USPS Leaders Need to Understand Front-Line EAS Employee Challenges
By Dee Perez
NAPS Northeast Region Vice President
Based on members’ shared concerns, EAS employees feel undervalued by their superiors. Given their daily responsibilities, they believe the USPS places all the blame for problems on them and expects them to bear complete responsibility for its $9 billion in losses.
During peak season, I received many emails and phone calls from EAS employees across many districts. Their concerns included:
Being required to attend Zoom meetings for 45-minute sessions multiple times a day, if not longer, when the discussion does not apply to their office. This makes it impossible to complete tasks in their eight-hour day after losing an hour and a half in Zoom meetings.
USPS leaders showing little to no understanding of or care about how busy EAS employees already are.
In Customer Service, the mail plant continues to deliver a product not according to the integrated operating plan (IOP). On Monday(s) or days after the holiday, the mail plant provides an additional trip carrying working mail that is not included in the agreed-on IOP.
This inconsistency makes an already difficult Customer Service job even more difficult and, at times, impossible to achieve Monday’s goals. Customer Service NPA suffers — not mail plant NPA. This is a significant problem of which USPS Headquarters is aware, but has not addressed for at least 36 years, if not longer.
It’s pretty certain if the USPS hasn’t addressed your issue for 36 years, then it’s not likely to be addressed now. This article is remarkable for the insight it gives us about management up the chain; dysfunctional and tone deaf. The writer doesn’t seem to know that no amount of pleading is going to move the needle here. What we do know is the EAS rolls are full of DEI hires ill suited for their positions. The writer also can’t seem to grasp why they’re working so many hours when it’s the same tactic they themselves try to use on hourly employees; why pay for something when you can get them to do it for free.