Poisoned Pens |
I recently received a couple of pieces of hate mail which I feel are worthy of sharing with you. The reason I think they are important is because I believe they offer a unique insight into the minds of some folks who we work with who are not only anti-union, but are so vehemently opposed to our cause that they are worthy of particular attention. I'll explain myself at the end of this article. For now, I present you with the complete texts of their messages in blue typeface and my responses to them in black typeface.
Message text written by "Lisa"
If you are so fu----- unhappy, just quit the company. If you are worth so much more money, etc. than you shouldn't have any problem finding another job. Since UPS is so wonderful, why don't you work for them. I did my time with UPS and came to Fedex and believe me the change was a pleasant one. Why don't you give it a try, go to work for UPS and see what your missing. Believe it or not, not all FedEx employees think it is such a bad deal. Even many of the old timers don't feel like it is such a bad deal. If I felt like it was, I would move on. My skills are sharp enough that I can get another job. Would you like some cheese with that wine(whine)? No one is begging you to stay, and I am sure without you that the company will continue to satisfy their customers and make a profit...if you would focus all of these energies on something positive, you might even enjoy life....
I have no idea why you feel so threatened by my site and so emotionally attached to FedEx that you would be inspired to resort to profanity and immature vitriol, but might I be so bold as to suggest that you seek professional help immediately? It is quite obvious that something is terribly missing from your life to have created an emotional void so vast that you'd find an attack on the corporate entity you work for so personally disturbing. It is also painfully obvious that you suffered from a childhood where you were deprived of caring parenting since leveling obscenities at a perfect stranger seems entirely appropriate in your mind. Furthermore, it is equally apparent that you received a less-than-adequate education in that you made assumptions about me while evidence quite to the contrary of your assumptions was easily divined from the information provided on my site. Obviously either your reading or research (or both) skills are woefully below par.
As obvious as your problems are, I am ill-equipped as a layman to offer you much help. However, FedEx's "People Help" program should provide you with professionials in your area who might be able to get to the core of your frustration and inner turmoil and offer you genuine help.
Once you get straightened out, you might consider starting a "I Love FedEx" site of your own. I think it would be very interesting to see just how many visitors such a site would attract. At the very least, with a site of your own, you might not feel impulsively drawn to my site where your anxieties might again cause you such emotional stress.
I wish you luck in getting well.
Message text written by "Timothy Poe"
I have been both a member of hourly workers,along with salary now...I am not going to battle words with you,but I feel if you dedicated as much time to your job as you do this website....MAYBE you may just succeed in your career...
Mr. Poe,
I've never received less than a 6.4 on any performance review in my nearly 11 years at FedEx. I believe this is clear evidence that I devote more than adequate time to my job. Actually, I am quite content in the success I have attained in my "career." Were this not the case, I would be motivated to move beyond what I am presently doing. I could have been a manager many times over in my FedEx career and have been repeatedly encouraged by management to pursue that venue. However, I like the idea of punching a clock and leaving my commitment to my job at the station door so that I am free to pursue my personal interests unencumbered by professional attachments of any sort. It's quite liberating to punch a clock!
If you feel you are under paid,I would like to know what you feel someone who came to work for a company with a driver's license and then was taught everything they now know how to do their job is worth..I hate to tell YOU this...but it's not rocket science....a courier in Chicago or anywhere else in the U.S.A. is not worth what you feel you are...
I'm not privy to FedEx's current hiring practices, but in order to be hired as a "courier" off the street (I don't even know if FedEx does this anymore) management used to look for some sort of professional driving and routing experience, not merely possession of a driver's license.
As for what a courier is "worth" here in Chicago or anywhere else, that is something determined by both the labor pool and the management staff of the corporate entity in question. Where management is united in their stand while the labor pool is not, management, in effect, holds all the aces. When management is populated by fair-minded people who understand the realities of the lives of their employees, this type of uneven power distribution can work well. My wife, for example, has received raises every year that have not only kept her abreast with inflation, but have actually exceeded it most years. In short, as an individual worker, my wife's standard of living has actually improved as she's invested an increasing portion of her life with her employer.
FedEx, on the other hand, has not only failed miserably to do the same for its employees, it has actually forced us all to submit to an involuntary series of pay *cuts* over more than a decade of time. In short, FedEx, de facto, is telling its workers that they are worth less and less each year that they do not offer across-the-board wage increases that at least keep pace with inflation!
You state categorically that couriers are not worth what I think they are worth. Yet, all I have ever stated is that I believe FedEx workers should never lose ground in their wages while our corporate leadership has not shared in our wage regression. Remember a fellow by the name of Lee Iacocca? When Chrysler found itself in financial trouble and its workers were asked for wage concessions, Mr. Iacocca announced that he'd only take $1 in annual wages until Chrysler recovered from its financial problems!
FedEx management, on the other hand, is not only taking bigger and bigger pieces of the corporate pie for themselves, but they have continually done so at the same time as they are whining to all of us about decreased profit margins and revenues per package! Furthermore, they did so even after squandering corporate profits on such short-sighted adventures as ZapMail and our overextended European deployment! Now, stations all across the country have $30,000 station processors that have become nothing more than very expensive paperweights while I've been waiting since March for a lousy spring jacket I ordered from our uniform program! What's wrong with this picture?
While our jobs may not be rocket science, as you put it, the demands placed on us for accuracy and compliance definitely exceed those placed on NASA scientists! FedEx employees routinely deliver 100% performance levels where data entry accuracy, POD compliance, on-road productivity and other facets of their job are concerned. Compare that to NASA's record of failed launches, the Hubble telescope problems, satellite failures etc., and it becomes clear that FedEx employees surpass rocket scientists in our levels of performance. If only "rocket science" was performed at the level of your *average* FedEx worker's performance.....
If you feel you deserve more money for what you do...go to U.P.S........ then you'll figure out (too late)...how good FedEx was to you.....
I don't know what your particular goals in life are Timothy, but I hope that if you have any grand plans for success, you'll first hone your research skills before you become a monumental disappointment to yourself. You obviously haven't researched my site nearly well enough to suggest I go to UPS, nor are you adequately familiar with UPS's corporate employment policies to offer such a suggestion with any plausibility. The *only* reason I am still not employed at UPS today was because I made the mistake of going into management there. UPS does not permit its managers to step back down into an hourly position as FedEx does. I hated being in management at UPS. I loved being a package car driver for UPS though! Unfortunately, I was young and full of ego so I let a lot of older folks I admired talk me into going into management at UPS. That was the biggest mistake of my life. Had I stayed a package car driver at UPS, I assure you I would still be there today and I'd be in far better financial condition!
and if you don't want to do that.....son...make a career change if your not making enough money.......don't blame FedEx for your insecurities...
Your words would be funny if they weren't so ironic and full of tragic implications about yourself Timothy. You speak of *my* insecurities in the same sentence where you call me "son!" Your need to diminish my stature in your mind by inferring that I am somehow junior in stature to yourself speaks volumes about your own insecurity. I hope you'll consider seeking some professional help as it is apparent that you are in need of same.
and or inabilities.....I believe the best thing you could do for yourself would find other employment....If you don't like it...Quit....
Once again, your inept research skills cause you to make statements borne out of ignorance. Please read everything on my site site before expounding on what I should or should not do. I have adequately addressed the asinine nature of the "If you don't like it, quit." mentality in an article that bears that title on my site.
As for my "inabilities," maturity has taught me that ability and career do not necessarily go hand-in-hand, nor should they always do so. I have had numerous professionals tell me that I have the ability to make a good living with either my computer skills or my writing skills. If you saw my bedroom set, you might even make the same appraisal of my woodworking skills. Yet, I do all three of the aforementioned as hobbies because I enjoy them. If I were to choose to do one of them as a profession, then I would be using those skills to meet deadlines or other employer specifications. In short, they would no longer be activities I engage in at my leisure, they would merely be just jobs. I feel I would therefore lose much of the enjoyment experienced when engaging in them if I had to make a living by doing one of them.
You or no one else who works for FedEx should feel as though they are irreplaceable... because we are....
It never ceases to amaze me how folks who have a problem with something can just pull inferences out of thin air without regard for the lack of substance behind them! I'd love to know where you got the idea that I thought I or any other FedEx employee is "irreplaceable?" Kindly explain yourself.
You are wasting too much of your time and money on this site....
Who are you to decide what constitutes a waste of a person's own time or personal resources Timothy? On the other hand, by visiting my site and sending me letters filled with baseless indictments and hare-brained suggestions, aren't you indeed wasting *your* time and money? I don't visit web sites that have nothing to offer me in the way of enjoyment or useful information. It's obvious that my site does not provide you with either of the aforementioned, so why do you waste your time visiting it or writing about it? A moth is drawn to a flame because it lacks the intelligence to discern the difference between it and the sun. Aren't you smarter than a moth?
I am from a different part of the country than you,and if you feel everyone in FedEx is Pro union.... well... Wrong!....You feel as though your little world in Chicago knows all.....well bud...ya don't....I can tell you, I travel a little farther through FedEx than you....and guess what...your perception is wrong....majority of the folks realize what they have.....Maybe you will before it's too late.
Considering that there are few states left where the unions are not working actively with FedEx employees to organize and considering that election petitions have been filed for stations across the entire geographical area of the country, I'd say that whatever lengths you travel in your service to FedEx, you must be doing that travelling with a blindfold on and ear plugs in place. Again, your lack of research and/or reading skills hampers your ability to make statements with any basis in fact. As reported on my site, the unions are making very impressive inroads at FedEx locations nationwide. As soon as the Teamsters finish negotiating the upcoming UPS contract, this progress will undoubtedly become so dramatic as to even reach your sheltered reality.
Message text written by "Timothy Poe"
Kevin,
I really think you need to devote more time to something else....maybe
your job?????...
Mr. Poe,
As opposed to you wasting time writing me two letters filled with baseless innuendo about things you've obviously not devoted any time to researching? Who's really wasting time Timothy? At least I'm engaged in a cause I believe in. What are you fighting for? A multi-billion dollar corporate entity that doesn't even know you exist beyond an employee number in their personnel database? Furthermore, as I've already told you in my reply to your first letter, I received a 6.5 on my last (IPP) review. I therefore do not believe my web site activities are in any way affecting my job performance in any detrimental manner.
A person has to go to work every day to make a living....and if their respective education leads them into a career with FedEx....Well....all I can say...is good for them......
I'm sure you were attempting to make some sort of point here. Unfortunately, your wording is so ambiguous that your point remains unclear. It almost appears as though you are stating that working at FedEx is some sort of just punishment for folks who didn't go far enough in their educations. However, as enamored as you appear to be with FedEx, it's hard for me to believe that you'd ever categorize the company as some type of "just desserts" for the unwashed masses. Then again, maybe this was merely a Freudian slip on your part.
You may attempt to intimidate others with your help of Webster's by your side...not me....your seen right through.....
I've obviously intimidated you though Timothy. At least to the point where you've written me two pieces of hate mail in two days and now you've been cowed into making false accusations in order to lodge indictments against me. I'm sure it will shock you to know this, but I don't own a "Webster's." My preference has always been Funk and Wagnalls. Furthermore, my dictionary has dust on it. I can't remember the last time I consulted it. Last, but not least, since you were obviously alluding to my writing skills, let me just say that a dictionary has very little use in the writing craft. Rather, a *thesaurus* would be the reference of choice for a writer. However, there again, I would have to report that my Roget's also has a layer of dust on it.
You definitely do not know the whole story behind the dismissal of your friend.....and neither do I.....One thing is definite....a person needs to get facts before he makes allegations.
Well Timothy, since I have copies of all three of the disciplinary letters used against him in his termination as well as a copies of his termination letter and the policy cited in his termination, I'd say that I have all the pertinent facts necessary to make a judgement in his case. I don't know what other evidence you feel I should have, but one thing *is* clear. You certainly don't have enough evidence to state categorically that I don't know the "whole story."
PSP lives at FedEx....it's what BUILT the Company and causes it to continually grow....
Here's where evidence that you are not grounded in reality insofar as your thought processes are concerned is clearly demonstrated Timothy. A philosophy is incapable of building *anything!* PEOPLE built FedEx. Your entire frame of reference seems focused on intangible ideas while conveniently omitting the human element from the scenario. Don't feel too badly though. It's evident that many members of FedEx management share your myopia.
You may feel as though you know ALL in your little world of Chicago,but I hate to bring reality on....you are wrong......
You've obviously not read much of what's on my site Timothy. For if you had, you'd be aware of the fact that people from all over the country are expressing serious problems with FedEx. If this were merely a local Chicago phenomenon, I would have never considered starting this web site. People were driven by unfair labor practices, intimidation and wage stagnation to file an election petition for the entire Liberty district several years ago! They were the trailblazers who emboldened FedEx people from across the country to contact unions to fight for our dignity as workers. Chicago just happens to be where I live and I'm not even the only pro-FedEx worker web site on the web. Again, you engage your keyboard before doing adequate research to back up your accusations.
If you are a disgruntled employee...which seems to be apparent.....well son,maybe you need to make a career change....
It is becoming apparent that you are definitely one threatened fellow Timothy. Your repeated need to diminish my stature to that of "son" in order to somehow make yourself feel as though you are speaking down to me from a position of authoritative distinction is indeed telling. You've done this in both of your letters to me. Please consider getting some professional help to assist you in coping with your insecurities.
As for your suggestion that I make a career change, I reiterate that I've adequately addressed that shallow invective in the "If You Don't Like It, Quit!" article on my site. Are you going to repeat this suggestion like a trained parrot in every letter?
18 years at a company doesn't make them your caretakers...if you do your job...your treated fairly.....If you don't.....attitudes like yours are likely taken.
Nowhere on my site do I infer that the company owes us anything we haven't *earned* Timothy and I defy you to find evidence to the contrary. You portray me as some sort of panhandler looking for a handout from FedEx when all I am seeking is some measure of dignity from our corporate leadership. There is *no* dignity in firing an 18 year veteran of FedEx for asinine reasons like paperwork errors, faulty BERT workmanship, lackadaisical management vigilance of safety issues, flunked computer tests and other idiotic reasons when such an employee has not failed in any way to meet our customers' expectations!
Of the less than 10 pieces of hate mail I’ve received since starting up this web site, I was most pleased with the letters from Lisa and Timothy. I couldn’t ask for better examples of a peculiar kind of mystifying character flaw so many people in this country have which I have always found fascinating. This personality glitch makes such folks extremely susceptible to brainwashing and unreasonable emotional attachments to everything from rock stars to corporate entities. The one time I’ve ever had something published that I’ve written, it was an article about folks just like Lisa and Timothy. It was about Deadheads. You know, those fans of Jerry Garcia and his band, the Grateful Dead. When Garcia assumed room temperature, his fans whined and cried as though their own father had died. Many openly asked plaintively “Who will lead us now?” like so many lost lambs. Many immediately switched to following the band Phish because they needed some band to identify with to fill the emotional void left behind by Garcia’s death.
I’ve never been much of a sports fan, and as much as I enjoy music (I have a collection of over 800 CDS and 900 albums), I’ve never idolized any musician. Okay, so as a kid I did have a crush on Annette Funicello, but then again, what boy back then didn’t? The point I’m trying to make is that I’ve never understood people who develop an emotional tie with a celebrity they have never personally known, a sports team they have no real part in or a corporate entity that merely pays them for services rendered! Yet, there are millions of our species who develop such intense psychological bonds with the aforementioned that they weep when a rock star dies, become angry and depressed when the home team loses a game and lash out at folks who are critical of the corporate entity they work for! I’ve always found such folks to be a curiosity. I’m no psychologist or psychiatrist so I’m at a loss as to explain such character flaws, but if I were to hazard a reasonably educated guess, I’d have to believe that something has to be missing from such folks lives to leave a void so large and needy as to cause them to develop such unreasonable relationships with those entities.
To some extent, I can at least partially rationalize the attachment such people develop for a musician, actor or sports figure. Any of those people is capable of eliciting an emotional response while in the course of performing their professions. A musician can tug at your heart strings by playing just the right melody at just the right moment in one’s life to create a special memory. An actor can deliver a powerful performance that an observer of his craft might identify with as something they’ve personally experienced. An athlete can elicit memories of a spectator’s past athletic glories or thrill a fan with a feat of great skill that elicits admiration. Though none of these things justify developing a personal attachment for the court jesters and wandering minstrels of our time, at least there is some logical basis for a person’s emotions to be brought into play where they are concerned.
Where a corporate entity is concerned though, I am always amazed that anyone could be so emotionally needy as to develop such an emotional attachment! Does the corporation somehow take the place of the parent in the lives of such people? Do they view their pay as some sort of allowance for adults? Do they imagine that when their bosses discipline them it is with the same love and good intentions as that involved when their parents disciplined them? What makes such people tick? Why would such folks spend their own time visiting a web site that is critical of they company they seem to have sworn their blind fealty to and then feel compelled to spend even more time writing hate mail as lacking in substance as their emotional lives apparently are? Is this the phenomenon known as being “married to one’s work?”
I devote as much time as I do to this site because I’ve seen decent human beings lose their jobs and have their lives turned upside down by a company that increasingly treats its people like machines with serial numbers rather than as the human beings they are. My emotional bond is with living, feeling members of my own species, not for some flashing symbol on a Wall St. broker’s computer terminal. This is what makes understanding folks such as Lisa and Timothy so difficult for me. They are quick to attack their fellow man in defense of the corporate logo! To them, human beings are mere disposable commodities to be exploited to the fullest and then discarded whenever it is perceived that having them around is no longer convenient. They’d unflinchingly take the word of the company’s propaganda ministers over that of the coworker that works side by side with them.
I’m not quite sure of the best way to deal with the Timothys and Lisas of FedEx. Reason seems to be a futile exercise with such people. I suppose I should ignore them, but I somehow hold the faint hope that I might jar them to their senses if I respond to them. In any event, they are definitely people to be cautious around. They are the types who would immediately report any sort of union activity to their managers like children tattling on their siblings in the hope of currying favor with mommy or daddy. The Timothys and Lisas I’ve known during my career at FedEx have all been terribly insecure people. They are the people who feel compelled to point out the perceived shortcomings in the job performance of their peers. We have a Timothy at GYY who’s a swing driver. He constantly points out how much faster he can do someone’s route than the regular person assigned to that route. He cannot seem to feel good about himself unless he’s doing so at someone else’s expense. We’ve all known our share of Timothys and Lisas. The question that begs asking is should we hold them in contempt or should we pity them?