Just Curious...

[Twisted Toon]

Without the post office, where would I get all that paper that fills up my recycling bin?

UPS or FedEx?

[downix]

UPS or FedEx?

no, UPS would fail to show up with it and FedEx would leave it at some random persons house.

[Triplash]

Without the post office, where would I get all that paper that fills up my recycling bin?

You'd probably have to go buy it.

I mean, we have to recycle or the earth will explode. It's a scientific fact. So if you don't have recyclable stuff already then you've got to go out and buy some. And drop it straight into the recycling bin. To save the planet.

[Ironwolf]

For the Children!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlVBU2wv0-w

[healix]

I was a letter carrier for quite a few years, and I know first hand the behind-the-scenes stuff. It is a hard job,no matter what anyone thinks. The Board of Governors decides on stamp rate hikes, and there are no tax dollars that go to the USPS. Yes, there are always going to be problems when you deal with/employ human beings. A lot of the Postmasters made Hitler look like Mother Theresa. ("Got a broken leg??? WALK it off!....and make sure you deliver 5 extra trays of mail in the same time as your regular route!") Pedophile priests, cops on the take...I could go on and on. The Postal Service STILL is the cheapest world-wide way to send mail, and most letter carriers are really good folk. Every address can get mail, no matter how remote. I shudder to think of some of the alternatives that have been presented. I am hoping that this wonderful service can solve its financial woes and continue to deliver handwritten letters from friends and loved ones, Christmas presents and everything else. Starting in August, there will be no more Saturday delivery, and I think this is GREAT. Big cost savings, and postal workers will be able to be more a part of the mainstream.
ONE last thing...Before the term 'going postal was coined, there were incidents at a Texas night club, a California McDonalds, a Kentucky office, among others. I never hear anyone say 'going McDonalds' or 'going Xerox'. I guess it's because the PS is the most well known and familiar. The PS is a great service...some of the people who work there are not so great.
A lengthy study by Mother Jones magazine found that at least 38 of the 61 mass shooters in the past three decades "displayed signs of mental health problems prior to the killings."  GEEEE....ya THINK? ??? ?
Ok, I had my say, and I thank you all.

[Ironwolf]

Don't mix mismanagement with employee performance ;D

I mean look at NCSoft they in our opinion are idiots however they had Paragon Studios as employees.........

[JaguarX]

Don't mix mismanagement with employee performance ;D

I mean look at NCSoft they in our opinion are idiots however they had Paragon Studios as employees.........

Kind of like relationships. The most beautiful women somehow sometimes end up with some dirt bag loser that they probably shouldnt evn looked twice yet or a man with good job, faithful, end up with a woman that is sleeping with everyone under the sun except him.

[dwturducken]

no, UPS would fail to show up with it and FedEx would leave it at some random persons house.

Actually, UPS could break the ValPak mailer. I've known good people who've worked for all three companies. UPS and FedEx don't have mercurial partisan masters who make unrealistic and unreasonable demands.

And, "going McDonald's" means something entirely different, and more people die from it each year than from gun violence.

[ukaserex]

Kind of like relationships. The most beautiful women somehow sometimes end up with some dirt bag loser that they probably shouldnt evn looked twice yet or a man with good job, faithful, end up with a woman that is sleeping with everyone under the sun except him.

I'm sorry. Analogies such as this one should be discussed here: http://www.sosuave.net/forum/index.php

As for the post office, it used to be the only part of the government that turned a profit until e-mail and text messaging got dirt cheap.
As for rude postal workers, I've never met one. I've come across ....efficient (and thus a little terse) workers, but never rude ones.

[Osborn]

I was a letter carrier for quite a few years, and I know first hand the behind-the-scenes stuff. It is a hard job,no matter what anyone thinks. The Board of Governors decides on stamp rate hikes, and there are no tax dollars that go to the USPS. Yes, there are always going to be problems when you deal with/employ human beings. A lot of the Postmasters made Hitler look like Mother Theresa. ("Got a broken leg??? WALK it off!....and make sure you deliver 5 extra trays of mail in the same time as your regular route!") Pedophile priests, cops on the take...I could go on and on. The Postal Service STILL is the cheapest world-wide way to send mail, and most letter carriers are really good folk. Every address can get mail, no matter how remote. I shudder to think of some of the alternatives that have been presented. I am hoping that this wonderful service can solve its financial woes and continue to deliver handwritten letters from friends and loved ones, Christmas presents and everything else. Starting in August, there will be no more Saturday delivery, and I think this is GREAT. Big cost savings, and postal workers will be able to be more a part of the mainstream.
ONE last thing...Before the term 'going postal was coined, there were incidents at a Texas night club, a California McDonalds, a Kentucky office, among others. I never hear anyone say 'going McDonalds' or 'going Xerox'. I guess it's because the PS is the most well known and familiar. The PS is a great service...some of the people who work there are not so great.
A lengthy study by Mother Jones magazine found that at least 38 of the 61 mass shooters in the past three decades "displayed signs of mental health problems prior to the killings."  GEEEE....ya THINK? ??? ?
Ok, I had my say, and I thank you all.

I think it's retarded when people complain about the service at the USPS, when to quote I think Jon Stewart, you can pay these guys 40 cents and they will carry whatever bull crap piece of paper from one ocean to the next and it's pretty much guaranteed to get there.

I think if there's anybody that deserves some slack for 'going postal' it's workers at the post office.

[Brightfires]

For what it's worth, my local PO is ace and both of our regular letter-carriers are very good at what they do...

I collect Asian ball-jointed dolls (ie: Big, heavy, fragile, hard-to-replace and really-freakin'-expensive collectible items that have to be shipped to me from the far side of the planet) and they've almost always gotten things to me on time and in good condition. These little resin minions of mine would seem like a disaster waiting to happen based on the reputation the postal service seems to have gotten, but I have no complaints. I've never had a doll lost, a box crushed or anything ruined by mishandling (accidental or otherwise-).

I'm sure there are jerks that work for the post, and that some offices are likely to be better than others, but it's not a Good Thing to tar and feather the whole lot over those losers. Not when there are people around who are just as good at it as they are bad.

That said... *shakes tiny fist at the piles of junk mail clogging her tiny mailbox*

[JaguarX]

I'm sorry. Analogies such as this one should be discussed here: http://www.sosuave.net/forum/index.php

LMAO  :D

As for the post office, it used to be the only part of the government that turned a profit until e-mail and text messaging got dirt cheap.
As for rude postal workers, I've never met one. I've come across ....efficient (and thus a little terse) workers, but never rude ones.

hmm, maybe it's a Memphis, Atlanta, El Paso, St Louis, Houston, Boston, New York thing.

Half the time I find out my mail never gets to me. Or gets to the sender even after paying for postage which result by definition being robbed. Although they seem to be more than capable of deliverying every single piece of junk mail and mail thta dont belong to me under the sun.  Just recently I had to call their regional office after I caught the mailman red handed this time, not even bothering to delivering a package but instead but putting the pink slip in the mail box. Wasnt the first time he done that but hopefully it will be the last. And not to mention other stuff. Either I'm just unlucky enough to come across every single dirtbag of a mailman and mail person, that is what I thought until I asked around, friends from the area and other cities and many of their experiences was about the same if not worse. One found out the mailman was stealing her packages. Aother one found the mailman throwing them in the dumpster but unfortunately her boyfriend is in jail for beating the crap out of this mail man. Last I heard though, justice wasnt lost, he lost his job. And so on. I wish I could say "yeah, the usps are the most friendly people in the world and would love to have them around" but unfortunatley that is not experience with them and thus cant say that as that is the only experience I have to go buy. But with one incident with the mail system here, partly dealing with unauthorized junk mail that dont even have my address on it nor any address on it for that matter and more stuff that I been requested to stop delivering to me but still insist, I'm taking it a step further if I find one more piece. It would be understandable if the junk mail had an address at least but basically the mailman is using my mail box as a trash can. I'm done speaking with that office. Next time, they will be speaking to a certain representative. I rather not see these people lose their jobs and the usps go down but if they are that disgruntled that they dont want to work, then they should quit and find a new job. Even my job field faces cuts that doesnt mean I take it out on people that come to me for the service my office offer. No I still treat them with respect as if it was normal day. It's hard to have sympathy for an organization that seem to hire the most digruntled people on the planet. I dont even need them. If the mail system went total kaputz only thing that would come out of it is that I will finally no longer have to worry about junk mail. It seems many dont like what they do and thus maybe job cuts would be best and hope they dont get rid of the good ones but te ones that already act like they do not wish to be there.

[dwturducken]

hmm, maybe it's a Memphis, Atlanta, El Paso, St Louis, Houston, Boston, New York thing.

How is this part limited to postal carriers? *ZING* :)

[Segev]

Like any organization, the USPS is made up of people.

Some of these people are real saints. Hard working, honest, friendly, and earnest in their duties and eager to serve the customer. Members of the community and proud of it.

Others are lazy, shiftless, or just plain dishonest. Loafing on the union's guaranteed pay for minimal work, looking for excuses to "put it to the man" by finding loopholes to do the barest minimum, grouchy, rude, entitled, and bitter. Petty tyrants with a little bit of power, and overly eager to abuse it.

And it runs the gamut between.

The postmaster and postmaster general for an area will have a strong impact on this; a dishonest, lazy, or inept one will tolerate a lot more dishonesty, laziness, or just plain incompetence from his underlings. An honest, hard-working, in-tune one will run a tight ship. The first will tend to frustrate the good examples into quitting in disgust as they see the bad actors rewarded and they themselves can't catch a break. The second will tend to squeeze out the bad actors, rewarding the hard workers by being aware of their excellence and specifically paving the way for them to do their jobs even better.

The other side of the coin is the union. A union with a boss who is dishonest, sneaky, greedy, or just very skilled at "protecting" the bad actors will make it hard for even a good postmaster to keep his people well-behaved. A union with a boss who genuinely wants to represent the workers will know them and will work as an ally to a good postmaster to make things fair for the best actors, and fair (in the sense that they will get justly and thus poorly treated) to the bad actors as well.

So, it's people. A lot related to the people "at the top" for a region, but it's just...people.

[downix]

The other side of the coin is the union. A union with a boss who is dishonest, sneaky, greedy, or just very skilled at "protecting" the bad actors will make it hard for even a good postmaster to keep his people well-behaved. A union with a boss who genuinely wants to represent the workers will know them and will work as an ally to a good postmaster to make things fair for the best actors, and fair (in the sense that they will get justly and thus poorly treated) to the bad actors as well.

A small note, the union workers elect the union boss. As the postmaster helps set hiring guidelines, he indirectly has a strong influence over that union boss. A postmaster who lets laziness and corruption in will wind up with a lazy, and corrupt union boss counter.

[General Idiot]

Don't mix mismanagement with employee performance ;D

I mean look at NCSoft they in our opinion are idiots however they had Paragon Studios as employees.........

And they chose to fire them all, thus qualifying them as idiots.