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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How about the rule that they run the City Carrier mail first? Rural carriers drive more miles, farther away from the post office, carry more mail and do not curtail bulk and we wait for DPS in our office constantly. Management is bringing the clerks in half hour later and sending some of them home before rural DPS is even complete. The city carriers are ready to leave for the street almost before we get in at 8am, they start at 7 am, so any missort mail in the DPS now has to be run outfor delivery or to the city carriers by the janitors! We were told by management that the 8 am start time is “unacceptable” but we cannot change our start time and waiting nearly an hour for as little as three trays of DPS is mind boggling. One could almost understand the wait if they were buried in DPS but three trays? It is dark here by 4:45 pm and most of the Rurals in our office have evaluations that including lunch keep them out later than that, isn’t safety a consideration either, now that daylight savings is over? Once the weather gets bad it will be even worse.
On another note, they put in larger DPS machines a few months ago to help put an end our wait time and what is even more mind boggling is that the older, shorter ones that they removed sat on the back of Postal property in the rain for about a month before they brought in a dumpster and carted them off as scrap! Was there no outlet to sell these machines? How about using them for parts? Something! We keep hearing about the dire straights the USPS is in and then we see this waste?
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Silly rules? Where do I start? I would be happy if the Postal Service just followed the rules already in place. Middle managers are constantly ORDERED by district staff to not only bend, break, and change the rules already in place in manuals such as the the ELM-Employee and Labor Relations Manual but also violate the National Agreements. On a daily basis a Postmaster or Supervisor may receive three or four contradictory instructions from different “bosses” for the same situation–none of which are in agreement with the written policy of the Postal Service. We have mandated safety audits and preach safety but require a lone female carrier to return back to the route to deliver a missorted utility bill after dark at a unlit trailer park in a crime ridden portion of town. IS THERE A BETTER WORD THAN SILLY? We travel HUNDREDS–THOUSANDS of extra miles daily and pay HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS PER LETTER to get a few missent 44 cent letters to the right office or to the right route. The public needs to know what is silly and why we are losing money. The ones that know we are doing it DONT want it. They want to know that ONCE they have gone to their mail box and retrieved their mail, we won’t be back and put more in to stay overnight or for it to be stolen. Silly is not the right word, but worst of all is the intimidation FOR Postmasters NOT to follow the rules and using the OIG as a tool to threaten them. This is all done for the express purpose of manipulating numbers–making the district scores appear better than they are. THAT is an investigation the OIG needs to pursue. The EXFC numbers need to be what they really are–not what is gotten on the stress of the middle managers and at the possible expense of the carriers out after dark. Their safety is at stake. Please–before it is too late.
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That DoNotRead sign is brilliant! A classic example of rules we can’t help but break!
Larry
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Love the DoNotRead sign. Most people don’t bother to follow the rules though.
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Really agree with you.
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Most all homes around me have boxes at their curb for home delivery. I, however, am not allowed this same service. I am told that because I live within a 1/2 mile of a rural post office, I will recieve a FREE PO box there. The lady who runs this office laughed and me and said that she had never heard of such a thing. Meanwhile, homes NEXT DOOR to this PO receive mail at their homes. My street is BETWEEN all these homes that do receive mail and they essentially have to pass by my house to deliver them. So, I can not get mail at my house, I watch the mail lady drive by AND I have to pay for my PO box. What about everyone is entitled to free mail service???
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RULES? WE DONT NEED NO STINKIN RULES!
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what about all the reports, reports reports reports and then the reports on the reports.
We have so many rules that we need to have full time staff to interpert the rules!
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