » Show All
Pages: « 5 4 3 [2] 1 » Show All
Leave a Reply
Hello and Welcome!
Social Media
Search
Change Font Size
What's Hot This Month
Recent Comments
- escaped to the military on Pay for Performance
- Supervisor on Pay for Performance
- gv34m0 on Pay for Performance
- Jack on Postal Service as a National Asset
- jrkakapastateradio on Pay for Performance
Recent Topics
- Pay for Performance
- Having Problems with Your Time and Attendance Records? The OIG Wants to Hear From You.
- Are They Listening to Me?
- Postal Service as a National Asset
- Safety First!
January 19th, 2010 at 10:07 pm
Just once, why can’t the OIG monitor a group of supervisors for a day, and audit the “work” they do?? Typical Supervisors day:
1 hour managing employees (actually giving instructions etc.).
30 minutes a day handling customer complaints/inquiries.
2-3 hours, surfing internet, smoking, hanging out on dock, jabber-jawing etc.
1 hour generating meaningless reports that no one really needs or actually reads….
1 hour eating, talking to clerks.
45 minutes talking to other supervisors/postmaster etc.
45 mins-1 hour on cell phone….
that’s a TYPICAL day. Does anyone disagree, anyone at all…
That’s why morale is bad. THe OIG hounds craft employees constantly Boasts when they catch someone on comp doing something they shouldnt be doing. They constantly perform “audits” on every craft function. But not once, not one time, not even once in all the thousands of reports they have generated over the last ten years have they attempted to monitor (from the gallery/covertly) the actual tasks performed by a supervisor.
And now they wonder why OUR morale is bad???
Please post if you agree…. Isn’t it time someone audited MANAGEMENTS performance?
January 19th, 2010 at 9:55 pm
Its all going away, like the auto assembly line, the switch board operator. Say goodbye to the “good old days”. Cause these are the “good old days”.
January 19th, 2010 at 9:17 pm
#1 Micromanaged from HQ to Area To District – Even the MPOOs have to get approval for about anything
#2 Entitlement mindset – craft & manangement alike – effective discipline is almost impossible
#3 Extremely poor employee morale – See above; employees can only take so much of working along side of somebody that won’t pull their wait. Before long they will take the “can’t beat them, join them” attitude.
#4 Computers & reports – Computers have done more to harm the USPS than can be measured. Due to the endless reports and data input now required managers do not actually have time to run their offices. This is a double negative as it also paints a perspective to craft that management doesn’t do anything. The redundant reporting is ridiculous. Additional redundant reporting is also used as discipline for missing any of the reporting deadlines and other ridiculous goals. Management can’t “manage” because they don’t have the authority and can’t get away from the computer long enough to observe operations.
#5 Complement (or lack of) – It takes so long to get an employee replaced. Very few places have enough employees to get the job done PROPERLY and almost nobody has enough employees to cover vacation time. The USPS needs to implement some type of plan for cross craft utility employees to help in situations such as above. My office has a PTF city carrier that gets 2 hours a day & 3 Clerks that can not get a day off because there is nobody to cover for them. Why not allow the PTF carrier to fill in as a clerk when needed. It would help both crafts. The carier gets more hours & the clerks get their leave.
I could write a book with much more detail but the things listed above make up a large part of the root problem.
January 19th, 2010 at 8:34 pm
Reaction to the current financial crisis has destroyed morale. Clerk hour budgets cut to the bone regardless of the amount of work to be done. Management violating our contract all over the place by bringing in clerks for only 2 hours, then sending them home and PM doing the rest of the clerk work, when that was not history of the office. Give years to the company, and they throw you to the dogs, we don’t care of you can buy groceries, you are out the ddor, and the PM will do all the work, or violate your contract again and pay the RCA to do it so it doesn’t show up as clerk hours. If it wasn’tr for needing the health insurance, many would be out the door. Customer service is lousy- Mail late to the PO Boxes, bulk Mail with in home dates received past the dates, and on and on. But all that matters is staying in the clerk hour budget set by the PM, becuase if not PMs threatened they will be replaced. Meanwhile expect clerks to work a fraction of the hours they used to, but must be always available. Very discouraging to see clerks take the early out, then the office cuts window hours so the clerks won’t have to be replaced. They are burying the Post Office. How do they expect to bring in revenue, when the Post Office is only open a few hours a day? We need to bring people into the office, then utilize the high volume of traffic by selling them a product or service. Otherwise, why have a retail location at all? Just being open a few days is really ticking people off, and they will not go to the internet to buy Postal products or services, they will go to automatic bill pay, and other companies. Most of our customers are older folk who are not going to be driven to the internet.
January 19th, 2010 at 8:33 pm
Change the way city carriers are paid so that they are paid similar to the way rural carriers are paid. I’m sure an industrial psychologist would agree, city carriers have no incentive to work quickly. If they work hard and finish their route, they are given more territory to deliver or they must take AL because they finished early. In the city carrier craft, every day is a pay negotiation between the supervisor and the carrier. It’s ridiculous. Rural carriers report to work, do their job and leave for the day. And rural carriers get paid the same thing every day. No need to negotiate OT or undertime with their supervisor. Paying city carriers evaluated compensation would require less supervisors. The Supervisor Workload Credit Worksheet already recognizes this because you are given less credit for rural carriers than for city carriers when calculating the number of supervisors needed in an office. You want to save the post office millions? Put city carriers on an evaluated pay system.
January 19th, 2010 at 8:09 pm
After thirty three years of faithful service, I give up! My pay has gone done in each of the last two years,(over 6k per yr) I got to furnish a mail delivery vehicle during the $4 per gallon gas, if you could find it, with no additional compensation. The people who actually touch mail are treated like criminals now. Management needs to define the words “manage”, “threat”, “harass” “hostile work environment” their is a difference! The 1 per 5 ratio of management is a joke in the real world. The postal service uses any new technology like scanners as a vehicle to harass and threaten the employees who actually work! I just don’t get it, the carriers leave the building in around three hours and managers are sitting in a now empty building playing on the internet, why don’t they have to take 3 hr lunches like clerks? or just cut their pay to 1/2 a days pay? Yes it has gotten a lot worse in the last ten years, no direction, why should the employees who actually touch mail be treated like the enemy now?
January 19th, 2010 at 7:52 pm
Switch to evaluated routes. The current system for route evals and workload is completely unfair, disincentivises hard work, and then requires a costly and harassment filled monitoring structure to maintain.
January 19th, 2010 at 7:01 pm
Rural carrier for 25+ yrs. Seen many changes, most in past few years are not for the good. Poor customer service. Too many management people trying to fudge figures to justify their own jobs. Too many PMs sitting around doing nothing – no accountability -just waiting to retire. It’s become the “typical” govt job – once you’re in, do whatever you can to just get by. Lots of worker bees, way too many mgmt!
January 19th, 2010 at 6:41 pm
WHY THE POST OFFICE ISN’T A GOOD PLACE TO WORK? WHERE DO I BEGIN?
1. IT STARTS WITH RESPECT AND HONEST COMMUNICATION. FROM MANAGEMENT YOU GET NEITHER EXCEPT LIP SERVICE.
2. WHY DOES A COMPANY GIVE BONUSES WHEN IT KEEPS LOOSING MONEY EVERY YEAR? IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR, THE ONLY COMPANIES THAT DO THIS GET BAILED OUT (I.E., AIG, GOLDMAN SACHS, CITI BANK, ECT.) HOW INSANE IS THIS?
3. UNTIL YOU LISTEN TO YOUR EMPLOYEES AND IMPLEMENT THEIR IDEAS, YOU WILL CONTINUE TO GET WHAT YOU HAVE. THE SAME OLD CRAP!!!! WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE AND PUT DOWN YOUR ” GOOD OLE BOY” KOOLAID. HIRE PEOPLE WHO ARE CAPABLE OF DOING A JOB NOT YOUR BUDDIES.
4. I’M WITH THE GUY AT THE TOP OF THESE COMMENTS. I’VE BEEN INJURED ON THE JOB AND AM CURRENTLY UNDER THE MICROSCOPE LIKE IT WAS MY FAULT I HAVE CARPAL TUNNEL SYNDROME FROM MY JOB. BY THE WAY ,I TYPE WITH ONE FINGER. QUIT TRYING TO LUMP US ALL TOGTHER AND GO CASE BY CASE. YOU WILL FIND A BETTER WORK ENVIRONMENT. AND ALSO QUIT PUNISHING PEOPLE FOR BEING INJURED ON THE JOB LIKE GIVING THEM DISCIPLINE FOR IT. WE ARE JUST DOING OUR JOB AS WE ARE TRAINED TO DO SO WHY DOES IT ALWAYS COME BACK TO BEING ARE FAULT.
5. I DON’T WANT TO GIVE YOU TOO MUCH TO WORK ON SO TAKE CARE OF THESE AND WE’LL TALK. IF YOU DON’T, WELL I GUESS WE NOW KNOW WHO AND WHAT YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU ARE ALL ABOUT. YOURSEVES JUST LIKE ALWAYS!!!
January 19th, 2010 at 6:38 pm
The postal service needs new blood we need new college grads to fix it.The college grads would have new and fresh ideas to save the postal service.It seems to be almost every comment i read the managers are blamed for the dimise of the postal service.When is someone going to listen to the comments and actually do something about it.