COMMENTARY | This morning’s headline from the Chicago Tribune reads “White House plan to save postal jobs would end Saturday delivery.” It’s no secret snail mail is approaching extinction. For most people, no Saturday delivery means one thing: less paper in the wastebasket. The mail these days contains two things, bills and ads.
Neither is anything to look forward to on your day off. Dear postal service employees: The time to job hunt is now. Putting it off won’t do your resume any favors. You are employed by a dysfunctional dinosaur. Get out while you can.
The mail used to be something to look forward to. There were letters from loved ones, packages, cards and free samples. Of course, there was the mother of all mail deliveries, that yearly Sears catalog. We even called it the dream book, or wish book. Does Sears still put out a mail-order catalog? If they do, I wouldn’t know. Haven’t seen one in years. Packages generally come by alternate, more economical carriers. Letters have been taken over by email. So have cards, for that matter.
Mail delivery has gone from happy interlude to unwelcome interruption. It’s just one more thing to deal with. It heralds the arrival of bills we can’t afford to pay and junk we never asked for in the first place. In fact, we hate mail so much, there’s even a way to request less of it. Do we really need snail mail, or are we just putting off the inevitable? Is there anything the U.S. Postal Service does that isn’t done better and faster by someone else?
Several years from now, we will inevitably wake up to a different headline: “U.S. Postal Service closes doors, millions unemployed, job competition fierce.” Some branches are already on the chopping block. Wake up, postal workers: The time to job hunt is now.
Don’t put it off until you have millions of laid-off workers to compete with. Make your move before someone makes it for you. Snail mail has been reduced to a pile of paper in the wastebasket, right along with the phone book and the daily news. Don’t let your career suffer the same fate.