An Eagle
Falters 7/27/12 The March Hare
The motto used to be, “We
Deliver.” Now it should probably be
changed to “Managing to Become Irrelevant.”
After the Post Office Department became the U.S. Postal Service,
congress no longer had a stake in its success.
They only wanted the money. They
didn’t heed the Service’s need to move into electronic communications. Postal customers moved into them, but except
for its own internal communications, the Postal Service was unable to lead
them, or even follow them there.
While dedicated postal employees
worked tirelessly, upper management gave away the Service’s parcel post business. Then they invented Express Mail and gave it
away too. Then came electronic
communications, and upper management decided that postal employees should sell
neckties and t-shirts to boost revenue.
When first class mail went over the cliff, their answer was “upselling”
services, reducing collections, closing service outlets, and using short-term temporary
employees for long term needs. It
doesn’t take a Masters Degree to see that only hallucination could make this
ethical, smart, or practical. Tell this
tale to anyone and they will likely respond, “What were those idiots
thinking?!” One wonders if congress will
have to make it a Post Office Department again just to clean up the mess.
While generations of dedicated
public service traditions are being dismantled, the USPS probably has lots of
ethical, smart, practical senior managers down the Plaza. Around here, a lot of us customers would like
to see them making policy.
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