Without addressing the following two, basic principles, we continue to be the proverbial dog chasing its tail and going around in circles. Another hot, stress-filled, understaffed, pandemic summer has arrived. While USPS Headquarters has had ample time to fix these basic issues, they unfortunately struck out.
The first is CCA retention. Enough of the babying theory in order to retain a noncareer employee. USPS Headquarters needs to realize that, in certain high cost-of-living areas, it cannot retain these noncareer employees—even at $18.01 an hour—for various reasons. The cost of living in these population-dense areas is astronomically off the charts. Nobody wants to drive an hour-plus to and from work on a daily basis.
The USPS is paying big dollars in penalty overtime because of the lack of CCAs and PSEs. It’s a retention staffing issue—the current cost of doing business. The agency would rather pay overtime than hire a career employee and pay benefits. The USPS believes that, in the long run, it saves money. Regardless if that’s true, this practice doesn’t support customer service, which is why we all are here in the first place.