When the Canada Post carrier in one neighbourhood in Drumheller, Alta., went on vacation a week or so before Christmas, so did the mail.
That's meant for many residents there have been no bills, no cheques, no Christmas presents or even deliveries of medication for as long as three weeks.
Teresa Williams of Canada Post says it's the carrier's responsibility to find and train a replacement, but that didn't happen in this case.
WTF is the logic in that?
Everywhere I've ever worked, the employer has been ultimately responsible for replacing people who are out sick or on vacation by having an existing employee fill in. And I've never worked anywhere nearly as large as Canada Post! Why aren't they equipped to do this?
Apart from the fact that this is unfair to the employees, it's unacceptable as a public service! Canada Post is a large organization - their organization says they have 60,000 employees. Surely we, as customers and citizens, should enjoy the benefits of having our postal services provided by a large organization. And one of the benefits of a large organization is that they have a lot of people working for them, and are equipped to recruit and train more people. If one person is away, there are other trained and qualified people to fill in. If there aren't enough people, they can hire and train more. When real life affects the employees like real life does, the customers don't feel the difference. Not only are there replacements available, but they are already trained in the job and familiar with the organization's standards and requirements, rather than just being whomever the absent worker could muster up from their personal circle at the last minute.
Even the cheapest, most lowbrow companies you can think of make management or corporate responsible for recruiting and training and replacing employees who are absent. Fast food restaurants do it. Discount retailers do it. Why won't Canada Post give Canadians this most basic aspect of customer service that comes with being a large organization?
2 comments:
Not a lot of detail in the Star's story, but I wonder if the issue is that the delivery person is NOT a Canada Post employee, but rather a contractor. This is the case for most mail that gets delivered to a supermailbox. In my neighbourhood, it looks like little more than "mom in a minivan" that delivers and collects from the box.
I still think it's a problem that Canada Post would contract out in a way that would create such a poor level of contingency service?
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