Time
In today’s post office, management knows every move a letter carrier makes better than guards at Rikers Island knows where the inmates are. Management has computers that track your every move inside and outside of the post office; you think carriers would be working professionally. But to my dismay that is not the case! Carriers are still not doing what they are required to do to protect their times. When I was in an office recently and a carrier was giving an hour away for auxiliary assistance he left the piece on the floor, I asked him where the PS Form 3996 that goes with that piece. His response was let management fill it out! I don’t have the time to do that! What the carrier doesn’t realize that to fill out PS Form 3996 it takes TIME, time that you are losing by not filling the form out. You might say how long does it take to fill out the form? But a minute here and a minute there add up and in todays post office that time is ours not theirs!
PS form 3996 is not the only form that we use, PS Form 1564, PS Form 3892, PS Form 3575, PS Form 3982, PS Form 1621, PS Form 3849, PS Form 3521, PS Form 3821, PS Form 3868, PS Form 1767, PS Form 3546 and PS Form 1571 to name a few. If you want an explanation of what each form is used for look at your M-41 manual that is located at the carrier case. The M-41 is called City Delivery Carriers Duties and Responsibility. This manual is the letter carriers bible. Brush off the dust on the manual and read it!
Besides the forms to fill out, there are also vehicle inspections, breaks (office & street), ½ hour for lunch, wash-up time, waiting to get cleared from the accountable cage and get PS Form 3821 signed by a clearing clerk, 3M case in the afternoon, getting and putting away equipment, hold mail, box mail, vacation mail, snowbirds, safety talks, gassing up the vehicle etc.
With all these functions to perform some not on an everyday basis but a lot of them are on a daily basis why would you give management this time back when they are watching your every move every second of the day?
According to the M-41, National and Local Agreements these are some of the functions you as a professional letter carrier is required to perform. But let me ask you this, when was the last time you heard a carrier getting disciplined for not taking up to a 30 minute lunch, or not doing a vehicle inspection or not taking up to his/her 10 minute break, to name a few? Never!
Management is not going to discipline you for not doing these functions because it saves them TIME! Time that you are losing, time management is gaining, time that is yours for the taken, time that management can’t dispute. And time is money, money that you are depriving yourself and your family from.
