As the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention.
Oddly enough, the first person to say that wasn't me. It's was the Greek philosopher, Plato. (But that's neither here nor there.)
Of course, I've had plenty of necessity to lead me to invention. I was always tinkering with things. Who hasn't? Seems you can't throw a quill pen without hitting some problem that needs solving.
The Postal Service was one of the benefactors of my early ingenuity, but I was just first in a long line of problem solvers. Every day, someone somewhere identifies a problem and creates a solution.
I'm not content with things that aren't working and I'll bet you aren't either.
How about you? Have you solved any Postal problems lately? Do you know of any that were solved by someone else? Tell me about it! Comment here and then send an email here.
5 comments:
Whenever I have submitted an idea, it was either ignored or came back"previously submitted by a supervisor"
I made the recomendation to have paystubs on line over 5 years ago. Having 800,000 pieces of mail in our mail stream made volume numbers look good...but that volume generated zero revenue and added to our processing costs. I was told there was no secure way to do it. Latest IT update states employees now have their paystubs on line. Why did it take a financail crisis to accomplish this task!! And no, I was not given any credit for making this recommendation, but I bet someone's PFP will now reflect it in the IT offce.
Just a note that when I went to the Big Island in Hawaii this last January I had mailed some items before I left so as to avoid extra luggage. Some I mailed priority but one box I mailed parcel post with delcon. I rec'd all the packages while there except the parcel post mailed. I repeatedly went to the local PO to inquire if it had arrived and once a clerk asked me how I had mailed it. I told her parcel post. She asked me how long was I told that it would take to arrive from Washington State where I mailed it? I told her that I worked for the postal service and thought it was 10 days to 2 weeks. She stated that no, it could take up to 6 weeks and explained how a parcel normally goes to L.A. first where it sits on a dock waiting its turn to get on a boat to Oahu, where it sits on a dock and waits its turn to go on a boat to one of the other islands where it is addressed to. She then stated that, "so you are one of those people who tell people that their packages will arrive in 2-3 weeks and then they are angry or yell at us when it doesn't arrive while they are here". I said "I'm sorry, I'm sorry" and "I didn't know, no one told me otherwise" and "I won't ever do it again" and "I'll tell everyone I know to not tell people that anymore". So here I am telling you not to tell people on the mainland that their parcel post mailed package to Hawaiian Islands will make it in anything less then 4-6 weeks. Even the machines at the clerks windows say 2 weeks when they weigh a parcel post package for Hawaii. So my package arrived back at my home post office in Washington State on April 3rd, the delivery confirmation ticket showed that it had only gotten as far as L.A. and then returned to my local post office. I had mailed it to Hawaii on December 28th of 2008 and 4 months later it was returned to me, I had forgotten what was in it by that time. But when I opened it I remembered all the medicine and items that I had to purchase in Hawaii for a much higher price because they hadn't arrived in this package. ARGH! I wish I had known how long it actually takes, it would be good to adjust the clerk scales and machines to give a more accurate time for this type of delivery. Aren't we all about customer service? That's what brings folks back, isn't it? This is definitely a customer service issue, plus a courtesy to our fellow postal workers on the other end of the delivery. Thanks for listening and plz share this with others.
Want to save costs? I'm in Colorado and I say we get rid of our "Western Area Update". Make this "newsletter" by subscription only, put all content on a website accessible to all Postal employees. Stop force feeding all of us this Postal propaganda, and save some money. I did a quick poll of my PO and not one of my fellow employees had even looked at their Update.
Giant waste of money.
I agree....with every office in Western Area having a computer...that only makes sense. Mr. Black is already sending out emails with data....he could just extend that.
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