Thursday, June 3, 2010

Part-time workforce

We are primarily a full-time workforce. But one day, that might change. At the end of last year,  there were 623, 128 career employees, and 88,954 noncareer employees.

Of those noncareer employees, there were 4,271 casuals, 54,529 part-time rural carriers, 11,477 Postmaster Reliefs, and 17,018 transitional employees.

One the stated goals of Postal Service transformation is having "workforce flexibility."

Do you think the Postal Service should be going towards more of a part-time work force to help reduce labor expenses? What about job sharing? Is it doable in today's Postal Service? Will it be painful in she short-term, but pay off in the long-term? What is upside -- and downside -- of having a less than full-time workforce?

Comment here.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

No part-time employees. The unions need to get together and allow job sharing. We should be in a team and it's up to the team to accomplish the job.

The majority of part time folks do not value the history of the Postal Service. They have no uniform to advertise the USPS. Safe guarding the sanctity of the mail is a duty and a privledge. How many part time employees feel that way?

Anonymous said...

I agree.....instead of two PTF's ( 1 clerk & 1 Carrier)...why not have one FT employee who can cover both jobs! The unions need to remove the cross crafting rules...in fact eliminate the craft classifications and simply say...postal emplyee. That way they can be used where ever they are needed without fear of the union grieving us. In fact, employees should be hired to cover an area so they can be moved to any office that needs help...again without union interferance.

Anonymous said...

I think the Postal Service should offer limited part time positions to retired Postal employees with no reduction in retirement benefits..Tap into that vast knowledge and experience to cover vacations..weekends.

Anonymous said...

Yes We need to make sure the reliability of Postal Service lies in having Full time employees and value and treat employees with respect and help them shoulder higher responsibilities. In Edward Jones which was one of the best places to work they displayed how CEO of the firm invite all the employees and part time in a one employee meeting and how all are valued but when it came to number crunching they eliminated all temporary employees and also in that less than 1 year they provided emails displaying how each employee is valued by giving many benefits and events that shows that they are all equal and important. They have a policy that no one can be in in temporory for over 2 year unless there is special approvals. Can we find out how many times the salary of fulltime employees those top vendors temporary workers are paid and also if you ask them what should be strategy to remain sustainable for another 10 years, they will say hire more of them and fire some of your staff and they get paid for saying that.

Anonymous said...

I worked very hard for almost 12 years as a non-career, Postmaster Relief from 1992-2003. I took my job very seriously and asked for extra work, ie, OICs, fill in work, etc.
I learned all I could and did all I could as a non-career. In 2003 I became a Postmaster! "Some" of the part-time work force does take their job seriously and works for the good of the business. I'm proud to say, I was one of them...and "back in the day"....it FINALLY paid off! I think there is room for part-time workers and flexibility, but the Unions will have to "flex" some too.
The USPS is the BEST place to work! It gives you a reason to want to come to work in the morning, do a good job and let's you live a good life, providing you choose to do that.
As we all know...there are "some" who just want a paycheck....and that is not "always" non-career, temporary workers.

Merk said...

When I worked for the postal service in the early 80's I was classified as a clerk but often helped as a city carrier. When I transfered into the carrier craft I still helped fill in on the window for lunches, breaks and vacations. Job sharing should also extend to EAS positions. I believe when you know how all areas of a company function and how they depend upon each other, you are a better and more valuable employee. As far as part time employees, yes, we will see more of that. But part time employees can be career employees such as PTF's. It is very difficult and expensive to hire, train and retain non-career employees like RCA's and PMR's. We need to ensure all part time employees have at least some of the benefits as career employees, like insurance at a reduced cost or paid annual leave or we won't have a reliable, vested workforce. I have no doubt that the unions, management organizations and HQ can reach an agreement for a flexible, well-trained, dependable and fairly compensated workforce if they're willing to listen to ideas and work together for a common goal. We know changes are inevitable but we need to make sure they are the right changes.

Anonymous said...

I'm going to ramble a bit here. I agree w/most that the unions are a part of the problem rather than the solution.. Having said that, I pay union dues and am happy about the $$$ raises & COLA's that they have manaaged to get us thru "contracts". However, there use to be a time when rasises were based on "merit" and if you showed an interest in working and did a good job, then you (pretty much) could count on getting (at least) an Annual raise and maybe a Bonus increase or two. Now that everyone "career" is protected by the union, the raises are there for ALL (except 'non-career")AND they are given regardless of your individual "work ethics". In our office, we have (1)FTR (1)PM & (3)PTF's..The PM & FTR litterly end up doing (pretty much) ALL of the work because the PTF's don't really want to work except a few hrs.(of their choice) each day and IF they can't get the particular hrs. they want, then they WILL call in sick or use their children as an excuse why they can't be here when the Postal Service needs them... it seems to me that we were ALL told (when we hired on) that we were suppose to be on the clock @ the "needs of the Post Office". I believe that in todays economy, when people are hurting for jobs,that a casual or a PT would be willing to work for a "GOOD" days pay AND maybe we could get our "career" employees to want to be on the clock IF the Unions DID NOT protect them at every refusal they make for being at work when they're needed.

Anonymous said...

I have said this several times and I will continue saying it....classify all craft employees are postal employees. Various grades based on their primary duty...but each employee could be expected to work as needed...even in neighboring offices. Consolidate all the unions into one union and remove them from the daily operations and let them concentrate on over all benefits and job positions. If makes me laugh as I watch union battle over craft jursidication...each not caring if the other craft employees lost their jobs!!

Anonymous said...

As a part-time rural carrier who would like to be full time, I find it strange that we are the only union work force in America that I have ever heard of that works 2 or 3 days a month.
The usps needs to find a way to stagger days off so that one sub can cover multiple routes and earn a real living.
I would be glad to be laid off so that one of us could have a full time job.
This is a shitty deal: working every other saturday.
I'm also for sharing crafts, it's not rocket science. Anyone can learn any of the jobs done in a post office. I like the usps but it has been financially run into the ground by 204b's and management taking unnecessary overtime and creating unnecessary beaurocracy and inflating their pensions with phony disabilities. I see management now exploiting the current economic conditions to increase the hours of part time workers, while not increasing pay or benefits over the long term at all. Thereby slowly creating a postal service almost entirely made up of 10-20/hour non-benefit workers due to attrition. Wake up people, the union lackeys don't care either.
The 90,000 'non career' workers dont go to meetings and regular carriers run the meetings. They only care for their own interests (retirement, sickleave, and every penny more they can get from their mail count).

Anonymous said...

FOUR TEN HOURS DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

EliMoon said...

to the last comment no thanks, while having to work 4 10hr days would be nice for most it would be a real drag for those that are in rural areas where there would not be a lot to do and employees would end up slacking off too much. I personally am only a PMR and I honestly don't have a desire to become a Postmaster at any point. I treat every job that I've taken on the way it should be treated ... with the highest respect possible.
I like working the part-time hours of 2 hours on Saturday and the occasional weekday or vacation days for my Postmaster, but I do get rather bored being in a rural district and not having many customers come in.

Anonymous said...

Personally, I don't agree that there should be a "universal" postal worker. I am at an age, now, where I couldn't possibly do the job of delivering mail. After 24 yrs of service, I don't think too many of us would be physically able to carryout the requirements of mail delivery. My hat goes off to all of the carriers, city and rural. It is definitely a job that takes stamina. Entering the Postal Service as a carrier is one thing. But expecting a clerk or mailhandler who has been in their craft some 20+ years, to just wake up one morning and suddenly be able to carry out the demands of a carrier, is ridiculous.

Anonymous said...

Has been a lot of great comments,The one thing that would benifit our POST Office would be the right to remove the problem child from the POST OFFICE the guy that like was said, calls in sick when we don't have a replacement to work. The one that says no when ever someone would like a day off,cause no one will ever work for me,He's the same person who waits until everyone has planned their vacation and then wants the
same time off and we have no one to fill in when more than one person is out. The right to remove
problems and replace with sharing people who want to work.