Postal workers and postal management are like oil and water. You can try to get the two to mix but they never really do because one of them is slimy and coagulates without bonding with the other. I will leave it up to your good judgement which one is which.

During the last 4 days, I have not been online that much and have been slow to respond to my messages and/or friends request. I run a side business of making sugar-free wedding cakes and I have been pre-occupied with that until Valentine's Day. After February 14th, I will back on here on a daily basis.

I was reading Carrie's blog about her awful supervisor who displays an attitude that shows blatant arrogance bordering into the dark side of contempt. A typical attitude of a supervisor or any management that has NEVER worked in the craft field and claims that they can "do a much better job" than those of us whom they view as lowly pond scum.

Before I joined the P.O., I was in management myself - in the restaurant business - not the P.O. When I first joined the Postal Service, I thought about going into management myself but during my probationary period, I knew that would not be an impossibility. First, I saw those back-stabbing brown-nosing leeches becoming my co-workers. Second, the NALC, APWU and NRLCA would pounce on me for crossing crafts - because, outside of the P.O., a true manager would help its employees. You CANNOT effectively manage an office from a desk or be playing on the internet after the carriers leave.

So as a humble postal clerk and fellow pondscum ( a college educated pondscum, but still pondscum because I don't believe in desk-diving), here are my four approaches to avoid as an effective postal manager and my four approaches to embrace as postal manager.

FOUR APPROACHES TO AVOID

I will make this as brief as possible because finding negative things about people is too easy. The negatives are how are back-stabbing workers become more successful.

DECEPTION

A good manager builds upon honesty and sincerity. Great place to start! When you are in management, a built-in authority exists just because of your position. Managers with brains and power are common and so are managers with popularity. A true manager has Integrity and Skill coupled with security. Deception creates suspicion. Once deception is noticed - the thin wire that holds everything together snaps.

FLATTERY

Few characterisistics reveal one's insecurity more than this. Managers quickly lose respect when they are people pleasers. They can't even respect THEMSELVES. The best brown-nosers to climb management ranks with no skills at all! I am just a piss-ant postal clerk and I don't know the secret to success, but I know the secret to failure - try to please everyone!

GREED

We all can see the people-pleaser, but greed can be hidden. What a motivational cancer is greed. Greed goes beyond normal human competition. With wicked determination, this ruthless bastard claws its way to the top ruining the lives of its workers below them. No matter what they have, nothing is never enough.

AUTHORITARANISM

Unfortunately, it is human nature to flaunt our power around. Managers fall into the trap of flaunting their weight around and expect kid-glove treatment. The real workers in the P.O. ignore it, but the backstabbing brown-nosers glom onto it.

Enough about the negatives. - there are positives ahead in this blog.

FOUR APPROACHES TO EMBRACE:

SENSITIVITY TO NEEDS

Managers and supervisors who do their job best are those whose attennae are honestly attuned to others. And knowing that information, they operate from a sensitive vantage point that weaves wisdom and understanding into the fabric of their postal station. True supervisors can spot what isn't said, as us stewards that grieve against them.

REAL AFFECTION

This one is easy, no matter how disciplined or determined you are, fond affection is an invaluable tool. You convey that your carriers and clerks mean something to you.

AUTHENTICITY

A manager who manages must demonstrate this and it requires authenticity. They must practice what they preach. The popular, yet totally wrong, image of a manager with a horrible Clairol-dyed comb-over hairstyle who is the aloof, tough-minded, tough-talking executive who works in untouchable, sophisticated secrecy and points his NBC manicured finger to someone and says, "You're Fired!" Biggest LIE on the face of the planet - next to Kevin Trudeau's ".....Things THEY Don't What You To Know About!" The best supervisors I ever known had expressed their true emotions. When they were hurt, they cried. When they were unsure, they said so. When they were disappointed, they were honest about it. When they struggled, they admitted it. They were people to me and earned my respect even as a union steward.

AFFIRMATION

Most of our supervisors get a "chubby" over oppressive, relentless harrassment instead of the "you-can-do-it" confidence of a true manager. This may be a weak analogy, but it is the best I can come up with. I am not married and don't have children so I will use my dad in this example. I was a running back on my high school football team almost 20 years ago at McDonough HS in New Orleans. I could rarely hear my dad's voice over the noise at the stadium but every once in a while I could truly hear him. He was always encouraging and knew our HS playbook as well as I did. The short version was that he would say, "Move the ball down the field" or "Slip between the bigger players, you are the short and fast runner." My dad would have never considered yelling "Take that Jew outta there! He sucks! I am better than him and the rest of that damned football team! I am superior and above the rest of those grunts!" Of course not! Like my dad, supervisors and managers should never attack and condemn those below them - they should believe in them no matter what.

And so it is with good managers.

I apologize for the length of this message. Once I got got started, I couldn't stop - but don't blame me.

It's all Carrie's fault =)

Of course that's not a real book but if good ol' Orson decided to write it - I would lend him a hand with my own observations as a window clerk.

During the last week I read blogs on here about Bad Mail Counts and another about Favoritism. I have seen both of those occur at the station I work at. Last year, the Denver GMF installed more automated mail sorting machines and shortly afterwards, auditors invaded the station to conduct mail counts. My drinking bud, Barry, went through this last year. Essentially, his route was cut down from a 47K to a 41J - that is pretty hefty pay cut he took. All the rural routes in this office were cut - except one - here is where the favoritism part comes in. Management let one rural carrier conduct his own mail count with no supervisor present. A grievance has been filed over that issue! My response to Beth's "favoritism" blog will be the same on here. It is more poor management than playing favorites. This sole troublemaking carrier just yesterday yelled at the supervisor, "I'm black AND a disabled veteran - try to fire me!!" He just walked away laughing because he knows that management is afraid to take action. Meanwhile, this dude is making more money than the rest of his hard-working rural carriers.

For the steward or local president fighting grievances is becoming more difficult - with decreasing funds toward locals and more funds going to the National level. I mentioned NRLCA, but I see this going in the APWU as well. One change that has taken place was when the Transformation Plan of 2006 determined that the Post Office should be run as a corporate capitalist for-profit business. Unfortunately, this attitude has spilled its way into our unions as well. Looking at what corporate capitalist ideals have done to the American economy and the situation of the working class, corporate capitalism and unions are not compatible. It also reflects the attitude of the Jack Potters, Donnie Pitts and William Burruss at the time- concentration of power. Corporate capitalism is all about concentrating power at the top and taking from the workers. At the same time, less and less information is being diseminated to the workers paying their dues. Less bulletins and magazines are being printed and websites operate without an update for several weeks.

I am concerned  about a union leadership that tries to manage me and influence my perception, as opposed to providing me reality. A union leadership that tries to benefit from me, rather than through me. At one time, the majority of the national union's funding flowed directly from the membership. Now, our postal unions have a lot of income from other sources - selling  health and life insurance, uniforms, this plan, that plan. I wonder if that has anything to do with my perception that I am being exceedingly managed, rather than represented.

The unions need to go back to their democratic roots because like the declining of the USPS, it will be destroyed by the weight of its top heavy administration. One of our major problems is the vast disparity between the incumbents and the challengers  in their chances of getting elected. The challenger's small window of opportunity is to have a tiny article printed in the national magazine and that  accomplishes nothing when compared with the month after month exposure granted incumbents at the expense of the members.

Kudos all of my fellow stewards and local union officers who stick the necks out for democracy in the P.O. while the nationals are no help on what the members need and the coordinators desire.

Will the change come before I retire? I don't wish to die young and won't hold my breath.

The title of my blog is "I Love You Miss Ethel" in Cajun. No, she is not my girlfriend or lover in anyway. Ethel is a sweet woman who offered me my first full-time job when I moved to Colorado in 1988. Ethel was born in New Orleans, lived in Picayune, Mississippi when she was 5 until she was 8 yrs. old  and moved to New Orleans when she 9. It felt so good at the time when I was new to Colorado that a New Orleans "native"was nearby.

When I moved out here at 17 on a scholarship, I was new to Colorado and snowy weather and just about everything in this environment. I applied for a cook's job from an ad in the Rocky Mountain News. That was when I first met Miss Ethel. My first impression was I saw always smiling. 20 years later, she would be a regular customer in the line at P.O. where I work. Always with that big smile.

Why that love-filled smile all the time? Ethel knows something! Stories like this have been told before, but Ethel knows something.

Miss Ethel ran one of Denver's few soul food restaurants here. There is article/video in today's Denver newspaper about her - click here - http://denver.rockymountainnews.com/multimedia/20080127_ETHELS_51222/ - Ethel operates a small business here with a lot of love.

The woman in the video, Beth Moore, did what I used to do. My problem, at first, was hearing comments like, "what's the Cracker doing up in here?" Eventually, the regulars became used to me thanks to Miss Ethel's insistance. I had to work twice as hard being her first "honky hire" but she trusted me.

I was working for poor wages but it paid my rent and I met so many wonderful people that I would have never met if it weren't for Ethel. Many of Denver Broncos were turned on to her neckbones and chitterlings. No matter how much melanin you are both with, if you are from K-Town (New Orleans) - soul food is like comfort food. The food reminds of of what your mother or grandmother used to make. Red beans and rice, fried chicken and chess pie, chit'lins with hot sauce and okra with cornbread. This kind of food, although not dished out on fancy china is still made with love. There's definitely a difference to the taste of food made with love. It beats any fancy steak and lobster you can buy where the money-grubbing yuppies dine. This is how all those guys back in the days of housewives knew they were loved - they opened their lunchboxes, and could taste it!

Miss Ethel had a unique gift of seeing the song in her customer's heart and could sing it back to them - even if they didn't know the words. And she always had the wide smile on her face no matter what was going on in life.

This is what Ethel knows - "you give one thing to the people ( her free Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners) and you get get five things back.

This is what Miss Ethel knows. You get back more love than you give.

That is why she is always smiling.

Today is Monday and I am amazed how slow it is at the window today. My brothers and sisters whipped the mail out to the carriers in record time but when it was time to go to the window my day started dragging and it was soooo boring today - even the supervisor's crack cocaine fell asleep. Yes, I am kidding, my boss doesn't do crack - it would mix poorly with his Ritalin.

I suppose I have done something more productive like sort through the NOVM or work the backlog of "paper dolls." Nope, not me! Instead I was thinking of my top ten ways to pass the time.

- I could superglue a quarter in front of the pop machine and watch the fun.

- Or park my car next to the post office, put on a pair of sunglasses and hold a blow dryer out the window to see how many LLVs screech to a halt.

- Or maybe I could put a "Gay Pride" sticker on the back of the Postmaster's car.

- Or slap random co-workers and tell them to stop grabbing my ass. 

- Tape segments of Sweating to the Oldies over those boring standup videos."

- Tell your customers, "I have every CD that Britney Spears ever recorded!"

- Pretend the scanner is a cellphone and talk into it.

- Write "X - BURIED TREASURE" at random spots on the carrier's route maps.

- While walking an aisle, push an invisible "U-Cart" and make loud squeaky noises.

- Or follow the postmaster closely and spray everything he touches with Lysol.

Well, as you can tell I had an uneventful day - and how your Monday?

I usually post silly blogs, but this blog is a true story unfolding at my post office. I use the term "Stalag 80123" because it rolls off my tongue easier than "Hell with Flourescent Lighting."

There are those who strongly like or dislike workplace romances - your opinion is your own. This one involves a rural carrier and a city carrier where I work. The rural carrier is my drinking bud, Barry. Both of us are the only token Jewish postal workers in Littleton and we both have the same warped view on life. When Brittany started working here a little over two years ago - my friend Barry saw her. He said he knew the first moment he laid eyes on her that she was the one and he tried to do anything to meet her.

Barry had a plan which only a creatively-bent person would think of. We don't think like normal people do. He bought a bud vase at the local Goodwill and glued a magnet on the back of it and stuck it on her letter case. Brittany was probably thinking, "what the f*** is he doing?" but she left it there. Every morning, Barry would buy a single red rose and put it in the bud vase. Eventually, Brittany caved in and started dating my friend Barry. At work, he would borrow those "interoffice envelopes" write her name on them and stuck little love notes in them and place them on her workstation. Brittany had a mirror near her letter case so he would write an "I Love You" note backwards so she had to look in the mirror to read it. And, of course, because I am his good friend and an ex-chef - I would cook dinner at his house and bust a hasty retreat before Brittany showed up so they could have dinner together.

But that was when the problems started. At first Barry was nervous because he is Jewish and Brittany is a Christian and he thought she wouldn't accept him. Then the tongue-wagging of our co-workers began. Brittany was seperated from her ex, but still legally married. Her ex walked out her one day after she gave birth to their only child. Every P.O. has its gossip mill. When Barry and Brittany hugged each other in the parking lot more gossip started. Hugs are the universal medicine - no crime in that! Brittany's-ex finally granted an official divorce and Barry and Brittany are planning to wed on February 14th. Because Brittany is diabetic, I will be making their wedding cake - a strawberry/blueberry sweetened piece of art with no sugar (their request.)

This blog probably sounds sappy and corny to some but I do wish them the best. I know that most people in the P.O. are married and have children - but for those of us who don't - I suppose we still look at life through rose-colored glasses and I wish Barry and Brittany the best in life.

Mazel Tov, Barry & Brittany!

Mark