former letter carrier here. At my office, the union and the managers had a very good trusting relationship and the union was concerned with good customer service as well as the interests of the carriers. It might be more or less functional at other offices, but that is what I saw.

This shit, in a nutshell, is what gives union employees and government employees a bad rap.

I'll tell you the only ethical thing to do: Clock out at noon and go home. You got your work done, you aren't entitled to collect an additional 3 hours of pay just because you think you deserve it.

Likewise, lollygagging around on your route so it takes until 3:00, regardless of the angry phone calls, etc. is just as unethical.

If the job takes until noon, that's how long it takes; clock out and save the USPS the deficit.

Find a mistress, or a desperate housewife that wants me every single day, me being fit having to walk around the route every day(especially if I jog it!). Hopefully it is a 1%er who isn't around much, somewhere based around the Potomac. Kill a few hours with that other type of work, and then clock out at 3-4 I am thinking 4..

((I kid around, I have no idea what I would do)), but it does show that most of the answer variations would have to be part of the 3rd option since:

Going to a bar/pub and clocking out at 3 is still the same as just doing something from noon to 3. It is finding what to do in the down time that is the issue.

Heck, I'd go to the gym every day if that was the case because option 2 of asking for more places to go in a route is unacceptable since everyone expects mail by noon.

My suggestion though would be to change the organization structure.

If the clockout is 3, it means work day most likely starts at 7, or if the clock out is 4 the day starts at 8.
I would suggest making the work day a little earlier so that it expands the number of routes a mail carrier can take, sadly that also means cutting workers.
Secondly, I would mix the mail carrier's job as partly walking and partly desk. I would probably rotate assignments so that some would work after noon at the mail center, be it sorting or whatever, anything that would improve efficiency. However, that is only few days off the week per person hence the rotating assignment scheme.

I don't really know though. It is a tough situation because the only option really is that mail has to come by noon, it is finding activities in between noon and clock out that is the issue.

is out of his league, if he can't inform the customers, that they all can't have their mail by Noon, then he needs to find another job. If it becomes mandatory that the mail is delivered by Noon, the Carrier needs to work with the Union & have his shift rescheduled from 3:30 a.m. to Noon. However this earlier start time, means that the customers will be receiving mail a day later than is normal, because all deliverable mail is not at the Postal station by 3:30 a.m. and sorted.

I live in a high-rise and the time between getting a regular carrier, our mail has been here between 4:00 & 5:00 p.m. I've heard residents complain about this & I've told many that someone has to be last on the route.

Daughter of a retired Postal Service machine operator & sister of a Postal Service Clerk. (who is eligible for full retirement in December of this year).

I don't mind at all though. I don't understand why anyone thinks mail has to be delivered before noon? Is that some kind of old fashioned idea? (fwiw, I'm no spring chicken either)

I have. I don't think I got through very often and even when I occassionally did they seemed to forget what I explained to them shortly thereafter.

Congradulations on the retirement!

Don

Make it.

Want to play games. Go to the Lounge.

Have a nice day!

the route is done by a sub one day a week. The manager is going to notice if there's a huge difference consistently week after week. The manager spends the day looking at numbers and he's under a lot of pressure to manage costs.

And by the way, people working in white collar jobs have the same issues about not being 100% efficient. Worse, in my experience. I'm on the clock right now for example.

carriers are followed to insure that the route is long enough and that the carrier is working at an adequate pace. At the end of this shadowing, routes are adjusted. There shouldn't be any "going over the postmasters head" because the length of the carrier's route can be justified.

This reminds me of some of the piecework jobs we had where I retired from.

The operator needed to produce X amount of parts per shift. He didn't get paid any more for producing extra parts but he could be written up for not producing that shifts quota. So if the operator got real good at what he did and there were no machinery breakdowns or anything bad happen he could be done by lunchtime. He could then do anything. Go sit in the cafeteria or whatever. But he couldn't leave the plant because he was still on the clock and insured to be in the plant for eight hours.

If the operator got done early he was happy. The supervisor could get that order loaded onto a rail car early and be done himself for the night early and he was happy. Everyone was happy.

Or the operator could go at normal speed and it could end up being a late night for everyone. And no one was happy.

Don

finish his route.

On the other hand, when I was a kid in the 1950's, we got two mail deliveries a day at a residential address. I think a stamp was 3 cents.

Fewer people and lots less junk mail back then.