Greetings, Brothers and Sisters of the Satchel. CONSISTENCY can be your best friend, and INCONSISTENCY can be your worst enemy. I would like to give you a Steward's perspective of why consistency is so important. It has become painfully clear that postal management has an unwritten "Fourth Voice" that is much louder than the other three voices that we have heard so much about. That would be the voice of "coercion." Based on their actions, it appears that the Mid-America District embraces the premise that through excessive discipline higher productivity numbers can be achieved.

Have you received your proposed Letter Of Warning lately? If you are not one of the "good employees" (read rapid rabbit here) then you will likely be receiving one if you are INCONSISTENT where your route times are concerned, both office and street times.

They are going straight for the jugular folks. No progressive discipline, no just cause, no attempt to identify and correct a deficiency, no effort to help you improve your performance with constructive suggestions. This is unfortunate, but true. They are going back to your last Inspection or your last 3999 (Street Observation) then scrutinizing all the days you've carried since then searching for any time variances. They are not using a week's average or a Pay Period average or a monthly average (which in my opinion would be the fair way to do it), they are selecting single days with variances for as little as 2 minutes. You guessed it, proposed L.O.W. for "failure to perform".

Help defend yourself against this unscrupulous management style by being CONSISTENT. Case and carry your route every day as if they were walking with you. Until next time, thanks for allowing me this time. Be safe & be professional.