It was definitely fascinating seeing how the postal service works behind the scenes as I wrote in an earlier post below.

Every day I walk through the front door and step over my mail. When I pick it up, I never think about where its been or how its made it to my home… God only knows, I guess.

Well sort of. After spending most of yesterday with United States Postal Service employees, I know a lot more about how it made its way to my door than ever before.

Each and every morning these dedicated civil servants handle amazing volumes of mail and packages or as I learned yesterday, ‘the post.” I met a letter carrier who was slated to deliver a van load of mail and she said it was a light day.

While a lot of mail is electronically sorted, carriers begin their day by sorting some mail by hand and integrating it with the pre-sorted mail. At the same time, clerks sort packages by route and often times the letter carrier I met, will begin her route by delivering mostly letters and then make a second round delivering packages.

So today when I send off one my ebay packages, I will think of the people I met who were up to their arm pits in boxes and appreciate even more the work they do to keep our economy moving.

By Mary Wisniewski | Reuters

CHICAGO (Reuters) – While delivering mail on Chicago’s North Side, Lakesha Dortch-Hardy spoke about how much she loves her job at the U.S. Postal Service, and how much it would hurt if jobs such as hers were to disappear.

“These jobs are the middle class …” said Dortch-Hardy, a tall, energetic 38-year-old, who took long strides as she wheeled her cart along a row of two- and three-story brick apartment houses. “Without this job, I don’t know where I’d be right now.”

The cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service has eliminated 168,000 jobs since 2006, and more cuts could result as it struggles to avoid its own “fiscal cliff.” As the United States honors Martin Luther King’s civil rights legacy on Monday, many African-American workers may be facing new obstacles to achieving and maintaining a middle-class life style… Read More

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