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by Kirk Baiz, 1st Senior Vice President The Times They Are A-Changin' I reach back in time and borrow from Bob Dylan’s words from a time of dramatic change in the world. I apply those same words of warning and call to action to a time of dramatic change in every letter carrier’s world. Our times they are a changin’, though who would have thought they’d change so much so fast. I remember talking to a postmaster about a guy that was applying for a transitional carrier job about a year ago and thinking it was his first step into a career appointment as a letter carrier. I’ve been a union representative since November of 1987, and a full time officer since January of 1991. I’ve seen many route inspections and adjustments over the years and from about 1994 on was somehow involved with or oversaw most that were completed in Branch 1100 cities. While we deal with the change of reduction in volume and the problems that brings us, we then have to deal with a change to how routes are evaluated and adjusted. From a technical standpoint, this new method isn’t all that different in the end. The difference, and it is another world of difference, comes in the attention to detail and follow up that management is required to apply these days. That same difference requires a completely different level of awareness, interaction and input from every letter carrier assigned to a route. Even a couple of years ago, as long as a carrier kept busy somehow, their route was fairly safe from receiving an addition. Whether a carrier did office duties on street time or street duties on office time it didn’t really affect their route. It could have, but volume was fat enough that those details were enough of a priority. Nobody was really focusing on those little things. Now they are. Now it matters if you do street duties on office time. Now it can hurt you at evaluation and adjustment time. I’m going to try and explain this as clearly as I can. If I don’t make this clear enough please have a conversation with your local steward, a Branch Officer or just call me at the office to discuss this matter. Your office time is either your average for the evaluation period or standard office time, whichever is lower. When you perform street duties on office time, the first thing you do is shorten your street time that will be credited to the route. You shorten your street time because you’re performing some of those duties while on office time. If you’ve performed thirty minutes of street duties on office time, you’ve now cheated yourself out of thirty minutes of street time. Those thirty minutes don’t just get credited to office time.Why? Because it’s street duties time and street duties don’t get factored in to office time. If you were performing at exactly standard office time, aside from those street duties, your demonstrated office time will now reflect thirty minutes over (worse than) standards. If you were working an even eight hours per day your route will reflect a value of seven hours and thirty minutes. Those thirty minutes of street duties have now been removed from your route from the visible data reports because all you’ll get credit for is standard office time, nothing more. At route evaluation time that will make your route ripe for a thirty minute addition, absent any arguments otherwise. Therein lies the key – “absent any arguments otherwise.” Each and every carrier must be aware of the difference between office and street duties, of what’s being credited to the route as office or street, and how much time those duties are worth. When a consultation is done for the route evaluation, each carrier needs to be able to tell the route representative about each and every thing that affects the route, changes in office or street procedures, what has moved from office to street or vice-versa, what impacts that particular route that may not impact all routes, and anything else that may impact what time is required to complete that route. Office functions must be done on office time and street functions on street time. If you do not stick to this method, the employer will come looking to give you an addition. This reduction in volume is not a bad dream. This is not a drill. After all those years of the employer falsely crying wolf, the wolf is finally at the door. The wolf is in the form of a gasping economy, a drastic and continuing drop in volume and the focus on every possible minute of savings as a cumulative result of all these things bad. We must adapt to fend off the wolf and remain safe in our house, our job, our retirement. So now it’s time to adapt. Be a professional letter carrier. Be aware of the rules and regulations and follow them consistently. Be accountable for what your action or lack of action creates. Make your bed smooth and neat or be prepared to lie on the lumps that you have created. “You better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone.” Rise to the occasion once again, and proclaim for these changing times; “Neither snow nor rain nor gloom of reduced volume and change in focus on the evaluation of a route stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” I know we can accomplish this because we have to, for every other letter carrier, active and retired, and for everyone across this country that counts on the letter carrier to make his or her daily rounds. |