I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more desperate, pathetic hiring campaign than the one happening right now at the Montpelier post office. There are posters and flyers on every available wall, door, fixture, and column, plus a small stack on the service counter. The vast majority are black-and-white photocopies, so they’re obviously sparing every possible expense. There’s also one sad little bunch of slowly deflating helium balloons sitting off in a corner, communicating the exact opposite of gaiety and celebration.

It’s almost as if nobody with any options wants to work for a deeply troubled entity with terrible working conditions, a management focused entirely on cost-cutting, and a chief executive who just issued a warning that the enterprise is running out of money. All under a president who, at best, doesn’t give a damn, and at worst is actively undermining the operation in order to wreak havoc with mail-in balloting.

Yeah, if I were looking for work, I might opt for convenience store clerk (or trash hauler, see below) over mail carrier. Which is a damn shame, considering that the Postal Service used to be a haven of reliable, rewarding blue-collar employment.

The desperation of the hiring effort is reflected in the quality of service being delivered — or not being delivered — in my neck of the woods. The mail carrier on our route resigned about a month ago. On her last day, she told a neighbor that she’d been working 70 hours a week and couldn’t take it anymore. She also said there was no one in line to replace her, and we should expect to get deliveries once a week or so.

Neat. It wasn’t too many years ago that a USPS plan to end Saturday deliveries sparked so much outrage in Congress that it was quickly abandoned. Now, once a week? Maybe? Indefinitely? Forever? The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves?

Continue reading →