Another work related rant.
At one job, I somehow got stuck dealing with mailing people’s packets out to them. I made the mistake once of saying, “The mail isn’t that difficult,” and next thing I knew, it was MY job. I won’t make that mistake again.
So I sit back in a little cube and type up address labels and then I stuff the envelopes and put them in the cart to go to the mailroom. Luckily I don’t have to go to the mailroom or I’d be writing to you from jail after having murdered about 4 people.
The job of mail itself is not hard. It’s a little boring, sure, and sometimes challenging, as the majority of Americans are retards and they write their addresses down correctly or legibly, but I do what I can and get it done. Once it’s in the mail cart, it’s not supposed to be my problem anymore.
Only, it is.
The mailroom refuses to put out an official mail policy. This is because they want to make up new rules anytime they like, which they do. I know they only do this because they don’t want me to run out of things to bitch and moan about. Their goal is to drive me over the edge completely.
My coworkers know that I’m a very easy going person, but that the mailroom makes me turn into a Tasmanian Devil, so they try to keep me and the mailroom people as far apart as possible. But there are times when they can’t shield me from the dipshit things the mailroom clerks do.
Several months ago they decided one day, out of the blue, that I would have to start mailing the packets in boxes, citing that the paper envelopes rip too easily. It was ridiculous since few of the packets are that big, but fine, I could deal with putting them in boxes if they wanted to be dumb about it. What pissed me off was when they decided to send back all the mail I’d sent the previous few days and tell me to put all of that in boxes. Oh sure, I was dying to spend the day re-doing work I’d already done!! If they had sent out an official memo saying, “We changed our policy and would like you to now mail everything in boxes instead of paper envelopes, starting next Monday,” I wouldn’t have been nearly as mad. Don’t change your policy on a Monday, wait until Thursday to tell me of the policy change, and then punish me for not having packed the mail wrong due to your inability to notify me of the change, motherfuckers! That’s bullshit! It’s not like I sent out 4 packets a day. I probably send out 50-75 packets a day. It’s time consuming to mess with that many the first time, let alone having to do that work twice.
But fine. I got over it and went on my merry way. But then two weeks later, they changed their policy again. Actually, they claimed what they had said originally was, “Only packets over a certain weight have to be in boxes,” but that was most certainly NOT what they had said. Even if I wasn’t clear on what they said, they’d sent back ALL my mail that particular week – not just the ones over a certain weight. (Few of the packets are over that weight limit).
So this time, they sent back all the boxes I’d sent down there the previous couple of days and told me to put them back in envelopes. *fuming* That’s when I decided I was going to eviscerate someone if I ever had to go down to see those fuckers in the mailroom again!
If they would put their instructions IN WRITING then there would be no confusion, but of course, they can’t change their story that way. Duh.
I asked them (through a coworker since I wasn’t going back down there without an Uzi) to give me a postal scale so I could verify what is and what isn’t over their weight and they refused. There was a big drama fest and it was left completely unresolved but I told my coworkers if they refused to give me a scale and they sent something back because maybe it was just under or just over the limit, I was going to tear someone’s arms off and beat them with them. So now I guesstimate and the mailroom clerks haven’t been giving me problems about that issue, at least.
The mailroom did bitch a couple of months ago that they didn’t like the TYPE of envelopes I was using. Someone (not me) had ordered some extra-big envelopes and when I said, “Those aren’t the ones I can use,” I was told, “Tough, someone has to use them; we can’t send them back.” I could use them, but either I’d have to spend extra time folding them and taping them up to make them look neat (and I don’t have a lot of time to waste) or I could save time and they would be kinda messy and probably more likely to rip. Until I have less work, less packets to mail out or someone to help me, I just couldn’t justify wasting the time to make the envelopes look pretty.
So at that time, the mailroom was doing me a favor. They told me to get plastic envelopes because they don’t rip as easily or get wet as easily. Good idea. I was able to tell the supply people, “Ha ha, I can’t use your crappy envelopes anymore. Mail room says!” and I told them to order me these plastic envelopes. They said, “Which ones?” and I said, “Whatever ones the mailroom recommends. They just told us, ‘plastic.’” So supply got me plastic envelopes.
I love the plastic envelopes because they are self-adhesive so I didn’t have to mess with the tape anymore. AWESOME. For two months, I used the plastic envelopes with no problem and everything was going smoothly.
Then on June 18th, the mailroom decided they didn’t like the plastic envelopes anymore and refused to send any more of them out for me. They told me I had gotten the “wrong ones” and these were costing them more money because they say “first class” on them. (I thought all mail was first class!) Well, I didn’t order them – the supply guy did. I don’t know if he asked the mailroom which ones to order and they screwed him up, or if he fucked up on his own. Regardless, though, why didn’t they have a problem with the envelopes for the first two months?
They changed their policy on June 18th, but they didn’t tell me until June 25th. A whole week later. And at that time, they sent me a whole weeks worth of packets to re-do! Just to be asshats! Even if one could argue the policy change came from above them, they did not have to wait A WEEK to tell me of the change.
I’ve repeatedly demanded that I need an official mailroom policy and I need all official mailroom policy changes sent to me in writing. They refuse, like they don’t have to answer to anyone. My boss has tried to get some resolution through the proper chain, but nothing has happened. So now I’m writing official letters of complaint against them to people over their heads and to the government Fraud, Waste and Abuse people in hopes that there will be some consequences against them and they will have to comply with my request for official mailroom policies and official changes in writing, if nothing else.
It might go no where, but I have to try something. If it’s not this, it’s the uzi.