Silly Signs, Silly Rules –- Know Any?
Workplace rules exist for a reason. Some rules are designed to protect employees’ rights and their safety, while others protect the employer and workplace. Then there are some rules that are just plain silly, and we ask ourselves why are they even are in place.
Sometimes the best way to find these rules is to ask. Last March, Major General Michael Oates of the Army’s 10th Mountain Division asked for information on the stupidest rules or policies in the Army in his Mountain Sound Off blog. Soldiers commented on everything from uniform regulations to policies on leave. FederalTimes.com borrowed the same idea and asked its readers, “What are the dumbest workplace rules affecting you?”
Since we know you aren’t shy, we thought we’d ask you the same question about the Postal Service. What Postal Service workplace rules are hindering you from doing your job? Are there rules or processes in place that no longer apply or need to be changed to meet today’s business needs? Let us know what you think.
This blog is hosted by the OIG’s Risk Analysis Research Center (RARC).
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Sirs: hiring process for management positions, no ergonomic changes in vehicles, start times, staffing, lack of information on anything from management,no leadership, smashing of packages by sortation design,no response from e-ideas program, regular boldfaced lying from management, lack of service standards, NO safety standards enforcement, no step awards for excelling, dirty working conditions, overall lack of any kind of truthfullness from management, lack of understanding between the field offices and headquarters, overall lack of TIMELY response from any kind of management, lack of interest in the real voice of the employee, marginalyzing of injured employees, lack of professionalism in management relations with employees, failure to adjust to new conditions on the part of management.
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where to start
#1 – stop chasing numbers for higher level bonus (you know, the $$ that is directed to district and above staff while those who actually produce get the ‘leftovers’ – let’s actually concentrate on the core mission.
#2 – save paper and printing costs – isn’t this info stored for access.
#3 – mystery shop? – who in headquarters are tied to the contracts for this. again numbers.
#4 – why staff any management at delivery units? – all direction comes from district office (did I mention these people don’t touch a piece of mail and are concerned ‘only’ with numbers?)
#5 – evaluate city routes – won’t have to worry about numbers.
#6 – drastically reduce headquarter and support staff – again these people don’t touch the mail and the only support (ops) gives is to do things their way because they know your office better (long distance management.)
#7 – other issues already addressed by other posts like spending $30 to make sure a $4 piece of mail is delivered just because of – you guessed it – ‘numbers’. these are not ‘costs of doing business’ -it’s why we’re in this mess.
#8 – all the above do not support our mission – they get in the way.
#9 – obviously VOE surveys don’t work.
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I would like to nominate M for Postmaster General. If he fixes the above and gets ride of the piles of useless reports he could save this company billions.
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How about the rule that when the usps buys a piece of equipment…it WORKS AND has to pass an acceptance test BEFORE purchasing? Me thinks they buy before passing witness the fss.
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Wow…Ok…How about Valid DPS changes that “cant” be done because the authorized supervisor retired?…Truck repairs not being done unless hounded with safety rules threatened…VOMA supervisors cutting items from truck repairs to save money….Snow chains not authorized because they dont use them in other sections of the country but OUR roads aren’t plowed till afternoon…Supervisors NOT picking up the phones or going to the windows for customers…EAS doing real estate deals on the clock…and disappearing en masse during the day….come on already…inspect…..
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The SW Area has implemented a rule sometime back that in order to bring in anybody on all day OT they have must higher level permission ON THE DAY OF THE NEED. No preplanning NSD OT. This results in mandatory OT of non-ODL carriers, a grievance and then a settlement for admin leave for the non-ODL carriers and applicable payments for the ODL/TE carriers who missed out on the opportunity to work the OT. So for 2 hours of mail delivery that was forced on a non-ODL carriers, the agency paid 2 hrs OT, 2 hrs admin, AND 2 hrs POT for a total cost of $216 when it should have cost only $96. Multiply that by the 500 plus grievances per year we handle and each grievance routinely deals with 5 + hours of mandatory…
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Western Area samething. Thousands paid for carriers to stay home to “SAVE” overtime. On orders from Area no 6th day OT. Borrow help from other AO’s and pay the OTDL to stay home. This is not a business we are spending OPM.
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and they do get bonuses just look it up in the budget.. “spot awards”
http://php.courierpostonline.com/data_public/datauniverse/usps/
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Stop everyone in the plants from spending most of their time running lottery pools, football pools, baseball pools, basketball pools….etc…
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How bout putting in the end mileage in the scaner and then writting it down on a sheet on the other side of the office every night
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we can not buy from the local hardware store. we can not but from the local walmart. we used to be able to. the PM would pay the bill with a money order. now you have to buy from Postal Products or some other expensive company. we had to buy 12 straw brooms. we only wanted one but they had to be purchased by the dozen. recently we could not even get a printer cartridge without POOM approval. Now that is what the USPS needs. Aperson making $120,000 a year making a command decision on whether a printer cartridge is needed. good thing I don’t have to ask her permission to go potty.
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You can still buy from local merchants, you just have to pay with the IMPAC card. If you can’t find what you want thru EBuy, you can local purchase. You can order only one broom through one of the suppliers, I’ve done it. But if you can’t find something, or if you find it significantly less expensive, or if you just need it right away, use the local purchase option.
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No personal items at case. If I need a kleenex I go get one from my lock. If it gets too hot in the corner I go to my locker and get my portable fan. I was also informed that I take too many bathroom breaks on the street. Delivering mis-sequenced mail in the dps. Don’t forget, no talking at your case.
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Also we have to leave our vehicle back door open at the end of the day so the supervisor can make sure nothing is left inside. We also a “check your case card” we have to leave on our case when we leave for the street. Then the supervisor comes around (sometimes) after we leave and also checks our case, then turns the card around to show that he or she has double checked. I guess they have to justify their jobs.
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Our worst rule/regulation at the USPS is the fact that there are different crafts under different unions. We ALL work for the same company and should be able to bid on any position at the USPS without having to lose our seniority and start from the bottom up.
2) The fact that even though we HAVE empty carrier cases sitting in our offices, we cannot use ant of those cases as extra wings for cases that have been converted to 5 shelves. This makes NO sense at all, the USPS is not taking into account the many more repetitive injuries that may occur due to the 5 shelve system which could very easily be avoided by using an extra wing case and converting back to 4 shelves!!!
3) All supplies MUST be odered from certain companies that are contracted with the USPS, WHY? This does not allow the USPS to comparison shop and save $$$$$
4) The need to wear ID badges inside the office, we all know who we are and it is pointless when there is no type of security system to enter the building. Anyone could easily enter our building at any time so what is the point of wearing badges?
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1. Stop using so many Associate supervisors, just make them permenant or the service must not need them. There is so many in our plant.
2. Select the best for the supervisor Position, train them and make them one. Don’t pull them to do it for 120 days every so often and then have someone else do it and then someone else and the cycle continues.
3. Big problem, Pieces At Risk. We have been going through this for years on our AFCS’s. Well, these machines were made to run “new mail” into the mail stream. Have the offices to take out the open faced mail, mail with internet printed postage on it, mail that has already been processed and is being returned to office with wrong address, no such person etc.. on it and returned Bulk or presorted bussiness mail. We are expected to meet a goal that is unattainable under these conditions. There is no telling how much money has been wasted trying to get our pieces at risk down to no avail.
I seen it very close hand today as I was looking for a few pieces to run out of a hamper that came in today.
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One of several is-all the del confirm scans. PO box parcel is scanned “arrival at unit”. Then it moves 20 ft in a cart and is scanned “arrival at pick-up point”. Finally, as it goes on the shelf, it is scanned “attempted”. For all the work, they should charge about $5 for del confirm. Once a simple and effective tool to find out when your package was delivered, the powers-that-be have turned del con into an excessive waste of time and money, slowing down the morning sort. And, out of nowhere, the morning box section uptime is moved back an hour for no reason? Tear the whole thing down and start all over, only was to fix this mess known as the USPS.
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It’s not that important in the big scheme of things, but it is very stupid: changing the computer printers to print out on both sides unless you remember to tell it not to. Designed to save paper I guess, what it really does is make you print it twice. You throw the double sided copy away and then print it single sided. Waste of both paper and time. Stupid.
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why not just go to your printer properties and change the setting to NOT print on both sides?
by changing the properties you will not have to change it every time you print. and do not believe that changing it when you print will work it will not, you must click the start button and then go to “printers and faxes” look for the printer you sue and change it there.
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for a second why should i believe that any of these scenarios will be addressed? and if they are how will they be addressed? similar to postal managements reaction to the oig report that netflix are nonmachinable? how about total disregard. i have been MANDATED to process netflix on dps even tho the machine shreds them. not holding my breath that anything meaningful will result in any of these posted situations.
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The Supervisors often have us remove mail from the second pass sequence trays when a certain mailing “kicks out” or rejects at the rate of 1 in 500, in order to make the sequence percentage targets.
In our plant we have a target of no more than 1 in a thousand out of sequence. If we run five trays of thin cards on first pass and they begin “going out of sequence on the second pass, the supes will order us to begin extracting all of them, and we end up with 2000 pieces of raw mail instead of 20 pieces of raw mail, as well as making it difficult to keep the ledge loaded. Seems to me delaying the mail, even when the justification is to meet a target is STILL delaying the mail!
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We need to stop extracting mail from the second pass DPD just because 1 in a 100 goes out of sequence.
I have seen 2000 pieces of raw mail created just to save 20 out of sequence pieces. This makes no sense to me.
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Oh My God! Silly Rules! Where do you Start?
How about this. First;Do not establish a new rule, until you do away the old rule. We have too many contradictory rules, and people that love to enforce them. Wev’e got plenty of rules handed down from HQ that say you don’t have to do it the old way. But somebody always interprets that as do it the old way, and the new way.
Second; Don’t waste all our resources preparing for hypothetical disaster scenarios that are highly unlikely, then ignore the big problems we work around at least once a week. [ you can't go wrong fixing imaginary problems, real problems = real work]
Third; If we buy into a system that doesn’t work, MAKE THEM FIX IT! If a system requires hyper complicated procedures + rules + threats of discipline, to work, don’t expect to see the efficiency you paid for.
Fourth; Just because a system makes it easier for clerical staff, it doesn’t mean it’s efficient. If you want us to order stuff by computer, them maybe 5 people sharing one computer is a chokepoint. My personal theory on our current deficit is that it is probably equal to the outrageous prices we are paying to our “Preferred Supplers”.
Fifth; If a supervisor wants to enforce a crazy rule he just says “That’s what the OIG / Inspection Service said.” You find out much later, that no such interaction took place. Put it in writing, and tell them not quote you without documentation. We wer’e told that if we do not use the “preferred E-Buy supplier” for any purchase, [even though it's 4x the price]we could expect an OIG investigation.
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As I have asked our district staff why after a one week mail counton the HCR renewals in Sept after losing 6 million would they would rewuire another one before the end of Oct, This is what the professionals in DC do. They have more stupid repetitive junk, doing the same thing three or more times and most of it is a pencil whip because there is no and I repeat no way to do it right with the pressures and the cuts its just stupid all the DC people should be forced to come and do this stupid crap. Scan, sign off and the close out is worse, I know there has to be check and balance but this is dung. Please offer another EAS VERA
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