Two pieces of news:
On the last postal news entry I mentioned the idea of the USPS reducing delivery service due to some of the cost constraints and significant losses they are suffering (to the tune of about $3 Billion).
Today there was a news story about the salary of the Postmaster General which was pretty astounding. Check out ABC’s version of the story on video. I’d like to hear your thoughts on that.
Second:
Christine, who is a part time rural mail carrier, said that February 14th to March 14th is an important time to send mail because this is the time all the mail is counted for benchmarking or performance (or something like that) for the year. You can read her remark in the comments section of that same entry. Go look and go send some mail!
Tags: News, post office, postal service
I think it’s very unfair of ABC to say that the postmaster makes $857,459.00. That’s not actually the case. They come to that total by adding in retirement “benefits and perks.” Retirement money is not something he has access to right now and perks, what are they? It’s not specific. Thanks for sharing this story! I’m going to post it, too.
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It’s a somewhat skewed, however I do have a problem with a “performance bonus” when the company is gushing money loss from a main artery.
The other thing that is kind of wacky is the chairman of the board of governor’s is saying he exhibits “visionary leadership”. Maybe I’m missing something. So far all I’ve seen is business as usual — the organization runs the same way it always has except the postal rate increases are becoming more and more frequent and the financial losses higher and higher. There’s no evolution that I can see or capitalizing on the potential that’s there. Admittedly, I’m not “on the inside” but his system needs to evolve to survive in this day and age and from the outside it doesn’t look like it’s happening. But maybe he IS a visionary, just with really bad PR and marketing.
For a possibly more balanced view, here is a CNN article that has more defense of his pay.
Wow. The CNN article is an eye-opener. I am still digesting it, but… wow. I am furious, and it is the sort of furious that makes me mad at myself because it is a populace furious which is not logical or educated. I need to type a furious letter and get it out of my system and then sit down and get logical.
On the other topic of this post… I am going to FLOOD the USPS with mail between now and March 14th. I did take a good look at my mail habit and postage budget and decided to cut out about 30 postcards a week (a modest hit to my weekly mailings), which are mostly international, so that will save me about $30 a month in postage alone. My boyfriend said that I deserve a medal from the USPS for all the mail I am still sending
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