WTF

[Deer Smearer]

This post is spot on. I was in a meeting with s bunch of PMs who were complaining about issues with the plant and the district official who was running the meeting just shook his head and said (about the plant) “It’s like they work for a different company.”

And @Old Fart is exactly right: the goals /objectives of the plants currently do not align with the goals/objectives of the offices they (supposedly) serve.

I did forestry work in another life.

Often compensation is based differently depending on the job.

Consultation
Timber cruise (estimating tree value)
Marking
Logging
Trucking
Sawmill

Three common ways of compensation were used.
Hourly
Board Feet
Net value

The landowner has the most to lose. Every hand that becomes involved affects the others. Each phase HAS to coordinate with the others.

An hourly paid timber cruise could estimate the value based on board feet, and the logger and trucker would like that. Pure volume, not value.

A tree could be firewood or half-sawn veneer. If the logger only gets paid by volume they will produce firewood.

The landowner wants the most $$$. The logger needs incentives to get the value from the tree not the volume.

In the post office hourly paid clerks have ZERO incentive to do things right the first time. Screwing it up and doing it over makes them more money.

There is nothing wrong with a rural carrier evaluated compensation system. But if DPS 86ppm is the standard then clerks need incentive to have it perfect. There should be financial penalties awarded to rurals for substandard product.

Another example would be illegible barcodes. Hourly paid employees enter them manually several times throughout the process. Why not. It’s money. A good barcode should be applied the first time a manually entered one is encountered. But no, that costs hours for clerks. Who suffers? Evaluated rural carriers.

 

[neciat]

You are asking why they don’t double count, even though they mishandled them and processed them more than they should have to pump up their numbers? Wait….

Although we do pay a price for missing the coverage factor, I think that’s mostly a non factor in why. I think it’s solely about maintaining utilization.

The plant doing plant things for the plant. Why do they run letters on the AFSM machines? I don’t know, as I have never worked in a plant, but they do without hesitation as many days I have over 200 “flats” that are in reality by dimension and postage, letters.

Perhaps that’s part of the answer. If we were honest about our volume inflows and processing, our utilization would be much worse and we would face even more immediate consolidations. Perhaps if volume and utilization were honest, other precipitous actions would also occur.

I believe in honesty for better or worse, but not everyone does.

No, I know the plant is its' own entity and beyond reproach. The travesty is Nationwide and has been going on unabated for decades now. I know they do whatever they can to run the numbers up and the workers " gotta get their 8" and " some overtime " . My question is where is the REPORT for the WSH and LOT mailings that ARE ran in DPS. They are / were no different than the same WSH and LOT that they once ran in FSS. The mailer's numbers were still available. Just because it is a letter does not make it exempt from being reported / recorded. This is so we can verify , validate, etc. our volume(s).