How Does This Make You Feel?

[AGBF]

Excerpted from "The New York Times"

"A mail carrier in Brooklyn stashed about 17,000 pieces of undelivered mail for more than a decade because he was 'overwhelmed' by the amount he had to deliver, the authorities said.

The carrier, Aleksey Germash, told investigators he 'made sure to deliver the important mail,' according to a complaint filed in federal court.

Mr. Germash, a Postal Service employee for more than 16 years, was charged with detaining and delaying mail on Thursday.

The service’s Office of Inspector General received a tip this month about a Nissan Pathfinder parked in Brooklyn with mailbags stuffed inside. When Postal Service agents visited the location, they found 20 blue post office bags packed with undelivered mail inside the vehicle.

Agents determined Mr. Germash, who worked at the post office in the Dyker Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, was the employee who lived closest to where the vehicle was found, the complaint said.

When investigators interviewed Mr. Germash, he said the vehicle was his and that he had hoarded the mail because he was overcome by how much he had to deliver, according to the complaint.

...​

The amount of undelivered mail investigators retrieved was staggering: 10,000 pieces inside his vehicle, 6,000 in his apartment and 1,000 in his work locker. At least one item was postmarked in 2005, according to the complaint.
In 2014, a Brooklyn mail carrier was discovered to have hidden 40,000 pieces of undelivered mail — a total of 2,500 pounds — over nine years. The carrier, Joseph Brucato, blamed excessive consumption of alcohol and depression. In 2015, a postal worker in Philadelphia failed to deliver more than 20,000 pieces of mail on his route and instead cached them in his car and home.

The phenomenon is not new.

In an article headlined 'A Lazy Letter-Carrier,' The New York Times in 1874 reported on the arrest of a Maryland mail carrier who dumped 200 letters into a dock 'to avoid the trouble of delivery.'”




Link to article...https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/21/...hoarded.html&eventName=Watching-article-click

 

[CJ2008]

Other.

It bothers me.

Not only because the person is not doing his/her job, but because the only person who can determine the importance of a piece of mail is the recipient, even for something that most would consider junk, like a credit card offer, or magazine subscription invitation.

And I am sure that these workers did not do such a thorough job in only picking "junk" mail, so that I am sure in all those piles some truly important mail was missed.

In some cases not getting a piece of mail can even change the course of someone's life (e.g., letter of acceptance into a college.)

It bothers me quite a bit. ETA: I like Lyra's word - angers. The more I think about it, certain aspects of it (like someone missing something that would have been meaningful to them) does anger me.

 

[lyra]

I voted enrages, although I'd prefer the term "angers". There are plenty of people who would be happy to have that job, and there shouldn't be a system where this could go on for 10 years. I get ticked off a bit when our mail carrier appears to take a day off now and then. I know these jobs are actually hard to get where I live.

 

[JPie]

It doesn't enrage me, but it is troubling to think how many people's lives these carriers have affected for the worse.

 

[tkyasx78]

Mail carriers make well over minimum wage here and competetion is tight to get those jobs.
It is disgusting that the punishment for these things is so low.

 

[tkyasx78]

If he didnt want to do his job there are plenty of people who would be happy to make $20+ an hour delivering mail

 

[TooPatient]

Not okay in the slightest. He collected his pay while not working for a decade. He got all the benefits of having a job without doing one.

Who decides what is junk? That high school kid not getting college brochures when all her friends are is devastated. Maybe that is enough to push her into suicide. So many things that look like junk to one person really matter to another.

As someone who worked at a large company as a mail carrier, I can say that it is a lot of work in a job people look down on. Seeing most of what you bring out tossed away as trash is frustrating as you struggle to get everything delivered on time. I get that. I have felt that. It is still never okay to not get mail to the recipient. Take vacation days, ask to change routes for a little something different, or change jobs entirely but every piece MUST go to the correct person.

 

[Madam Bijoux]

It makes me feel disgusted. How many people were charged extra finance charges or had their utilities cut off because of what that scumbag did?

 

[missy]

Mail carriers make well over minimum wage here and competetion is tight to get those jobs.
It is disgusting that the punishment for these things is so low.

If he didnt want to do his job there are plenty of people who would be happy to make $20+ an hour delivering mail

Exactly.

The whole thing is sad and it pisses me off and disgusts me. Mail is important and he was playing with people's lives in a significant way IMO. Not OK.

 

[Tekate]

It bothers me. I know carriers are stressed out and they have to scan coming in and out etc. BUT the guy should have quit.

 

[perry]

The biggest problem is that there is a story like this every year or so... and has been for decades... and the US Postal Service has never come up with a way to identify carriers who are not delivering their mail.

It's just "oh my" when the next one is identified.

If UPS, FedEx, and other services don't deliver people are called on the carpet (so to speak) - including the management if the problem occurs more than once.

The US Postal service seems to get a pass every year and all the time.

Have a great day,

 

[doberman]

I had to pick other. The story is unsurprising and simply reinforces my opinion of the USPS.

 

[House Cat]

I think of the personal mail. The letters saying goodbye. The letters from the dying. The letters trying to reconcile broken relationships. Letters that could have mended souls and saved lives and they went undelivered. THAT is what enrages me.

 

[Loves Vintage]

I must be in a super-mellow mood right now, but I'm not too bothered by it. Maybe they were all pottery barn catalogs? I guess if there were actual letter from the dying, then yes that is sad, but sounds like this guy was more than just lazy, maybe a mental issue? Or at least that's how I tend to think, like maybe he was doing the best he could. And, seriously, if we are going to get mad at people for not doing their jobs properly, I've got a lifelong list of people to get mad at, lol.

ETA: And, I guess I don't get too much important mail. If I were expecting something and didn't get it, I'd call.

 

[Puppmom]

I voted other - I’m perplexed. It just doesn’t make any sense. At 17,000 pieces over a decade or more - that’s only a few pieces a day, right? And wouldn’t it have been easier to just deliver those few pieces than to determine what was “important” enough to deliver?

I would think there’s some mental illness issues at play here. Or - we all know those people who work so hard to avoid doing their job that they might as well just put that energy into doing the job.

 

[canuk-gal]

I voted other - I’m perplexed. It just doesn’t make any sense. At 17,000 pieces over a decade or more - that’s only a few pieces a day, right? And wouldn’t it have been easier to just deliver those few pieces than to determine what was “important” enough to deliver?

I would think there’s some mental illness issues at play here. Or - we all know those people who work so hard to avoid doing their job that they might as well just put that energy into doing the job.

+1.