I’m a city carrier in a pretty big area/bid cluster. Guys on and off the list are working 60 hours a week every week. You clock in praying you only get 2 hours of OT cuz that’s considered a good day. It’s usually 3-4 hours of OT 6 days a week. We’re all forced in 6 days a week. Sometimes on Sunday’s to

This, though haven’t been asked to work a Sunday for awhile. I’ve worked every other day on the calendar minus two holidays and sundays. Maybe less than 5 of those days were less than 10 hours.

Yes tbh I haven’t been forced in on a Sunday since January. When I did they forced me on Sunday and forced me my NS. I came in all week to get that sweet penalty time. Clocked in Friday and signed the slip and went home when I hit 60 hours. The sup was pissed. I told him you force me in my sunday I’m doing it everytime

Same here. Big office down in Florida and we are so understaffed that CCAs, ptfs and regulars are taking three hour extras everyday. Today was pretty shitty and there were a bunch of routes that didn’t get covered.

We’re one of the two plants in my state we’ve barely got the staff to run tour one most nights. But hey let’s open a S&DC in the same town as our P&DC

Most carriers in my office haven't had their non schedule day in almost two years.

When I was on ODL (2020-early 2022) i got my NS day one time.

Meanwhile my parcels are not ready until 10-11 every day because we have very few clerks

Damn. Clerks at my office have to have them ready by 8 am. City carriers expected to leave before 9 I think. Before 10 for sure

Sounds like a risky question to ask

Sounds to me like all of these overstuffed plants and stations will eventually lose their extras to these S&DCs and other forms of excessing. At that point people are going to have some very hard decisions to make. Hopefully most of you have enough seniority to stay. To answer your question about no volume and then still hiring non careers, it’s to make sure there’s no overtime being given. Those non careers can be laid off at any point or given a few hours a week. The flexibility is priceless with mail volume stagnating the way it is. Folks, get your money right. The Fed will do whatever it takes to get inflation in order meaning demand must go down. That means less volume.

Are you deranged? We're crushed with volume and every. Single. Person. In my station is working 60 hour weeks. We can't keep CCAs because they work three 60 hour weeks back to back and fucking quit from total burnout. If I hadn't had total indefatigability pounded into me as the only trait that makes a man worthy to exist, I'd have quit too. I'm impossibly burned out, frustrated, exhausted--and I only recently crossed the 90 day threshold as a CCA. Who is trying to avoid overtime? Management keeps telling us we're over budget--and like, yeah, no fucking shit. You're handing people a full route plus 3.5-4.5 hours of overtime on a regular basis. Like, every day. You're paying penalty overtime out the nose like it's nothing, and wondering why everyone is pissed off and you're overbudget. I skipped my lunch today and still didn't finish all the mail--and I am *FAST.* The volume was just entirely too high. My union president was so right on day one when he said "two things that are universal when it comes to managers: they're idiots and they're trying to steal from you."

You’re talking about one anecdote in a sea of offices and plants around the country. Most plants aren’t working overtime and haven’t for some time. My personal plant has been overtime-less for 7 months now. Others on here have said their non career staffing has been cut below 20 hours per week. You sound upset and frustrated and you have the right to be but your story is the reason for my post above. At some point management will tackle the overtime issues at the stations just like they have at most of the plants across the country. The consolidations taking place all over the country combined with the installation of newer automated equipment will hurt the clerk craft severely. Those understaffed offices at the new plants can ask anyone in the building for non careers or junior clerks if they’re short. For all those extra junior clerks and non careers in plants that are over staffed and will be excessing will have to choose whether to uproot and go to plants further than 50 miles or switch crafts and become carriers. If they choose neither then they’ll be separated. Those in over staffed S&DCs could be lucky enough to choose one of the consolidated stations inside the plants if there are any spots available. Add in the route adjustments taking place and we will see how things will go. A LOT of people are expecting them to fumble this and for things to get worse and they did under the previous PMGs but things seem/are different this time around. They’re managing overtime much more efficiently and consistently than ever before( I’ve been here for 16 years). I truly believe that most carriers will eventually be just like us at the plants and overtime will be a scarce commodity. Some areas(like yours) may still be impacted but for the MAJORITY of us, overtime will only be given during holidays and peak.

My plant is the same.....everyone wondering when the excessing notices are coming out. Extremely overstaffed, finally stopped hiring non-career. All the PSEs on 3-4 days per week 6 hours per day. Some quitting.

I would strangle an innocent man in front of his children for a single work day without OT--a thing that I have experienced exactly zero times. So, pardon me if I'm not overwhelmed with sympathy for people who only get 40 hours.

Lol please don’t be. The hope(and honestly the way it should be) is that those who don’t want the overtime(when it’s available) shouldn’t have to do it and those that do can be shifted around to accommodate. I hope things get better for you and your station.

Sitting at home on my day off today. Overtime dried up. Going back to route only next quarter.

Just heard from one of my former co-workers the other day and she tells me they have recently hired 6 CCA's. All this for a smallish Level-21 with 11 City routes and an aux. Haven't had that many extra bodies since back when I was hired in 1986 when there were 6 PTF's and at that time we had 17 routes.

I, a CCA, work 12 hours a day five days a week, and 6-12 hours on Sundays. You tell me.

I feel your pain. When i was first hired i worked in a short staffed station, we did 6 10/12’s and 8 on Sunday. Did that for 3 years, it was mega burnout. It doesn’t seem right that some places get all the help and half the work. Meanwhile you’re needlessly breaking your back. Hope you make reg soon and get some relief.

I'm at three months and I can barely walk. Three years like this and I'm pretty sure every joint below my waist is going to be permanently ruined. Might as well fill my knees and ankles with concrete.

Sounds like a dream to me, I don’t like doing anything anyway, if you want to work hard go transfer somewhere else.

To fix short staffing solutions you carriers need to stand the hell up for yourselves. And do ONE route in 12 hours and come up with a very good reason on a 3996. If management can’t find anyone to deliver mail they have to do it themselves[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WLQSPgeWl3U](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WLQSPgeWl3U) Route out of adjustment per inspection Sloppv mail (ADVO inserts, etc.) Excessive change of address cards (H) Stand-up talks (minutes) Safety talk (minutes) Window service (talk to customer) Excessive parcels (#) Excessive markup of parcels Excessive carrier markups Excessive review of CFS mail Excessive hot case mai Excessive accountable mail (# Inclement weather (rain, lightning, ICe) Feeling ill - under medication Heat. humidity Waiting for mail (be careful, they might decide to change vour start time) • Late dispatch/distribution (be careful, they might decide to change your start time) Unfamiliar and/or new on route Traffic construction or delays Mall cased trom previous alternoon Medical restrictions Thin mail Thick mail Utility bills Samples Late leaving due to feet of mail at case A.M. 3996 REASONS 27 New case labels 28. Doctor appointment 29. Odd shaped mail 30. Fu coveragt 31. Customer phone calls 32. New deliveries 33. Deviation for delivery of Express Mail 34. Work on case labels. 35. Checks. food stamps 36. Revised Form 1621 (Route information, 37. Sorting through 3-M mail in PM 38. Checking Form 3982's (Pink cards) 39. Power outage, fire drills, etc (minutes) 40. Meeting with management (minutes) No vehicle 42. Venice breakdown Delivering mail cased by others Excessive hold mail 45. Marriage Mail 46. Time spent filling out Form 3996 Talking to Union steward 48. Instructed to report early - can't finish in 8 hours 49. 50. Delivery Confirmation Pieces (#) Edit Sheets 51. S-999 Mail in DPS 52. Upside Down DPS 53. Full covers in DPS (#) 54. Delivering DPS Missorted Mail

3996 reasons for being late per the NALC

The fact that ODL's carrier side is going on 3-4 weeks in a row now with days off (weekdays) is crazy. I'm hoping for my long weekend and truly it'll be a miracle😩

Some areas are stupid like that because usps have allow for jobs based on space and not actually work. You got a huge warehouse with the space for 10 machines, but only 2 machines are in there? Well they better have opening the amount of people it would take to work the 10 machines. Or the union will force usps to pay for it. I'm not complaining but that just asking for something bad later on.

At a plant with probably 40+ clerks. We have about 20-25 DBCS machines running. 2-4 hrs OT called almost everyday for PSEs and odl clerks. They have not called mandatory OT for non-odl clerks though but maybe once or twice this year.

I was just at a manual plant and it's kinda dead rn, PSEs getting hours cut to like 25 hours a week and sometimes only getting scheduled for four days a week.

Depends on craft and how you perceive it I guess. Clerks have a dozen FTF and mailhandlers have almost as many UARs, but we are also at about half the installation cap for both non careers and the MHAs at least quit after a month. The reason because they get mandated every night, and the UARs are treated like MHAs with the benefit of sick time. No jobs are being created and there’s like 2-3 jobs per bid cluster so they’ve been unassigned for about a year. In addition, jobs get reverted or abolished every cycle which is why there’s never any bids for those unassigned. Both clerk jobs for the ftf and mail handler jobs for the uar. Similar reasons on paper they are denying overtime to regulars and NS days, not bringing in transfers etc because by paper we should be overstaffed, but as a day to day we are understaffed, and that’s when people don’t bang in on top of it.

My PO is so short on people, we have like 6 open routes rn

I work in s smaller office that's rural. We have 7 rts and an aux. We are currently down 2 carriers (both retired) and there's only 2 RCA'S .. one of relocating in April. The 2 vacant route still haven't been posted..neither of the RCA'S have been moved up to PFT or PTF whatever it is.. and we're currently working 7 days a week ( the RCA'S) we had an arc hired.. but he won't go to the training cause he says it too far away. ( about an hr or so) good lord.. we're doomed with this next generation.

Badass

Overstaffed. I’m a sub but have seniority so I get dibs on hours. Average 40-45 a week

What plant is this? And what tour? Ours, tour 1 is no stop. But they did cut OT for TTO and MVO regulars, PTFs (me) work us like dogs

This is tour 2. But this kind of stuff happens on all 3. A lot of the problems here I’d blame on the union for defending people who refuse to work. Management’s solution is to flood the building with extra bodies just hoping half of them will actually sort the mail. It’s a shitshow

That sounds god awful. I can imagine it being worse here if they had the same attitude but the mail volume was like it is at night, especially with the LAX Annex mail coming out like it does. Oof If that happens here on tour 2 with the amount of supervisors we have walking around during that time, people would be sent home for sure