At 11:52 PM -0800 2/5/98, Bill Frantz wrote:
At 1:38 PM -0800 2/5/98, in a generally right on post, Jim Burnes wrote:
(this and the strange tendency of workers to "go postal" -- you rarely hear about FedEX employees going on an AK47 rampage, must be the water ;-)
No, the problem is the US Postal Service's willingness to tolerate assholes as managers. There may be an argument for pinning that on the government monopoly aspects of the USPS as well.
Not just the managers, but the ordinary employees... The Postal Service is effectively bound to keep employees on that any normal business would have simply given the boot to. The benefits of government service.... (Yes, yes, I know some of you will be tempted to cite the official line that the Postal Service is no longer a government agency. Well, this is a distinction without a difference. The USPS retains governmental protections against competition, has government-like powers and protections, and is still run by a "Postmaster General," not a Chairman of the Board or President or CEO. It ain't FedEx or Airborne. Or even UPS, which emulates government agencies.) --Tim May "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway." ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, ComSec 3DES: 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^3,021,377 | black markets, collapse of governments.