The Post Office

Well, it's been no secret that the United States Postal Service has been having financial issues over the last few years.  The widespread use of e-mail, text messaging, and online bill paying has really cut down the need for people to send actual, phyiscal letters through the mail.  This is compounded by the fact that the Postal Service as a business cannot implement any policy changes without the approval of congress, making it near impossible for us to adapt to the changing landscape of the delivery scene.  As you may have noticed, getting congress to agree on generally ANYTHING is usually facilitated by an act of God.

As a result of this, and several YEARS of arguing our case before congress, congress has FINALLY decided that it would be best for the postal service to go down to five days of delivery a week.  Starting in August, the Post Office will no longer deliver or pick up mail on Saturdays.  Packages and express mail will, however, still be delivered on that day.  At this time it is unknown how this will affect business, but it is projected to cut a large chunk out of the losses that the Postal Service is currently experiencing. 

What does this means to you, as the everyday, average Joe out in the world?  Probably not much.  You will no longer be able to send off anything on Saturdays either by going to the post office or through your own mailbox.  This is not likely to be much of an inconvenienc to most people, as most people these days are using other, faster mediums to send things along.  If you're expecting a package, it will still be delivered.  And the Post Office has been closing at noon on saturdays for the last fifty years, so there's not much being missed going in to the office personally to send things off.

What does this mean to me as a "part time" postal employee?  At the moment, nobody knows for sure.  As I have the most seniority amongst the "part time" employees at my particular post office, I will likely keep my job.  However, there is talk of stripping my route down and dividing it up amongst other routes and puting me back on filling in for days off and delivering packages on saturday.  At the time being, there is a lot of union negotiating going on, and it will probably continue to go on well past the august deadline.  For the moment, I am not sure if I will have a job past August.