I was talking with my wife about the VER. She is a vice president in corporate America and has viewpoints I don't always see from my position as a letter carrier and webmaster. She said that some banking firms are laying off employees, and forcing remaining employees to work longer. She told me about one of her friends who is working until 9:00 PM at night. Many of these salaried employees feel compelled to work the extra hours because they fear getting laid off. She says this is an industry-wide corporate trend, and wonders if the Postal Service is doing the same. It got me to thinking about staffing at the Postal Service.

Staffing is a multi-faceted issue, and it's not fair to boil the issue down to just a couple of points. True, the Postal Service could shed a few workers, IF mail volume continues to drop. Personally, I don't think it's time to panic about volume until we see what it's like this fall. In years past, I have seen volume drop dramatically in summer. Remember, this fall, we have elections and all the political mail that goes with it.

I'm hearing from many areas of the country that overtime is down. That's good for the Postal Service, isn't it? However, the way the Postal Service has mandated employees to work overtime while refusing to hire new help in the past suggests the Postal Service had found a "sweet spot" where it was more economical to force overtime than to carry more people on the payrolls. But perhaps that sweet spot is gone now, and the Postal Service wants it back? If 20,000 to 40,000 employees take the VER, where does that leave the remaining employees - back to forced, mandated 10 to 12 hour days, six days a week?