Postal Managers In New York Tackle Employees Sick Leave Usage

April 29, 2009 by
Filed under: Benefits, postal, postal managers, usps 

Postal Managers In New York Tackle Employees Sick Leave Usage
 

Lean Six Sigma (LSS) may prove to be just the right medicine to cure sick leave usage at the Buffalo, NY, P&DC.

Misused or excessive sick leave can lead to increased overtime, increased power usage due to additional machine and plant runtime, production delays, and poor employee morale. In March, the Buffalo P&DC’s sick leave rate for FY 2009 was 5.72 percent, well above the 4.95 percent rate at the end of FY 2007.

The team decided to use LSS methodology to study sick leave usage at the plant. First, team members developed a list of interview questions for supervisors and managers. Next, the team conducted a brainstorming session on the causes of inconsistent policy administration and cataloged primary causes.

The team decided that employee awareness and responsibility, along with policy administration, should be more effectively and uniformly communicated to everyone in the organization. Team recommendations included increased and consistent communication about sick leave policies and improved training for supervisors.

To monitor changes in sick leave use, the team created metrics charts for each manager and supervisor, along with a service talk for employees. The team’s goal is to reduce the plant’s sick leave rate to 3.5 percent this fiscal year.

Source: USPS News Link

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No Comments on Postal Managers In New York Tackle Employees Sick Leave Usage

  1. Potter - PMG on Wed, 29th Apr 2009 12:52 pm

    2. My only advice is…..use it or LOSE IT!!! The largest use of sick leave in the USPS can be found at LeInfant Plaza. If youse don’t believe me look it up. And what action have they, the managers taken? Yep…nada.

  2. Drichva on Wed, 29th Apr 2009 2:02 pm

    3. Convert FERS to same as CSRS see the sick use decline. Stop harassing employees to the point of being overstressed. Sick leave usage will decline.

  3. postal hero on Wed, 29th Apr 2009 6:38 pm

    4. For 5 years I never used a single hour of my sick leave. Even I’m not feeling well, death of my relatives, bad weather, my car broke down and special occassions. Last 01/02/09 around 2:00AM in the morning, I got a phone call from my sister
    telling me that my father had a stroke and was taken to the hospital. My father survived but all members of the family stayed in the hospital until 8:AM. I called the station 5:AM to let someone know that I can’t work that day, because of what had happened to my father. When I got my check, I found out I was not paid on that day.
    Since that time I used my sick leave whenever I feel like. F**k them, no more Mr. nice guy.

  4. Union MAN on Wed, 29th Apr 2009 7:24 pm

    5. Take away the paid sick leave and USPS will be at less than 1% sick leave. When people are not paid to sit at home with sniffles they tend to come to work.

  5. Mail Handler on Thu, 30th Apr 2009 3:47 am

    6. Unionman, you are absolutely correct, the only thing I would add is to increase pay accordingly to the amount that they save in not issuing us 4 hours of sick leave per pay period. That would mean about $100 per pay period or so and give us nothing for calling in.

    It’s very sad that right now the USPS touts how many benefits we have, and they include sick leave when they figure it. If it is truly a benefit, it should be used anyway we want and should never be able to be taken away.

  6. electric1 on Thu, 30th Apr 2009 4:40 am

    7. From what I see the biggest abusers of sick leave are the supervisors. They wait until a year or two before they retire and come up with the stress leave sick leave. Practice what you preach!
    No one seems to have a problem with them using sick leave.

  7. B4HONOR on Thu, 30th Apr 2009 3:14 pm

    8. Sick leave is a program with regulations and procedures, if Mgt follow’s the procedures in place they have the answers but they want some new way to circumvent how the procedure is. Unexpected Illness or Injury is the EXCEPTION to UNSCHEDULED LEAVE in accordance with the ELM process calls for Documents if they believe your lying and then Restricted if process is not followed; if your sick after that you need Dr’s note every time. If continued use then you need Med Clearance to continue, Procedures that are rarely followed because they want to be able to fire you without following the Procedures in 510 ELM…cause they can not make numbers with the slim force in place; Excuses for vague Policies based on usage of the Earned Sick Leave. The whole Mgt thing is to Harrass,Intimidate,and Prevent usage to have the Percentage that Fits.

  8. CSRS SLUG on Fri, 1st May 2009 2:35 am

    9. We were just told dr.’s notes will no longer suffice. FMLA or you better be at work. I told him good luck on enforcing that.

  9. CSRS SLUG on Fri, 1st May 2009 2:36 am

    10. BTW, every f%$king supervisor I have known over the last 29 years has burned all their sick leave at the end. Hypocrite mother f%$kers.

  10. I smell a rat on Fri, 1st May 2009 3:59 am

    11. Management, pull your head out of your favorite place!! This is another part of why the postal service is in such bad shape. Management thinks they are king shit and they are too stupid to realize they are hurting the whole organization. Like I say, pull your heads out of your asses!!

  11. yea, right on Fri, 1st May 2009 5:34 am

    12. S/L usage causes morale problems? The only thing doing that is the way the employees are treated on a daily basis. You want better morale look at the real problems. Overwork, stress, favoritism, abusive management, from the top down. The only thing those slugs do is try to make the workers jobs harder and more miserable and causing the poor morale.

  12. same here on Fri, 1st May 2009 8:19 am

    13. in my ao if your non union, take all the sick leave you want,with same day service to boot.but union you get lwop and have to bring a note for one day and calling your house to see if your there. KISS MY ASS PO for the double standard , and you wonder why we get an attitude????????

  13. Big Papa on Fri, 1st May 2009 12:11 pm

    14. When you run out of sick leave just call in dead!

  14. GET A BACKBONE on Sun, 3rd May 2009 8:40 pm

    15. LAKE CHARLES, LA MPO POST MASTER C. LIPSCOMB DOES NOT CARE AND OIC FITZGERALD IS JUST PASSING THROUGH. THE TWO DUMMIES THEY ALSO ALLOW TO HOLD POSITIONS THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO, SHELBY FRUGE AND FAYE COLQUITT SHOULD BOTH BE LET GO. THE OFFICE IS ON AUTOMATIC. SICK LEAVE OH WELL, CALL IN NOTHING WILL THE DO AGAINST YOU. CHECK IT OUT DISTRICT MANAGER AND AREA VICE PRESIDENT FOR THOSE YOU HAVE RUNNING THE MPO THERE HAS PUT YOU TO SHAME. SO TELL ME THIS, WHAT DOES THAT SAY OF YOUR SUPERVISION OVER THEM? I’LL VERRRRRRRRRY LITTLE. YOUR A JOKE TOO.

  15. robert on Mon, 4th May 2009 8:04 pm

    16. remember cars breakdown, machine malfunction, so as the mail carrier. this is manual labor job we don’t sit all day like postmaster, manager, and supervisor waiting for payday. I been working for the post office nearly 30 years and the problem is always the management. they are the one that make us sick. if they just leave us alone and do our work without harrashment probably it will eliminate many sick leave.

  16. almost home on Tue, 5th May 2009 5:49 am

    17. in the Md district MPO j Gwinn has been out on extended sick leave, everyone knows its justa ploy to sart his retirement early,shame shame on you!!

  17. Sam on Tue, 5th May 2009 7:14 am

    18. Give me a break! Sick leave usage don’t cause bad morale!!
    Bad morale causes Sick leave usage!!
    If you ever want to reduce Sick leave replace the multiple layers of unresponsive stupid management, and employees will begin to feel a part of the organization and come to work.

  18. WE THE UNION on Tue, 5th May 2009 6:30 pm

    19. OUR SICK TIME IS OURS! WE HAVE GIVEN UP HIGHER WAGES TO SECURE SICK FOR US. WE ARE HUMAN, WE GET SICK FROM TIME TO TIME. WE USE IT WHEN IT IS NEEDED. NO NEED TO FEEL GUILTY TO USE WHAT IS OURS WHEN WE NEED IT. PERIOD. BROTHER COMP!

  19. The Governor on Wed, 6th May 2009 6:13 am

    20. I used to feel guilty about sick leave usage, even if I were sicker than a dog. But the two years before I retired I burned every minute and I’m glad I did! After 40 years it’s about all I got. When management retire they get big bucks, so screw em!

  20. john on Thu, 7th May 2009 5:16 pm

    21. When I got hired I was told that one of the benefits of the job was paid sick leave. Now your going to try and discipline me for taking advantage of one of the benefits of my job? Screw you. When I feel sick, I stay home. When I have a dentist appt, I stay home. When I feel like staying home, I stay home. Sick time is mine and I’ll use it when I want.