Bodies

Things remain really rough at the post office where I work. We are in a serious manning crunch. We need some new subs desperately. My boss had promised me today off to recoup. Regretfully, he couldn't keep his word because we had a second regular carrier call out i.e. let him know they couldn't work today. We were already down 1 route because of the regular who sprained their collarbone. Luckily, we had a sub from another post office who was able to cover that route. I ended up casing the 2nd route's mail. I don't know the route's mail case well at all and was horribly slow in casing the route's mail. At times, it was very frustrating. I couldn't find addresses I knew were on the route case SOMEWHERE. Plus, I'd already endured 3 days on another route that I'm not very good at and got kicked at. Monday, I was out till 8:40 p.m. delivering mail. Worse still, tomorrow, I get to deliver on a route I've NEVER cased and only delivered to in various pieces. Tomorrow will not be a good day.

To add insult to injury, we have another sub who it seems has an aversion to working in the cold and so, the sub hasn't worked for over 3 weeks now. I wonder what the heck this sub is going to do when they get their own mail route. Are they going to try to take leave for a month or more during the winter? It's really absurd. The kicker is we can't get rid of this sub. So, we have the sub on the books even though they're not working and who knows when they will finally return to work. Last week, this sub called in and asked what routes would need help. My boss foolishly told the sub and, the sub said they didn't care to work those routes. Since when does an employee get to pick and choose what work they do? It's really unbelievable and ties in with my first paragraph because if, we could get more bodies i.e. substitutes, this sub couldn't get away with this. My boss could let her sit at home till the cows came home. However, with us hurting so bad manning wise, this sub can play this game.

For me, I'm getting seriously fed up with the situation. I don't mind taking an occasional bump i.e. part of a route in addition to the route I'm assigned to BUT, I'm not prepared to do it regularly. Also, I don't think it's fair for me to be the ONLY sub at our post office to be on call i.e. have to come in at short notice. We've got to get more bodies i.e. subs. If we don't, down the line, I'll have to say enough. My job at the post office isn't critical. I can survive on my military retirement and the interest from the annuity my beloved step-mother left me. We'll see what happens. Stay tuned.