'Twas the day after Christmas, and all through the south, every creature was stirring... and coming to the post office to mail all the Christmas gifts they procrastinated and didn't mail two weeks ago like they should have. Whoever told me the rest of this week should be easy and light with only a few customers -- you LIED. We had a line all day long, and needless to say, I was in a less than festive mood. I was ready for a few moments of peace, but I guess that will come at a yet to be determined time. The only improvement today was the customers seemed to be less agitated. They KNOW they're already late, so they're not stressin' it -- if the package gets there in 2 or 3 days, cool. If it gets there in a week or so for less money, that's even cooler.

My only contentious moment of the day came early on, and I had my say and that's all there is to it. One of the other clerks was pointing out the fact that next Monday should be interesting, with only 3 clerks there (one clerk will still be on vacation, and I won't be there because it's my New Year's holiday). He then asked was it possible I was working? My swift reply was "absolutely not." The established rules are as follows: management is supposed to post a holiday schedule no later than the Tuesday of the week prior to the holiday. Well, my new little abode doesn't post anything. I guess we're supposed to either ask what the staffing needs are, or we're supposed to be mind readers. While I'm capable of both, I refuse to do either. I could ask, but why should I have to? I could "mind read", and since I was in management myself a good number of years ago that's rather more simple than you'd think, but again -- why would I do that? I'm just a little level 5 peon. I refuse to do the job that a level 15 supervisor or a level 17 station manager should be doing. It's extremely simple to post a holiday schedule -- takes less than 5 minutes, and that's if the printer has to warm up. If management is going to willfully not post one, the least they can do is give me verbal notification within the allotted time frame. I would, on occasion, like to make some plans, and I need to have some reasonable amount of time in which to make them. I don't think that's too much to ask, and the Employee/Labor/Management handbook agrees. It's real simple: no tell me, me no workee.

One of these days, my new management is going to catch on to something: I'm relatively easy to get along with (hey! no snickering), I'm extremely hard-working and I'm self-motivated, but I'm a stickler about one thing -- MY time. I work my butt off while I'm there, but I'm not married to the place. They already get 8 or more hours of my day, and I view that as a necessary evil until I hit the lottery or get a publishing deal. I refuse to give them any more of my time than I must. And if management insists on requiring my services for overtime or holidays, then I'm going to require they do it in a timely manner. End of story.