Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
New And Overwhelmed | 4.5
22 Plays2 months ago
On this special short episode of the Postal Blue Podcast, episode 4.5 to be exact, entitled New And Overwhelmed we are specifically speaking to the new CCA's and PTF's that are coming into the Post Office. A lot of them are feeling overwhelmed and you don't need the stress. You always do what you can, and don't worry about what you cannot. We also speak to the more senior carriers and would like them to assist the coming generation of carrier or any craft for that matter. Let's work together and hope for glory.
#postalbluepodcast #postoffice #usps #nalc #apwu #mailcarriers
Recommended
Transcript
Promotion and Engagement
00:00:08
Speaker
Welcome to another Amazing Studios session. Subscribe to the Postal Blue Podcast on all streaming platforms and check out Amazing Studios on YouTube for video content. Also follow the Postal Blue Podcast community on X, formerly known as Twitter. We appreciate all the support we're getting and thanks for listening.
Introduction to Episode 4.5 for New Carriers
00:00:30
Speaker
What's going on everybody? It's your boy LA Styles aka A.
00:00:35
Speaker
ice here we are on uh another episode of the poster blue podcast that's right ladies and gentlemen we are on episode four point relax relax second number calm down please relax relax
00:00:56
Speaker
Thank you. Thank you. Before I was really interrupted, we are on episode 4.5. This is a bonus episode midweek bonus episode. I'm saying this episode is entitled new.
00:01:13
Speaker
and overwhelmed. This is strictly for brand new carriers, whether you have CCA or PTF, most likely within your 90 days, I'd say.
00:01:28
Speaker
30 days you might be alright, but 60 days you should be good, but this is definitely for those of you just anything lower than 90 days. And even if you've made it past your 90 days and still feel some type of way about something, this can help you alleviate a lot of things as well.
00:01:46
Speaker
Okay, new and overwhelmed is a midweek episode. So again, this is strictly for fast conversations, small talk, around 30 minutes, and then I'm out. Okay.
Communication and Procedure Issues for New Carriers
00:02:00
Speaker
So we had a situation, I believe yesterday, yesterday for a fact, right? Just discovered today.
00:02:09
Speaker
Now, this is not about fault, because the fault lays on both sides of this particular situation, craft and management.
00:02:18
Speaker
Okay, but this morning, right, a carrier loads his vehicle that was off yesterday. It's a regular carrier, loads his vehicle, finds a ton of mail and packages inside his vehicle, right? He did what he was supposed to do. He came right in, told management, Hey, I got this mail in my vehicle, which is what you should do. Hold on. Matter of fact, before I get into that,
Audio Quality Feedback
00:02:45
Speaker
y'all let me know how does my voice sound on these episodes right i'm still tweaking with my uh my mic settings and i'm trying to get it down it has some software that comes with it you know i'm saying so i'm trying to get it down so i don't sound ridiculous
00:03:03
Speaker
Um, so y'all gotta let me know. You know I'm saying you here for me. I'm here for you You really here for me, you know I'm saying but me to turn in the weed. You know, you know how they could be You know I'm saying but if you keep acting the fool is gonna go back to being me cuz my ego too big to be running around with you You know I'm saying I get more peace when it's just me. This is being real. Y'all let me know That's how it be. You know I'm saying hey keep it moving though. Oh
00:03:27
Speaker
before I go on the rant. So yeah, as soon as you experience that mail, paper, whatever it is in the back of your vehicle, in the vehicle, you need to go talk to somebody when you catch that blank. I'm just gonna be real with
Reporting and Seeking Help from Management
00:03:39
Speaker
you. If you go talk to somebody, hey, I don't know what this is, this ain't me. Yeah, for your new carriers. So that happened with a regular. Come to find out yesterday that mail was assigned to,
00:03:55
Speaker
a new PCF that's probably carried by itself maybe two, two days, two or three days, maybe three days at the very most, but probably like one or two days, right? Now, carriers, they do have something called breadcrumbs. They can go into BMS and you can look at a carrier, do their route, it was gonna show their scanner movement, it's gonna ping every 60 seconds. So it can show stationery time, all that. Anywho,
00:04:24
Speaker
So it shows him clock in, leave, get to the route. He was out there about 20 minutes, come back to the station for whatever reason, don't know. The same PTF was off today, so no one was able to talk to him. Cool.
00:04:39
Speaker
At the station, maybe five to 10 minutes, he leaves again, goes to the exact same spot he was earlier. He's out there for about 15 minutes or so, comes back to the station, then the scanner never leaves the station again, right? So it looks like he was clocked in, or he was on the street, slashed between the street and the station for about an hour, 20 minutes, from nine, from about 10 o'clock to 11, 20.
00:05:04
Speaker
Now, we don't know what was the situation with this carrier as no one has been able to speak with him about that. So that mail and packages was found this morning. Now let me talk to you new carriers.
Managing Overwhelm and Emergency Procedures
00:05:16
Speaker
If anything, and I do mean anything, comes up on the street where you feel like you can't do anything or can't do something or can't do whatever the case is.
00:05:30
Speaker
your first line leaders you should be contacting your trainers seeing if they can help you if there's some type of confusion on the street contact your trainers if you can't reach your trainer about whatever it means contact your steward they might be able to assist you if they can't they might be able to get in contact with your trainers
00:05:51
Speaker
um that's just if it's regulatory issues if you can't reach your uh your trainers or can't reach a steward you might be also able to reach out to the safety captain if you cannot reach none of those three uh titled in the visuals
00:06:07
Speaker
Um, again, you can also contact management. You should be able to contact management, really your supervisor and see what's going on and see if that person can help you, whether it's over the phone or coming to the street to check on you and give you direction on what's going on or what the problem might be, or maybe, uh, assist you in fixing the problem. Okay. Um, that's what you knew people.
00:06:35
Speaker
Relax. Sometimes it seems like a lot when you get by yourself. You're not alone, although you are alone on the street. You're not alone. Do not get overwhelmed to the point if you plan on keeping a job and being here a long time. Do not get overwhelmed to the point where you will put yourself in a predicament of leaving mail. That is a very bad and terrible offense you can get in a fireable slash removable offense that you can get.
00:07:03
Speaker
by leaving mail unprotected. But again, not to lose sight of the side note that is on the craft side, which is the carrier and it is on management side for not catching that. I don't think anybody seen that person leave or anything like that. So
00:07:22
Speaker
Um, don't nobody really know again what happened, but we've seen some type of things happen before. What cares get overwhelmed and then they leave or they feel like it's too much. And then they come back and whatever they see is, take a breath, take a breath.
00:07:38
Speaker
and continue if you don't feel by the end of your training if you don't feel comfortable being by yourself maybe you should say something let your trainer know like hey man you know what you think i can get another day you know what i'm saying or you think i can get another two days of training with uh with you or whatever the case is let the trainer speak on your behalf hey man i talked to the uh my trainee he still say he don't feel comfortable uh being by himself do you think i can get another day or two with him
00:08:08
Speaker
Most would probably say cool, whatever the case is. Most, I mean, some would probably say no, but then they run the risk of something happening, it being on them, because, hey, my trainee told you that they didn't feel uncomfortable. You didn't want to give him more time, so you're kind of probably responsible for this as well. But again, don't put yourself in situations like that.
00:08:32
Speaker
right the mail if you don't know always has to be secured and accounted for if for whatever reason you do have whatever situation going on whether it's emergency or a terrible breakdown and you just feel like i really can't do this take the mail back to the uh to the your station mailing packages back to your station
00:08:53
Speaker
right? Um, and make sure you tell somebody, Hey, I have mail and stuff in it. If you don't feel comfortable or whatever reason, want to take it out of the vehicle to bring it into the office.
00:09:05
Speaker
Okay, you should be taking it back into the office, right? Because most likely use the one that bring it out. But let's just say it's some type of emergency going on you that stressed or you shake whatever's going on that you just can't bring yourself to take the stuff out the vehicle and bring it back into the station. Definitely turning all your accountability to management, letting them know a vehicle outside. I'm not going to be able to do this for whatever reason. I say you got a household emergency. I have to leave today or
00:09:34
Speaker
I thought I could do this. I can't do it. Don't want to do it. Whatever the case is. Turn your stuff over to management. Here's my vehicle keys. Here go these arrow keys that you gave me. You go to scanner. The vehicle is outside on the dock or it's in the parking lot or whatever the case is. Everything else. Everything's still in it, right? Let them know.
00:09:58
Speaker
And then they'll go get that stuff out of there. But do not just come back and then just leave. You didn't even talk to management, see management. I'm saying it because they don't know if you're gone or not. They don't know that you left if they don't see you or you've said something to them. I'm saying for a reason. So at the end of the day, they can be looking for everybody and they never seen you. They might say, hey man, he's still out there. Hold on, let me go into the system. He's still got all his packages.
00:10:28
Speaker
him or her. Let's just use him for this instance. Oh, his package is still on here, man. What's going on? Let me ping the scanner. I'm not picking up on nothing on the scanner. You know why I don't pick it on the scanner? Because when you came back, you put your scanner on the dot.
00:10:41
Speaker
I'm not picking up nothing up on the scan. So once it signs out, it's not going to, it's not going to ping anything because it's on the dock. Um, none of the scans. So now you might have people out there looking for you in a, in a late afternoon, early evening, or whatever the case is thinking something possibly could have happened to you when really you done came back, came back and went home.
00:11:00
Speaker
Right? So say something, right? Again, don't feel overwhelmed. If you do feel overwhelmed, say something.
Stress Management and Skill Improvement
00:11:10
Speaker
Talk to your trainers. If you can't talk to your trainers and get in touch with your trainers, also reach out to your safety captain so you don't need stewards or a supervisor.
00:11:19
Speaker
Right, any of those four titles. Now for whatever reason, if you can't even get in touch with those four titles, then yeah, just call the, if you have your manager's phone number or whatever it takes you to try to reach out to your manager. Worst case scenario again, just go back to the station, right? So when I say reach out, I mean call. If you can't reach nobody, for whatever reason, go back to the station. Let them know, hey man, something going on. I'm feeling nervous, I'm feeling anxious.
00:11:47
Speaker
Um, my heart rate, whatever's going on. Um, I don't think I can do this. Um, looking at the mill and packages in the back of my truck, it looks like it's too much. Um, I'm getting overwhelmed. It seems like a lot, whatever's going on, right? They might take you off the floor. Excuse me. They might take you off the floor into the office.
00:12:05
Speaker
not a bad thing they just don't want you in your business over the floor talking about it over the floor hey let's go downstairs let's go in the office you know I'm saying talk about it whatever the case is see what's going on again typically when they're doing that they don't want people in your business right because people be over the floor where there's
00:12:21
Speaker
limited duty people that are still in there, or clerks that are still in there, or whatever the case is, maybe Amazon or UPS dropping off, dropping off packages, they in there, the custodian might be in there cleaning up, maintenance might be in there working, whoever knows whatever the case is. Hey, let's go in the office.
00:12:38
Speaker
or let's go on the back dock, you feel like you can breathe, let's go outside and get some air, whatever the case is, and talk out there, whatever the case. And yeah, man, just relax, take a breather, it's just mail, right? When you do the mail, you just do it one split at a time, one split at a time.
00:12:57
Speaker
You new carriers, you don't have a time limit right now. When I say that, you still should be trying to get back or you still should be back at your station within eight hours. Whether you have mail or don't have mail, you should be gauging yourself and aiming to be back in eight.
00:13:16
Speaker
Right, so I don't mean that you just got unlimited amount of time to do two splits and you've been out there for
Prioritizing Accuracy Over Speed
00:13:22
Speaker
12 hours. That's not what I'm telling you to do. But you do move one split at a time at a comfortable pace to you. Don't worry about running. Don't worry about being the fastest you ain't flash. You worry about accuracy when you first get out there.
00:13:36
Speaker
You worry about accuracy. These are my own personal thoughts and opinions based on experience as a carrier, as a CCA, when I came in, then as a regular, and as someone who's also training. Worry about accuracy first. Getting the male whip belongs.
00:13:56
Speaker
in the meaning in the right mailbox again the packages where they belong we don't need no misdeliverance right of mail or packages and then with accuracy when you're comfortable on the street and your accuracy with accuracy and comfortability comes speed
00:14:14
Speaker
When you can get out there and now you just comfortable because you're confident in your skills, the speed will naturally come because now you're just naturally moving faster because, oh, I've been here before. I've been here before. I've been here before. Yep. This is how, oh, how you doing, ma'am? How you doing? So I've been over, you know what I'm saying? With that comfortability and, uh, comes the speed. So you don't worry about speed first. You worry about accuracy, get your accuracy down, get your comfortability down.
00:14:41
Speaker
PAM speed would just naturally come. Always make sure y'all got good setups. Setups is if you in a van, a LLV, a ProMaster, whatever you so happen to be driving, wherever you are.
00:14:55
Speaker
A setup will make a huge difference. Your setup will make a huge difference on your pace. In your mail, they call relays. You gotta go back to your vehicle to get the next split, or the next block, or the next swing, or whatever you call it, wherever you at, right?
00:15:17
Speaker
the mail for that next block whatever you call that where you at because i've heard different things in different areas right we call them splits up here in wisconsin uh at my sister's station and her surrounding areas in ohio they call them swings um but it's pretty much the mail for that next block whatever you call those where you at
00:15:37
Speaker
That's a relay. Go back to your vehicle, get that mail of packages. That's a relay, right? Having a good setup will always help you make good time in your relays, right? That's the time it takes you to get the next mail for the next area. Finish that, get back to your vehicle, move up to your next park point.
00:15:56
Speaker
Get out you should almost be able to grab your mail grab your mail, which is your dps. No flats I got that in my packages. I'm gone. All right me me personally I typically grab my packages first put them in my satchel grab my dps Put it on top of my uh flats. I don't know how you guys carry your mail where you at and then i'm gone already, right? Uh, once i make sure I got verified that I got everything that I need or that I can carry comfortably
00:16:24
Speaker
um and that's it man be be accurate um be comfortable be comfortable with that com speed you take everything one split one swing one block again whatever you call it one at a time
00:16:42
Speaker
You only can do what you can do. You can't do what you can't do. Don't worry about anything else, okay? If your management will start giving you guys expectations as time goes, expectations is just a gauge, right? I gotta give you something to strive for.
00:17:02
Speaker
It shouldn't be trying to force you or make you whatever the case is, but they should be at some point in time to give you expectations for to get you something to strive for. Okay. Again, you go. You can always test yourself on the street. It's getting a little bit more off the new and overwhelmed. You can always test your time yourself. You got to stop watching something like that. Time yourself on the street or on your phone.
00:17:23
Speaker
Time yourself to get done with so-and-so, so-and-so bodies. You know what I'm saying? However you wanna do it, with however long that split, that swing, that block, whatever's supposed to take. They say this is a 30-minute block. Let me see if I get done in 30 minutes. You know what I'm saying? The closer you get to 30 minutes, oh, okay, I'm pretty much on time. They say this next one is supposed to be 15 minutes or 20 minutes. Let me see if I get done in 15 minutes. Oh, I did it in 18 minutes, 19 minutes. That's not too bad. Okay, cool.
00:17:51
Speaker
That means most likely you're going to get close to getting done, should be close to a time. So if you got four hours of mail, you might be getting done in about 430, maybe even five, right? But they kind of give you the whole eight hours to start getting the three or four hours done. So you shouldn't continue to do four hours and it take you eight hours every day. You should be as you get more comfortable, you should be getting faster.
00:18:17
Speaker
or if they give you six hours, you still got the eight hours to get those six hours done. Do not get overwhelmed. Kind of easier said than done, but what I'm saying again is simplified is just mail and packages.
00:18:35
Speaker
Don't get scared. Sometimes when you guys see a lot, let's say somebody gave you a whole route, which is six hours on the street, you didn't case it. So this gave you the six hours. It might look like a lot, right? That, that six hours, let's just say that that route so happened to be, um, 20 blocks is 20 blocks. Whether you got two hours of it, four hours of it or six hours of it, it's still the same 20 blocks. Okay. And again, you do what you can do.
Training and Mentorship Importance
00:19:05
Speaker
Don't worry about what you can do. That's a work in progress. You'll get better as time goes. Okay? That's all I pretty much have to say about that. Again, if ever you do feel overwhelmed for any reason, have any complications for any reason, something comes up, you feel nervous or anxious for any reason, contact your trainer, contact your safety captain, your union steward or your supervisor, see if they can assist you.
00:19:34
Speaker
A lot of times you contact your trainer, your trainer will ride down on you and see what's going on. Or if there might be a safety issue, your safety captain will ride down on you and see what's going on. So again, although you're by yourself at that point in time, you're not by yourself. There's other carriers in the area on routes that's connected to yours, all the routes connect to each other in a particular zip code.
00:19:55
Speaker
so you're never on the street actually by yourself a lot of times you might be delivering mail and see another carrier drive right past you because they're trying to get to the next part of whatever route they're on or they're leaving a route that's far on the opposite side of you but they're coming past you to go to the station so you're not out there by yourself right although it seems like that
00:20:14
Speaker
With that said, man, if you do have any questions, concerns, make sure you hit us up. Matter of fact, let me hit this very quick, man. Because we got to get this disclaimer that's going on because people be trying to get us really for, this disclaimer is really for management, you know what I'm saying? Really for management. Y'all, give me a second, man. These are the views and opinions based on our individual experiences and is for educational and informational purposes.
00:20:44
Speaker
Any advice given is personal and not professional nor instructions. Refer to your own union branch contract or representatives. All liability and respect to actions taken or not taken based on the contents of this media are hereby expressly disclaimed and we hold no responsibility for those actions.
00:21:03
Speaker
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Miss Ma'am. Y'all give a round of applause to Miss Ma'am, please. She did a great job. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Y'all cut that short. What's your problem? What's your problem? What's your problem?
00:21:26
Speaker
This has been another episode of the postal blue podcast is this episode of 4.5 new and overwhelmed. Okay, new and overwhelmed. This is strictly for new
00:21:42
Speaker
You know what, let me take that back. This is mainly for the new employees, CCAs and PTAs, excuse me, PTFs alike. But if you are a regular and this applies, then this is for you too. If you're a new regular and this applies, then this is for you too. If you're a very senior high PTF and you be going through things on the street, then this is for you too.
00:22:05
Speaker
Right? Maybe your trainer is at a whole nother station, whatever case. Again, contact your safety captain. Contact your union student. Contact your supervisor. Let them know what's going on. Do not get yourself in situations where you leave in mail or packages and vehicles or you just pretty much AWOL. You just disappeared and don't nobody know what happened. Say something.
00:22:26
Speaker
Say something, right? We all got life things going on and we all need help and assistance from time to time. You can lean and count on your brothers and sisters in arms to assist you. Again, we are a poster blue for a reason, right? One team, one fight.
00:22:45
Speaker
And this is the postal booth podcast. Y'all make sure to leave a comment. Y'all make sure to follow. Y'all make sure to subscribe. I will try to get this up tonight so it will be available. This is 8.20. This is Tuesday. We'll try to get this available for you Wednesday. It won't be on YouTube right away, Wednesday, maybe Wednesday night, but it should be up on all streaming platforms at 9 a.m. as long as I get this chopped up and uploaded earlier, okay?
00:23:12
Speaker
With that, again, this is 4.5. I appreciate y'all. I appreciate y'all. Senior carriers, look out for your PTFs. Senior carriers, look out for your CCAs. Whichever one you have, or if you have both, they are struggling. Now again, this don't go for all of them. They are struggling, or there's some struggling. They need us. They need our assistance. They need our guidance. They need our information.
00:23:37
Speaker
Right. They might need our assistance whether it's on the street or they might just need ours our Educational experience with delivering mail. How am I supposed to deliver mail? How am I supposed to hand hand mail? How am I supposed to hold mail? Do you do y'all your station one bundle mail mean to consolidate y'all put your flats in and DPS together or do you hold the DPS on top of the flat areas that you hold mail do you hold your
00:24:07
Speaker
Flats in one on your arm, on your forearm, and then you hold your DPS in your hand. However y'all do mail, maybe they don't know. It's the small things that matter. Maybe they're, when they're doing do their relay, they're taking all day at their relay, five or 10 minutes at a relay, because they don't have a good setup.
00:24:25
Speaker
They got mail on one side, they gotta go to that side. They got packages on one side, they gotta go to that side, and they got DPS in the back. I've seen that particular case happen with an individual that he had his papers and flats on the left side of his van. He had his DPS on the right side of his van, meaning the slide doors, so he had his packages in the back, and every time he had to go to his relay, he had to go through all three doors just to get
00:24:53
Speaker
one set up. I've seen that happen. I'm not joking, not making fun of anybody or whatever the case is. But again, assist your people, trainers, make sure that we are training to the best of our abilities. Make sure we're asking them questions. Don't just let them ask us questions. Ask them questions. How you feel about this? How you feel about that? Are you comfortable with this? Are you comfortable with that?
00:25:14
Speaker
You know what I'm saying? Are you nervous by any means? Are you anxious? Are you, you know what I'm saying? You feel like you got it, you know what I'm saying? Maybe we gotta change something up, change something up when it comes to training. I don't know if we start to see that. I feel like, well, I don't know what you guys' areas are, but right now I think we're down to training them for three days. And then we put nobody's self. I try to get them at least four and five days if I can in my station.
00:25:41
Speaker
But they still might not be comfortable with that. Hey, are you sure you're good? You feel comfortable? If they don't and we start to see them make them mistakes, maybe they got to get another day. Maybe you got to go talk to management. Hey man, I think I need another day because I already got to talk to this person because I seen them doing some things by themselves and then they brought some stuff back. So I need another day, not necessarily to train them on the street, which is part of it, but also to give them information. They're on their own route or own area and I'm on my own route.
00:26:08
Speaker
I can't give them the information like I need to give them the information in person. I just over the phone, I need to talk to them in person. I might need them for another day. Okay, can I get that? Because management, and again on management, you want to make sure that you got the best PTFs and CCAs that you can get.
00:26:25
Speaker
So you got to take a training series as well, or any information that they come into you with that you might not feel like you can assist them with or that you can help them with. Okay.
Community and Teamwork Call to Action
00:26:36
Speaker
So again, one team, one fight. We are postal blue. And with that, man, I'm gonna get a body. I am your boy, LA styles, also known as ice. Uh, on, on the short episode, I do not have coffee shop, the coffee shop, the fee shop to Watkins.
00:26:50
Speaker
I'm pretty sure they gonna hear this. And again, man, let's stick together. Let's help each other out. Almost like a marriage for better, for worse. You know what I'm saying? We gotta, we gotta help. We gotta assist. We gotta fight wherever we can, when we can. With that, I'm gonna get up out of here. I appreciate y'all for supporting us. Y'all make sure you hit that follow button and subscribe button and hit that share button. Share this to all your PTFs. If you are regular and you hear this episode, you should be sharing. I ain't gonna say you should be. My apologies.
00:27:20
Speaker
Can you share this to all your PTFs? Can you share this to your CCAs so they can get this information on being overwhelmed? Or can you take something from this show, from this episode and talk to them?
00:27:34
Speaker
Talk to them, please. I've been saying a lot lately, and I don't want people to miss their blessings or miss their opportunities, because the carry that just did that, they're letting him go. If that wasn't the case, because maybe he quit yesterday, and he didn't see nobody to tell, and he just, whatever the case is, maybe he had an emergency, and then he came back, didn't see anybody, so he just left. And then maybe he might show up tomorrow, because he and today was supposed to be his scheduled off day. So maybe he might show up tomorrow, like, huh? What happened? No, I had some come-ups over.
00:28:04
Speaker
right now it looks like they letting him go for doing that so again he might miss his his blessings or anything or something like that and we don't want that so again appreciate y'all hit that follow button hit that subscribe button jr upstairs barker for some reason i'm gonna go see what's going on with that man and i appreciate you thank you one subscribe to the podcast for all future episodes and make sure to share with someone
00:28:33
Speaker
We appreciate everyone and there's a lot more to come.