The following information is from the United States Attorney:
February 1, 2008
United States Attorney Dunn Lampton announced that Jessica Sade Delaine, of Cuba,Alabama, was sentenced on January 31st to serve 8 months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release, for interfering with an employee of the United States while that person was engaged in the performance of his official duties. Delaine was also ordered to pay a fine in the amount of $1,500.00.
On September 27, 2007, Jessica Delaine was working as a U.S. Postal employee at the Meridian Main Post Office, located at 2100 9th Street, Meridian, Mississippi, when she got into a verbal argument with her supervisor. Eventually, the supervisor requested that Delaine clock off work and leave the premises. Approximately 45 minutes later, she entered the Meridian Main Post Office, revealed a pistol to her co-workers, and told them she was going to wait by an office building and shoot her supervisor when he left work. After talking to her, Delaine’s co-workers convinced her to leave the premises. Delaine was arrested on September 28, 2007, and pled guilty to the crime on November 21, 2007. This case was investigated by Postal Inspector Dwayne Martin of the United States Postal Inspection Service, and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jerry Abdalla.
Get a grip people. It’s mail. All you have to do is get it from point A to point B. It’s not rocket science. Why get all stressed out about it? You’d be in trouble in the private sector…
This is another zero tolerance policy where the craft employees suffer. I have seen management threaten each other, cuss at each other, and call each other names on the work room floor. Nothing is ever done, even when we complain. Soon as a craft employee say I’ll shoot you or beat your ass, they are put off the clock and terminated. When you check to see why its always a supervisor taunting, pushing, harassing, or laughing saying I’ll get rid of you. You see none of these so call supervisors we get now don’t have to have a good record, be able to communicate with people, know how to run their unit, get the mail out correctly, or even know the function of the mail. All they have to do is pass a test through the ASP Program and they become supervisors. Some of these people only have a few years in the post office. They have a bad work record, bad attendance, discipline in their file, most of them have been terminated and bought back by the union, and then they have the audacity to in the ASP Program and come out harassing everyone else trying to terminate them. The Post Office wants the public to believe that they are looking out for the customers best interest. How? When you have dummies supervising getting the mail out!!!
I do not condone the pistol, but can relate to the frustration of craft employees, having been one for 23 years. Many supervisors and postmasters I have worked with, especially in the last 10 years or so are nothing but a detriment to the USPS. They are totally non-productive, lie to customers in order to gloss over service concerns, and spend most of their lives perched on their butts at the computer. They can’t even do a proper schedule, let alone manage. Most of our stations (especially the smaller ones would be much better off without ANY of them. Think of how much $$ the PO could save if these idiots weren’t around to constantly violate the contract!!
I feel that the USPS has changed so much and people that were once craft employees but now are supervisors have forgotten where they started. Craft employees are running the post office, and have all of the knowledge, while supervisor are promoted because they know “people.” They feel degrated when you know the answer to a question and they don’t. There is no recognition for all the hard work you do, so USPS employees morale is gone. There is no incentive to go to work anymore. Instead of saying thank you once in a while, they only talk to you when it is to warn you or tell you that you did something wrong. Eventually built up agression can cause people to erupt, as in this case, and the person is then punished, or shall i say the wrong person is punished. We are all humans, not robots, please be aware of this supervisors.
As a carrier that works in a very small office, with just 4 Routes and 9 employees that work in the office(including Post Master), I have never been so shocked in my life to see the way that she belittles us in front of customers(mostly males) and blame us for everything(not making our times on snowy icy days to wrong mail in the PO box section). I have never been so ready to crawl under a rock and hide out the rest of my days…she cusses at us under her breath and I guess thinks that we can’t hear her. I think that the strees of everyday problems is a lot for some people to handle. It is sad that some think it is equal treatment to show up with a weapon and demand fairness, but that is not how things get solved. Problems get taken care of by the higher management and the union. If you don’t belong, join now because you never know when you will need someone on your side. I wish that “going postal” was never said. I take pride in my job. Getting all the mail out to everyone on your route and coming back with nothing is the best feeling in the world…remember that, at the end of the day the people who are the most grateful are those families that you service. Take pride and please show it!!! 🙂
As a carrier that works in a very small office, with just 4 Routes and 9 employees that work in the office(including Post Master), I have never been so shocked in my life to see the way that she belittles us in front of customers(mostly males) and blame us for everything(not making our times on snowy icy days to wrong mail in the PO box section). I have never been so ready to crawl under a rock and hide out the rest of my days…she cusses at us under her breath and I guess thinks that we can’t hear her. I think that the strees of everyday problems is a lot for some people to handle. It is sad that some think it is equal treatment to show up with a weapon and demand fairness, but that is not how things get solved. Problems get taken care of by the higher management and the union. If you don’t belong, join now because you never know when you will need someone on your side. I wish that “going postal” was never said. I take pride in my job. Getting all the mail out to everyone on your route and coming back with nothing is the best feeling in the world…remember that, at the end of the day the people who are the most grateful are those families that you service. Take pride and please show it!!! 🙂
As a carrier that works in a very small office, with just 4 Routes and 9 employees that work in the office(including Post Master), I have never been so shocked in my life to see the way that she belittles us in front of customers(mostly males) and blame us for everything(not making our times on snowy icy days to wrong mail in the PO box section). I have never been so ready to crawl under a rock and hide out the rest of my days…she cusses at us under her breath and I guess thinks that we can’t hear her. I think that the strees of everyday problems is a lot for some people to handle. It is sad that some think it is equal treatment to show up with a weapon and demand fairness, but that is not how things get solved. Problems get taken care of by the higher management and the union. If you don’t belong, join now because you never know when you will need someone on your side. I wish that “going postal” was never said. I take pride in my job. Getting all the mail out to everyone on your route and coming back with nothing is the best feeling in the world…remember that, at the end of the day the people who are the most grateful are those families that you service. Take pride and please show it!!! 🙂
As a carrier that works in a very small office, with just 4 Routes and 9 employees that work in the office(including Post Master), I have never been so shocked in my life to see the way that she belittles us in front of customers(mostly males) and blame us for everything(not making our times on snowy icy days to wrong mail in the PO box section). I have never been so ready to crawl under a rock and hide out the rest of my days…she cusses at us under her breath and I guess thinks that we can’t hear her. I think that the strees of everyday problems is a lot for some people to handle. It is sad that some think it is equal treatment to show up with a weapon and demand fairness, but that is not how things get solved. Problems get taken care of by the higher management and the union. If you don’t belong, join now because you never know when you will need someone on your side. I wish that “going postal” was never said. I take pride in my job. Getting all the mail out to everyone on your route and coming back with nothing is the best feeling in the world…remember that, at the end of the day the people who are the most grateful are those families that you service. Take pride and please show it!!! 🙂
This is a terrible tragedy but I’m sure that no Postal employee with at least a year of service is surprised in the least. I am a maintenance employee with over 11 years of service and it is clear to me that the zero tolerance policy is in effect only to punish craft employees while management can talk down to and threaten our jobs with no punishment whatsoever. Our previous plant manager dogged me out for over ten minutes on the workroom floor, told me to go work on a machine that was running fine and then threatened me with delaying the mail if I took the machine down to work on it. He then continued to tell me how I couldn’t repair anything because the next tour always had to do the repairs because I was incapable. I am one of only 3 maintenance employees out of 20 that has a degree in Electronics in our office. When I called a Postal Inspector to complain he said that the Manager that threatened me with my job did not count as a threat. He told me that if I did not like it I could call the OIG and tell them about it. Just try to call an OIG person and see that it is impossible to talk to someone. Later that Plant Manager was caught changing the color codes on the mail and he was promoted to a higher paying job in another city. And people wonder why people go Postal.
hehehe
Regardless of the circumstances in the Post Office violence or the threat of violence is unacceptable. We are human beings NOT animals. No one should have to work in a hostile work environment yet “laying in wait” to bushwack someone is insane. What keeps any of us safe? Treat each other the way we would want to be treated. (Not an original thought!)
give the kid a break,,,i believe it was a cry for help !
I can only wonder what the postal inspectors were NOT told about this incident. The 21-year was wrong for what she did but the events that led to this event are heart-wrenching. Allegedly, as a pre-teen Miss Delaine sufferred the emotional tramua of the worst crime committed to a female. Emotional scars from previous “childhood” tramua causes a different reaction. Were the postal inspectors informed on the alleged harrassment? When this incident occurred, the “supervisor” in question was not a 204B but a clerk. If Delanie was charged with actions against a supervisor, the postal inspectors were given incorrect information – check the time records! I, as shop stewart, cannot repeat what I have been told in this format but there is more to the story than the placement of a GPC. If the facts are as Miss Delaine states them, it is a shame for her to have her life ruined twice at such a young age!
Ahhhh………what’s the matter, Postal Pete?! Do you feel left out?
For your information, Bonehead, did I say anything about me being a “Supervisor” or a “EAS” employee? Nope. Don’t believe I did.
As such, I am just a regular career employee who handles all of the AVSEC mail at my office.
But, having “common-sense” must be something you’re short on, right?
As such, I don’t plan on staying at the USPS nor do I care to. When you have uneducated mental-midgets, like they do at the USPS, then, “common-sense” flys out the door.
So, before you start foaming at the mouth about something you obviously know very little about, wake up. You’re stupidity is showing.
Oh heaven’s help us. Mailman has a college degree, just what is WRONG with USPS. Too many book worms who don’t know anything Postal trying to run the PO. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Bookworms rule over common sense and postal knowledge
Jessica Delanie was a casual employee, the so called supervisor was a non union Special Postal Clerk PS6. There were unproven allegations of harassment. The issue that caused this was the placement of a GPC. The young lady was truely wrong in her actions and is being punished. The rest of the story????
The first 3 yrs I worked for the PO I honestly thought that this was the real hell. Supervisors would follow me around, harrass me, whatever they wanted to do. I was under a great deal of stress. My only crime was that I was fighting for my job by filling grievances, stuff like that. Management didnt approve I guess. It took a nervous breakdown for me to have for them to leave me alone. Most of them are just plain lowlifes. They get away with everything while we get away with nothing.
Supervisor & employee are both out of line. In this case the employee is again disciplined and management doesn’t have to answer for their irrational arrogance.
It is a waste of money to pay someone Level 18 to run a post office when you could just pay a clerk Level 7.
education is what management didn’t use to need. now a 4 yr degree is required for just about every eas position 22 or higher. also from what i hear, a degree will soon be the requirement for postmaster positions 18 and above. trying to attact outsiders with education to fill positions vacated by featherbeders when they retire. it won’t make a difference what the degree is in, as long as it is a 4 yr degree.
In the 25 years, as a NYC postal worker, I’ve heard of only one(1) supervisor with a degree (a B.S. in physical education)
Well, depending on how long the “non-profit mail” had been sitting around, after a while of “non-delivery” it does turn into 1st Class because it has to be delivered within a certain time frame and once that time frame is depleted, then, it does, turn into 1st Class mail.
I’m not a supervisor, but, I do have what most supervisors don’t have and it’s called a college degree. The smart thing for your supervisor would have been to explain to you why it turns into 1st Class or have you look it up in the DMM(Domestic Mail Manual) OR have a Bulk Mail Entry Clerk explain it to you.
However, no supervisor has the right to “dehumanize” anyone. If you don’t like the way your supervisor talked to you, then talk to the Postmaster, if no satsifaction is gained, then, I suggest the possibility of an EEO complaint and speak with the union. There are other options available versus deadly force, which this person appeared to be “hellbent” on doing, which tells me she’s not of sound mind, meaning she was unable to reason with herself and what the repurcussions would be if she did, indeed, carry out the planned attack.
The post office is full of slugs and needs to be flushed out and replaced with contractors. Everyone of you.
more postal employees are frustrated by the ignorance of supervisors and some of the stupid things they either say and request. just yesterday my supervisor told me non profit org mail was considered first class, come on, she has been in the post office 18 years or so. i told her she needed to call mailing requirements for some remedial training. these people are put in the position to mistreat people, to say anything they damn well want, order people to process mail against what they have been trained to do, have no respect for co workers and think because they are “supervisors” they have some special right to dehumanize people. I have never seen an instance in my 30 year postal history were the people have not come together if given a chance to get the mail out and do it right without the interference of some boneheaded manager. In their case the ability to tell people what to do is the over powering need and want and getting the mail out is really secondary. I don’t agree with what this person did but sometimes supervisors cross invisible lines with people not knowing that they have and rather than difuse a situation with some sort of training (they don’t listen in those classes)they expand the incident until it reaches explosive levels and this is the end result, and thier attitude after everyone is stressed out angry feeling really awful is “see don’t mess with me”. Idiots a good percentage of them. But I believe in karma in the post office most of em get it back in worse ways than they give it.