- page2- November 2, 1977 - North Shore News _ Oe |
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. Trae .

by by Peter Speck

aw ‘ : :

_A factor. aggravating the
situation is the game of
‘‘musical chairs’” played in
‘the Postmaster. .General’s
office. Jean Jacques. Blais is
the fifth postmaster since
1970, and: the . thirteenth
since 1962—which repre-
_ sents an average. of about.
one changé a year. It is a.
political hot spot, and can be >
a graveyard for politicians _
(the post office-is the object. .

A Toronto employee of the post office said that.

‘the management of the postal service is a “horror
story.’ In a telephone interview with a newspaper
. reporter, the director of staff relations in Toronto
said that the tan ple of various government
“agencies: responsib e for operating the postal
service- causes. extra paperwork; time-consuming
decision-making and i inefficiency. ‘‘We can’t make
~a. decision without. going from. one person to
another person to another -person,’’ said Tony ©
~Hornick, ‘‘and they haven’t a clue as to how the

post office should e run or staffed. It’s a horror

- story.”

"The post ‘office-rushed in to --
Vehe breach and ‘granted’.

Hornick sick leave. ‘‘He’s
got hundreds of days of sick

leave coming to him,” said |

another. spokesman, ©
said that Hornick’s remarks
were ‘‘the comments of a
man under a lot of strain on

his job who doesn’t normally |
deal with the news media.’’ -
‘Then followed a statement.

from the Postmaster Gener-

al, Jean Jacques Blais, aman
who presumably does deal:

with the news hordes. -He
said that Hornick’s views

‘‘do. not reflect manage

ment’s attitude.”

Mr. Blais may have more
experience ‘‘dealing with the -
news media,’’. for whatever .

doubtful. benefit that. gives
him: But: as a

but. he tells the truth. iz

"TWENTY-FIVE STUDIES —

Hornick’s only inaccuracy

is omission. For the post.

office is indeed a horror
“story, brought to you. live, in
full colour and .at public
expense. Morale amongst

the inside workers is so low.

that most of them seem to do

their jobs with dislike if not

with active hostility. The
- incredible paper-shuffling
bureaucracy stifles any. at-
tempt at

Employing

incr

over

_ been the target of a lot of
criticism over the last twenty -
years. Since 1960 over 25 .

practises. ©

practising

. » mewsperson I sure would
prefer to talk to Mr. Hornick..

_. . He may be unaccustomed to _

dealing with us news ‘types, . mails.”’

improvement.
50,600 .
- people, the post office has"

been ignored. Hay. Associ-

group in October 1975, was

Sat on ‘for at least a year. .

The report used question:

morale
office bureaucracy. complain-
objectives—other . than. ‘the

maxim of _ ‘‘moving - the

» consideration |

Management's
io surveys ‘such as. this has

been pitifully weak.- Look at

these figures from 1971. to

1975: mail volume up 13%, ©
-revenues up 20%; product-
ivity down 7%,
. departmental. deficit: up a
staggering 385%. Morale is.
at an all-time low amongst

the inside workers (the letter

catriers belong to another
and seem to be
. holding up a lot better). If
you don’t believe me take a’
postage meter down for a.

union,

refill and stand i in ‘the ° line-up

awhile. . L

‘VERIFIED ) CIRCULATION 45, 790 |
11139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B. Cc. V7M 214,

(OFFICE/NEWS: (604) 980-0511 °°
CLASSIFIED: 980-3464 CIRCULATION: 986-1337

- Publisher Peter Speck

‘Associate Publisher Bob Graham/Edltor-in-Chiet
Noel Wright/News Guillermo Lam/Photes Ells-
worth Dickson/Production Marna Leiren/Advertis-
ing, Kristi Vidler/Ciassified Berni Hilliard/Circala-—

tion Yvonne Chapman/Administration Barbara
‘Haywood/Accounts Sylvia Sorensen. ”

North Shore News, founded in 1969 as. an
independent community tiewspaper and.

qualified under Schedule .
Paragraph 111 of the. |
published each. Wednesday by the. North |
Shore Free Press Ltd. and distributed to every

111, Part 111,
cise Tax Act, is

door on the North Shore. , 7 re)

Second Class Mail Roglstraiton Number 3885.

ENTIRE CONTENTS COPYRIGHT © 1977 NORTH
SHORE FREE PRESS LTD. All Fights reserved. : .

studies have been. commis-_
-‘sioned to look at post office |
problems. and .management ~
All have made
“recommendations, ‘and most ~

_who. of the recommendations have

ates, a leading management |
‘consulting firm conducted .
_the most recent, and: one of |
the .most revealing studies. -
The: report of . the. firm, ~’
‘submitted to the post office
and. treasury board study

.Naires. to over 4,000. post
_-office managers. It came up-
with. the - overall -conclusion
. that "management -
_was abysmally low. Mana-
gers. at all levels in the post —

ed of a general lack of clear...

. Some” -were.. even
confused as to: whether ‘cost ‘
“was.
deciding thow to, ; Move . the
mail.

‘in: “

__ Response” issue. The administration of |
the post _office

tangled. For instance, hiring.

and ‘the. °

|. saying” that. the ‘progtam “ff

of more parliamentary ques-
_ tions than ‘any other govern-_
ment agency); so Postmaster -.

‘ing waves if they want the
more
; the status quo. 7

Low MANAGER MORALE

ment are not even trained.

ted to make the. overnight
- transition from mail clerk to.
- manager without even the
-most_ basic
-management -
Middle management morale

. critical of ready union access
to. senior. ‘management. In .

- settled between the . union
‘and upper management with
» no. consultation © with — line
: managers—with . the. under- -
. Standable result that many of |
- the managers | feel the post:
Office is more responsive. to
“its ‘union than to its man- )

‘Canada Manpower, and all..
money matters are’ handled.

post

“move. the mails’’—to be mm

Ottawa and regional centres. -

a ‘staff; were generally viewed jf

Generals: usually avoid mak-
job to lead to something —

comfortable: This.
breeds a_ built-in defence of -

Lower. jevels of ‘manage-

New supervisors are expec-.

instruction . in.
techniques.

suffers as well, with. many —
managers in line positions.

- tweeds, velvets; stipes, florals, brocades, matelasse, |
Vinyl, leather, from such well known fabric houses as
Collins & Aikman, la France, Savon, ; Sandersons
| and oiners. Let us bring our sample books |

| to your home to co-ordinate new fabrics with your: : :
present decor. a

many. cases - disputes. are

agers. ue
Pay i is also a “contentious

‘is very

is done:by the Public Service
Commission, ‘through

ail work done on ‘the premises
by professional craftsmen.
| Siipe covers by . Rainey

by the Treasury Board. In the. ~
office ‘there is a>
tendency for the operational
manapers—ihe peopie who

paid less than their count-
erparts in other areas of the §&
postal. service, such as f
marketing; personnel, and §
finance—usually ‘located in

“One of the Hay ‘recom-
mendations was to disband
,the marketing arm entirely.
‘The attitude of. the respon-
dents to the Hay survey

J iclvery

B ourown delivery vans will

towatds. their marketing’ f come toy your home, anyuhere
department “was. cynicism gon the Lower Maintand.
bordering | contempt,

which seerned. in part to be
based on marketing’s intro-
duction of a number of high
visibility ..programs, either
without consulting line man- |
agement or else “over their
- objections. The marketing

‘as béing uninformed about
postal operations, and their.
contributions to the postal
service were seen as unprof- &
itable at best and, at worst,
disruptive to ‘basic ‘mail
handling operations: and the .&
cause of heavy financial
“losses, The Hay organization
‘also criticized the program of
decentralization ' started by
the: post “office in | 1970,:.:

UPHOLSTERY

‘simply created a new tier of.

management at the regional. Mon. - " Fri. T: 230 - As 200 og . md
level, between the Ottawa “481 MOUNTAIN HIGHWAY | os "D 8

headquarters and the various |

NORTH VANG
districts,, ot OUVER, B.c..

V7) 2L3