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Category Archives: life in general

The plight of postal service everywhere

Yes, it’s another entry on the postal system.  I like the postal system, okay?

I read this article.  It makes me really sad.  And I’m afraid the article may describe the sentiment of a lot of people in the US and so I’m afraid of what it might mean for the future of the USPS.

Canada Post employees recently went on strike to protest a dramatic wage cut.  In response, management locked them out and so Canada hasn’t had a functional mail system for about three weeks.  And now people are saying that maybe they don’t need the postal system anyway because there’s email.  Well, I don’t know the ins and outs of Canada Post.  I don’t know the details of the strike or the subsequent lockout.  I do know that a lot of my Canadian friends frequently complain about its reliability and delivery times.  Even in the midst of complaining though, they don’t want to do away with the postal system.  They just want the USPS to take over.  Apparently the USPS is the envy of the postal world?  I probably could believe that.

Anyway, according to the article, the sentiment among the vast majority of Canadians is that they no longer need a postal system and by going on strike, the postal workers have sealed their fate and showed everyone that they can live without the postal system.  People the reporter interviewed all seemed to believe that if they really needed to get something done, they could just go online to do it.

“I do all my communication through the Internet so I don’t miss the mail,” says Eddy Banakar, a manager of a high-tech company. “But the postal job is an uncomplicated job, and at the same time they get good salaries. So I don’t think people have much sympathy for them.”

So this is a quote that really irks me.  I agree that the postal job is “uncomplicated” in that you probably don’t need a Ph.D. to fulfill the job requirements, but that sounds really dismissive to me.  Just because the job is uncomplicated doesn’t mean that it isn’t important or that it’s easy.  Working as a “sanitation engineer” probably isn’t a very complicated job either, but it’s a really important job to society (thank you, employees of Waste Management) and it’s hard work.  The quote makes the guy sound like you have to be a manager of a high-tech company to be paid a good salary.  He probably doesn’t have to do a lot of manual labor.  So people with white collar jobs are the only ones who are allowed to have good salaries?  Hard, physical labor doesn’t count for anything, even when it’s vital to a functional society?  (Maybe the guy didn’t mean that.  Maybe the reporter took the quote out of context or spun it.  But still, it irks me.)

Also, postal workers have high stress jobs.  Can you do what they do?  I’ve mentioned before that the USPS does some pretty amazing stuff and so has my friend.  I assume that Canada Post has to do some similarly amazing stuff.  Maybe not as well, judging by the complaints, but Canada has a LOT of rural areas.  And how about the Yukon or Northwest Territories?  That’s like delivering things in Alaska.  That doesn’t sound easy to me.  And people in the rural areas of Canada deserve to get their mail too.  The postal workers are important and they deserved to be paid accordingly.

Important or not, maybe they are being overpaid.  I don’t know.  Corporations everywhere are strapped for cash right now and it’s true that people are utilizing their postal system in different ways now so that first class mail can no longer be counted to bring in the bulk of revenue.  Changes are probably necessary and the changes will probably hurt, but it doesn’t mean a whole postal service should be scrapped.

So…I’m campaigning again to save the postal system.  The USPS in particular, and other postal services will be a bonus.  Might I recommend swap-bot to you again?  Or if crafting is not your thing or is too stressful, how about postcrossing?  All you have to do is write a postcard, not even a full letter.  I think letters are ok though.  I’ve only sent one postcard thus far so I’m by no means an expert.  Or maybe you like to read and are out of interesting books to read?  Maybe you have too many books and would like to share them with people who would like to read them?  How about bookcrossing?  See?  Lots of excuses to go support your postal system right now.  You should definitely go do it.

Motivation and I had a fight

So…I think motivation and I had I fight.  Motivation is giving me the silent treatment.  Inspiration might also be giving me the silent treatment, I’m not sure.  I think maybe inspiration just took the weekend off.  I hope it’s only the weekend and not like…a month or something.  What is this, Europe?

Anyway, how about this post from a long time ago from another blog?  Huh?  It’s actually kind of a problem right now, so I thought it was fitting to post it again.  Oh, and also sleeping through my alarm/turning my alarm off in my sleep.

I was minding my own business mid morning yesterday. I was a little late that morning and I was reflecting on that and decided that the only recourse is to just get up when my alarm rings the first time. Then I would have plenty of time to do whatever I needed to do in the morning and still get to work on time, just like that quarter in high school when I would roll out of bed and stay out of bed right when my alarm rang. That’s when it hit me. The snooze button is not my friend. It never has been my friend. It probably will never be my friend. All these years when I would hit the snooze button for another 5-10 minutes of sleep has not done be any good. It’s only created mad rushes in the morning as I tried to do everything that needed doing before leaving for my destination. The snooze button has only caused anxiety and tardiness in my life. I feel so betrayed.
That being said, I hit the snooze button twice this morning and I was late for work again.

And also, this comic by Nedroid: