Holiday Parcel Processing

When I watch television and continually hear about how badly the economy is doing and then go to work at the post office, I suffer from a deep sense of “disconnect”. For I am one of those people who process the Priority Mail packages that go out from the Gainesville area to all parts of the country (and world). And this holiday season promises to be just as big in the post office as before. Starting this week, we’ll see the volume of parcels dramatically rise, with my section of the processing taking “Priority”. During the next three weeks, there will be plenty of overtime, new temporary workers hired, no annual leave approved, a shortage of working space (because of all the parcels), and plenty of work to do!

There will most like arrive the time, as it usually happens with me each December when the parcel volume gets to seem overwhelming and I will once again begin to echo the immortal words of Ebenezer Scrooge: “Christmas? Bah, humbug!” But this annual exercise in work-overload is, of course, ultimately good for the U.S. Postal Service and for me as an employee, for it brings in much needed revenue. And it puts our economic picture in a more realistic perspective for me as well. Maybe the economy is running a little slower, but it is definitely still running!