Rain, snow, laziness stop postal deliveries
October 28, 2008 by Shane BorerPosted in: "Seemed like a good idea at the time", "Would you want this person in Finance?", In this week's e-newsletter, Latest news & views
Ever felt like you couldn’t handle all your work in the small amount of time you have? This might be the solution you’re looking for.
Jill Hull, a former Detroit postal worker, was recently charged with stealing and storing thousands of pieces of mail in a unit just outside the city. Over the course of three-and-a-half years, Hull amassed a collection of more than 9,000 items, all because she couldn’t handle the amount of work she was given.
When she was unable to deliver the mail on time, she’d keep the leftovers in her car. Eventually, letters piled up to the point where she needed an entire storage unit to hold the undelivered items.
Hull didn’t have a regular route, and instead picked up the routes of sick or vacation mail carriers. Since she’d move from one route to another nearly every day, most people never caught on that they were missing their mail. She’d made timely payments on the storage unit for months, but fell behind. When storage operators opened the unit to remove its contents, they discovered Hull’s cache.
As for when the built-up mail will finally be delivered, the Postal Service’s Office of the Inspector General isn’t sure. Because the mail is evidence in a pending criminal case, it could be months — if not years — until the letters reach their destinations.
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Tags: Criminal case, Detroit, Mail carrier, Postal Service
October 31st, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Hey, in this case perhaps the phrase, “Your check is in the mail” may be accurate!!!
November 3rd, 2008 at 10:14 am
Can’t laugh for crying!! This confirms what I’ve felt was true in my area! We have about 3 or 4 different carriers on my route each week and often, I won’t get mail for days, then I’ll get a huge pile. One of the carriers is good…he actually DELIVERS the mail. The other carriers seem to just CARRY it around (hey, they’re “carriers” right…not “deliverers!”). If I do get mail, I typically don’t get it until after 5:30 or 6:00 pm unless the one good postal worker is on the route that day. Then it is waiting for me when I get home at 4:30. I don’t know what the problem is, but it’s obvious that there is one…and I live in a fairly large city, about a mile from the main post office. You wouldn’t think it would be that hard! This article explains the problem. Lazy, slow, unmotivated, uncaring (overpaid) worker who would rather rent a storage unit to hide the problem instead of just doing their job…
January 19th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
I would love to see you out there doing the jobs that hundreds of thousands of Postal Carriers do each day. When someone unfamiliar with a route has to deliver it, then yes, your mail may be late. I worked for a summer as a postal carrier, and let me tell you that I have a whole new respect for what they do. Also, if you are not getting your mail until 5:30 or 6:00 pm, then it is most likely because they are short staffed – whether due to people on vacation or people out sick. When they are short staffed, the carriers there will deliver their regular routes, then they will go back and get sections of those routes that there is no one to cover. Yes, I had to deal with people like you who complained because they didnt have their mail when they got home – without thinking that there could be a very good reason. What about a new person to the area? They may have a hard time finding where they are going. The majority of postal carriers work hard and do their job. I am sure you would not be out there in -27 degree weather walking from house to house to deliver mail. Just because there are a few bad eggs out there who are lazy is no reason to tar everyone with the same brush. I am sure that there are some “lazy, slow, unmotivated, uncaring (overpaid)” workers in your profession too.
January 22nd, 2009 at 4:27 pm
L.L. – Thank you for explaining that the vast incompetence at the Post Office is not the fault of the employees…