Da Techguy's (no longer backup) Blog

Was at the post office today to quickly pick up stamps since I had a bill or two to pay. I noticed that the stamp machine was down. Fortunately there was no line so I was able to get my stamps quickly.

While there I asked how long the machine was down, the clerk told me that it was down permanently. The order came from on high to shut it.

This didn’t make any sense to me since it would make the normally long lines even longer. It didn’t make much sense to her either but that was the order.

On my way home I stopped at Romano’s Mkt and told the story to Mike. Since the guy who used to maintain those machines lived upstairs of the market he had interesting details to tell.

Apparently my local post office wanted to add another clerk to shorten the lines. As money is tight they needed to move someone to the clerk line. The fellow who maintains the machines was elected.

I asked why he couldn’t just fill the machines in the spare time? Well under the union contract the maintenance of the machine is classified as a full time position, the clerks can’t touch them. This had been a sweet deal for the fellow since it didn’t take 40 hours a week to maintain the machines so he was on easy street.

So the post office had two bad options to choose from: Continuing to give full time pay for part time work, or make him a clerk but eliminate the stamp machines. They choose the later likely figuring at least he would have to work for his pay.

Thus a foolish union rule made a government agency less responsive to the public while appearing as a positive on the accounting books.

As the public sector grows under this president expect to see a lot more of this efficiency all across the board.