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The life of a retired person is never easy. You have to contend with boredom and a slow pace of living. While before you needed to hurry up to do this and do that, now it is a slow lifestyle that challenges your ability to create and invent. As for boredom, it would creep in every now and then, especially when you have nothing else to do on a particular day. You've cleaned the backyard, watered the plants, cleaned the house, what else is there to do. Maybe take a nap. Or do other things like read a book or learn how to cook. Why not? It's a matter of being creative or re-inventing your lifestyle, moulding it to the life of your choice. What is rewarding about retirement is you have your whole life ahead of you that is ready to be moulded according to your taste. Nothing is controlling you now, not even the clock which had been your"master" for so many years. For the first time, I'm savoring the freedom to do anything that I like doing which I feel is an achievement and an accomplishment. No one looks from behind to tell you what to do or "supervise" your every move. No conflicts of any kind, except perhaps the conflict of selecting what work or activity to do first. In a way, the early days of retirement suit me fine. Each day is like a month or a year that moves ever so slow...
"Two roads diverged on a yellow woods, and sorry I could not travel both..." so goes a famous Robert Frost poem. It's about what a traveler did when faced with choice or a decision to be made, what road would he take. While on vacation which by far was the best that I took, I made a life-changing decision to retire for good. I took the road to retirement over a choice of returning to the same work of delivering mail. I found out it's by far the better choice to slow down in life and choose the path to retirement. While my work is the best that one could ever have in this country, which is one reason why most postal employees stay in their jobs for as long as they could and making it hard for them to pause one day and think if this is all that they would do the rest of their lives, I made a decision that is just as fair. I retired for good. I am reinventing my life and taking on a new career and I feel good about it. So I will no longer deliver mail. I will no longer wake up so early in the morning, prepare for the long commute to the post office where I used to work. I will no longer face the daily pressure and excitement of preparing the day's mail for sorting and delivery. I will surely miss the daily drama at the working area, where you have to keep on adjusting to the varying degrees of personalities and behavior of co-workers on the floor. Gone will be the daily interactions with the assigned supervisor on how to do a job of mail delivery better and how to make a better estimate of time that should be spent in the office and in the street. I will surely miss those things. And of course, the customers on my former route will also wonder where their regular mailman is. Anyway, things are things and sooner or later, everything will be back to normal and everything will be in their proper perspective. Life goes on. As for me, I'm gonna enjoy my retirement from the post office.
I'm still on vacation in an island-country in the Pacific and it's refreshing to know that the air there is fresh and clean. My customers on my route must be wondering where their regular mailman must have been. Why the long absence? Well, it's one of the perks of this job. You have an employer who sees to it that its employees are given the best of care in terms of providing work benefits that are second to none. Having worked for this outfit for quite a long time now, I was pleased to learn that I could have five weeks straight vacation -- all paid. What more could you ask for? So I took advantage of it and here I am in this beautiful country where the people are friendly and the cost of living is still affordable. The food is absolutely delectable and cheap. Bus fares are way too affordable that you can go to various places in the country and still have more to pay for your hotel or lodging. But in the midst of this uninterrupted rest and relaxation, I sometimes get this gut feeling that I need to go back soon and deliver mail. I'm sure my "moves" are piling up now, especially so if they are not taken care of by the replacement carrier. I wonder who my replacement carrier delivering my route at this time. But then, I still have confidence in the ability of my swing carrier to deliver the job. I know she will not let me down in my wish to give the customers on my route the best of care. She's a capable carrier and I've known her for a long time now. And so, I put my thoughts back to to where I am in this vacation and set aside for a while the rigors of work at the post office. I'll just finish this glass of coconut juice and I am off to my next tourist destination.
When you deliver mail, it is a given that there will be "interruptions" from the mailing public. These "interruptions" come in the form of inquiries or requests that you accept their outgoing mail for delivery. Also, you'll be approached by a concerned customer who's worried about a check that has not arrived, and so you'll be asked if you are the mailman of their apartment complex and when are you going to deliver their mail. While it may be irritating at times, as you are interrupted in your work, you feel it is part of your job to respond to customer requests and inquiries while out there deliverig mail. Sometimes, I would disappoint a customer for interrupting me, especially when I am already running short of time in my delivery. I would say, Ma'am (or Sir), I am running late. I cannot answer your question or do your request. Please call our office if you need assistance or answers to your question. Almost always, the customer will heed your response and will not insist. He or she will allow you to continue with what you are doing. These occurrences only affirm my belief that whenever a mailman goes out of the post office and appear on the street to start with his/her mail delivery, the value of this presence before the American public can never be underestimated. Just an example: On my route, one day, I just finished putting mail in an apartment complex and I was about to pull out and drive to my next mail stop when a car driven by a woman stopped by my side and the driver was motioning to me to stop. I looked at her and she bent her face forward to her passenger window as if she was about to talk to me about something. I opened the left window of my LLV and listened to what she was going to say. She was asking me in a raised voice if I already delivered the mail for her apartment. She mentioned the address of th apartment and I told I just delivered mail to their apartment complex. Then she requested if I could open her mailbox since she had no key to her mailbox. That day that the conversation with this woman happened was heavy-volume day, with third bundles and coupons included in the mail that I was to deliver to my route. Expectedly, I was always rushing with my delivery on every mail stop or swing. The swing that I just made to her apartment was no exception. I was always in a hurry to get to my next delivery stop in order to finish my work on schedule. But the woman's request was sincere and she really meant what she said when she told me she had no key and she had not picked up her mail for several days now. Then I remember a mailbox in that apartment where the mail has not been picked up in weeks. I thought she was the owner of that mailbox. So I told her to go to the mailbox area and I would go there to open her mailbox. So she drove away and I parked the LLV once again, got out and walked to where the mailbox area was . When I got there, I opened her mailbox after she presented her ID to me. I had to apologize to her as I was emptying her mailbox of its contents d that as I would just hand her mail as I grab them from the mailbox since I was in a hurry and I was already running late. Fine, she said. When done, I closed the mailbox panel and was ready to leave. Meanwhile, she gathered all her mail, shook my hand and thanked me for opening her mailbox. Apparently, she just moved in and the owner of the apartment has not provided a mailbox key to her. At any rate, I told her to feel free to ask me to open her mailbox until such time that she has the mailbox key. I also told her of the approximate time that I always deliver mail in that apartment. I left with a good feeling that I completed a good deed for a customer. I thought whatever time I "lost" was worth it.
In a way, a customer on my route was saying goodbye to me the other day when she interrupted me from my delivery work and handed to me a piece of paper. "I'm moving out, Mr. Mailman, "she said, "and here is my change of address." It contained her present address, her new address, and the date of her move. The note looked more like a message to me, telling me that she's leaving the retirement community any day now and she personally handed it to me to emphasize perhaps, that she was keen on getting her mail forwarded immediately to her new address. She is already a widow, and so she's moving out alone. I remember how she disliked receiving third class mail addressed to her deceased husband. She would take pains in writing "Deceased" on the envelopes and would put them back in the outgoing mail to be returned. Sometimes, I would just not put her husband's third class (BBM) mailings to her mailbox when I'm delivering mail to the building, having been aware that her husband had passed away. But there were times when I would forget about it and so, third class mail for her husband still got delivered. But it was nice of her not to berate me for doing so whenever she sees me putting mail in the mailboxes located at the hallway inside the building. In fact, she would even greet me with "Good Morning Mr. Mailman" or "How are you, Mr. Mailman?" To which I would reply: "I'm fine, Ma'am" or "I'm fine, thank you." When customers greet you as they see at your work, it is an uplifting feeling. You come to a sense of realization that you've earned their respect and that they recognized your valuable presence as you bring them their mail. This customer who is now moving out is no exception. She is nice and she is gracious. I told her to just sign the change of Address (COA) card that I showed to her and I would transfer all the details of her move from that piece of paper to the official post office form 3575. And her mail would be forwarded without delay.
We're currently having vacation sign ups being coordinated by our local union officers. This is the much-awaited event being looked forward to at the beginning of the year by almost all letter carriers. This is when we choose the week or weeks where we schedule our vacation periods. Those carriers in the higher seniority can have four to five weeks of available paid vacations. That's one of the perks of being the most senior on the job. Those whose seniority are in the lower bracket, which translates basically to fewer years on the job, will get either three or two weeks of paid vacations. At any rate, to be able to get away from the rigors of this job by way of a vacation is considered a golden opportunity by everyone. And where do mailmen go to spend their vacations? Sometimes, they talk about it when they return from their vacations. Some would join vacation cruises; others would go home to their home counries if they are not born here and visit their hometowns and loved ones they left behind. Others would just stay at home and do some inportant household repairs. Others would bring their families to vacation capitals and entertainment centers in the country like Las Vegas, Disneyworld, Reno, Atlantic City, etc. Some carriers are too humble to relate what they did on their vacations. They return after a week or two of being away from their job and all they would say is: they had a good time. Replacement carriers assigned to routes vacated temporarily by vacationing regulars are careful not to leave too much mark-ups for them. Whether they like it or not, they have to go through the mark-ups every now and then. Most of the mark-ups would involve letters whose addresses are incomplete, like the street numbers are inaccurate or the apartment numbers are missing. The familiarity of the regular carriers to the addresses of their customers living on their routes make them indispensable, which translates to them being around everyday to sort and deliver mail for their customers. But having this opportunity to enjoy a vacation period through our annual leave hours distributed to us before the sign up is one of the benefits of this job. It keeps us refreshed and ready to tackle the work of a mailman.
We spoke with authority the other day while it was raining cats and dogs. We delivered the mail despite the inclement weather. We spoke not with words but with our will and determination to ward off the onslaught of a nasty winter storm to bring the mail to our customers. We moved the mail on the streets of our respective routes without even wasting a word. Our subject is always the most authentic of all: service to our customers. There was no "grandstanding", no artful way of displaying our expertise. It was all hard work. We kept our pace. We walked naturally, back and forth, from one swing to another, to our vehicles to get more mail to deliver, and all the time, it was raining and raining and raining. But we did our job, and we spoke with authority, not with words but with our will and determination. Thus we can say, we are the effective speakers. At the same time, we are letter carriers.
We were drenched the other day delivering mail. A nasty winter storm blew by and literally unnerved our composure. From the parking lot where we parked our postal vehicles to the streets where we delivered the mail, we were soaking wet -- us and the mail. However we tried to protect the mail from getting wet, it was a losing battle as the rain and the wind came in torrents all day. However, there was an idea that flashed in my mind as I was loading my LLV with mail --- DPS, residual mail and parcels big and small. Why can't the post office put a roof over the parking area where we park our postal vehicles? Look at the immediate benefit of this idea: the mail will not get wet during a rainy day as we unload the mail to our vehicles from the hampers. The loading process usually takes about thirty to forty-five minutes, depending on the volume of mail and parcels that you are carrying on any given day. It takes longer to load up when you have those thick third bundles of ads on Mondays. But having a roofed parking area will be an added convenience and mailmen pushing their hampers to their postal vehicles will not get drenched when it is raining outside. As it is, the parking area is not covered. Thus, those mailmen whose route parking spaces are located away from the building face the grim prospects of getting drenched to the bone during rainy days. And to think that they haven't started delivering yet and they are already soaking wet. Another area of the post office where a roof is an imperative is the place where we unload the outgoing mail that we collect from our routes. It is still not safe from the rains. If it rains in torrents, the outgoing letters will get wet or become damp, thus making the stamps on the letters lose their "sticky-ness". These stamps might even fall off eventually. Result: the stamp-less letters will be returned to the sender. Is having a roofed parking lot for postal vehicles and an extended roof for collected mail a bright idea? I guess it is.
With Christmas over, we're now feeling the pressure off our back, the pressure to deliver every piece of mail -- especially Holiday parcels -- to our beloved customers. We've done it but then, more work ahead. We're now in the process of unloading and delivering the IRS forms, to be used by the American public to file their income tax returns. There's really no end to the heavy work that we do at the post office. But with management leading the way in tackling the many challenges of mail delivery, nothing is impossible. These middle management officials are very receptive to change and to suggestions on how to accomplish things. That's encouraging. Also, they listen to complaints and tips on how to produce quality work at less cost, how to simplify the work process and unify the work force to cut in half the time involved to process the mail. One thing that has improved somewhat is the involvement of everyone on the work floor to cut down the volume of noise that sometimes affect the quality of work of postal employees. It can't be denied that the advent of the Christmas season necessitates the injection of tolerable noise and revelry in the workplace, especially at the start of every morning session of work. But there are employees --- some are clerks and some are carriers -- who abuse the allowable tolerance that management and other employees can provide to this thing. In effect, this is when noise becomes an enemy of quality work on the floor; thus it has to be attacked and labeled as a damaging influence that adversely affects the kind of work that employees of the Postal Service provide to the U.S. mail. It should be remembered that sorting work in the post office needs absolute concentration in order that every piece of mail goes to where it should go. When this happens, all the efforts and hopes of the other employees in the mail processing system who work tenaciously so that the million pieces of mail should finally reach each corresponding post office would bear fruition. When noise is reduced to its barest level as allowed by post office rules, quality work is achieved and each mail piece is allowed to find its way ... to its rightful mailbox.
This story happened on my route a day before Thanksgiving. It was a day that started just like any any other day at the post office. Long line at the time clock area to start the day; parcel clerks already working on piles of parcels big and small to distribute them on route hampers arranged on the huge workroom floor according to "schemes." Pep talk from a group supervisor before vehicle check followed. It was the usual stand up about the work ahead. Mostly the talk referred to a general guideline on what to case and deliver and what to remain. Lately, we were really casing every mail that was lying around our case on any given day. We really "clean up" the case on a daily basis, so to speak. Most of the mail are magazine-sized bulk business mail (BBM) that we have to deliver right away, since this kind of mail sells a product to postal customers. Business clients would really want the post office to deliver their bulk business mail on the dates that they indicate on the catalogs. And the post office can only follow the wishes of their clients. So we buckled down to work, hoping that we could finish with our delivery work early and have time to prepare for the Thanksgiving holiday ahead. Although the hamper for my route was teeming with parcels, I was able to sort them out reasonably and I was able to pull down in a reasonable amount of time, although the scheduled MSP scans required of us to do would not work for me on that day. This scheduled MSP scans are in parallel to what a bus driver does: be at a certain bus stop at a scheduled time. This work of the bus driver is easy to do because he has only one job and one concern in mind: drive. For us, it is different. We have so many concerns leading up to the delivery of the mail. The scheduled MSP scan is just one of those concerns. Anyway, I was already in the thick of things -- on the street -- delivering mail for my customers. I just completed putting mail for the residents in a condominium and I was next at an apartment complex just a stone's throw from the condominium. So I unloaded the mail for the apartment from my mail truck, opened all the mailboxes attached to the wall and started to put the mail pieces to its corresponding mailboxes. All of a sudden, here was an old man who had arrived from somewhere and started to talk to me. He was breathing heavily. Apparently, he walked so fast coming to the mail area so he could catch up with me, as he was about to tell me something. At first I could not understand what he was saying. I had to stop every now and then from putting mail in the boxes, faced the old man and asked what was it he was telling me. By the way, this old man is a resident of the condominium where I just came from and delivered mail. I remember talking to him once when he approached me one day as I was taking my lunch in the area. He was baby-sitting a grandchild and we talked about life, mostly his life. He was an immigrant from South Asia, and he was a retired language teacher. He speaks with a thick foreign accent, but I was still able to understand him. I didn't notice anything about him that seemed odd. In fact, I admired the man for having retired from his line of work. And now, he's here in another country to enjoy life in the company of either his married son or daughter. And so on that day, at the time when I was just about three mail stops away from finishing my route, this old man told me that he mailed a letter today and placed it inside a convenience collection box located in the mailbox structure at the condominium. He said I just collected the letters earlier from that condominium, and he was asking me if he could get his letter back. Why? I asked. He said that on the address of the envelope, he forgot to write the country where it should go. Apparently it was an airmail letter with airmail stamps and it is going overseas. The old man was so concerned about the lapse when he wrote the address of the letter, he was worried it might go nowhere when the letter starts to be processed by the post office. To get an outgoing letter back, there are a number of steps to be followed, according to post office rules. In the past, we have to ask the customer who wants his/her outgoing letter back after it was mailed, to go to the post office and go through the process to retrieve the letter. In the meantime, we separate the tub of outgoing mail where the letter is supposed to be found, bring it to the post office and get the approval of a supervisor to look for the letter and give it back to the customer, while at the same time, a request for identification is done to prevent any miscues in the procedure. But the old man would have no time to go to the post office to retrieve the letter and just add a word to the address to make it complete. So I acted on my own. On that hour, I became the designated authorized officer of the post office, since I was wearing a postal uniform, and I went to my mail truck and retrieve the outgoing letter of this old man. I asked first for his name and the details about the address on the letter. I showed the outgoing letter and allowed him to write down the name of the country where the letter is destined to go. Once done, I put the letter back on the tub containing outgoing letters. The old man thanked me. He breathed a sigh of relief and he limped back to the neighboring condominium where he lives. What I did was a little off the established rules. But I was able to give a smile and a sigh of relief to an old man, who is now also a friend of a mailman, if not of the post office. While everyone has someone to be thankful for this Thanksgiving day, I unknowingly created an opportunity where I became a recipient of gratitude from someone a day before Thanksgiving.
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