Postal Service Reform

By the mid-1960s, the Post Office Department was in trouble. Its management had little control over operations, and it was a sinking ship in dire need of reform. Congressman Tom Sneed of Oklahoma summed it up to the postmaster general in a 1967 hearing by the House Appropriations Subcommittee:

"Would this be a fair summary -- that at the present time, as manager of the Post Office Department, you have no control over your workload; over the rates or revenue; over the pay rates of the employees that you employ ... over the conditions of the service of these employees; you have virtually no control ... of your physical facilities; and you have only a limited control, at best, over the transportation facilities that you are compelled to use -- all of which adds up to a staggering amount of 'no control' in terms of the duties you have to perform?" [Source: USPS.com]

William Thomas Cain/­Getty Images Postman Ron Comly on his route in Philadelphia

As a part of the ensuing reform, the Post Office Department officially became the United States Postal Service on July 1, 1971. At that time it became an independent establishment of the executive branch of the government of the United States rather than a part of the cabinet. It began operating more like a corporation, but with the benefit of the official mail monopoly that was established under the Private Express Statutes in 1792. Package delivery and express services do not fall under this law, making it possible for other companies to offer those services.

"Going Postal" Due to a series of unfortunate events, the term "going postal" has become a euphemism for losing your cool in the workplace -- to the point of killing your coworkers. One of the first such events was in 1986 in Edmond, Okla. A part-time letter carrier named Patrick Henry Sherrill shot and killed 14 coworkers, then turned the gun on himself. Apparently, he had been afraid of losing his job. On Oct. 10, 1991, former postal worker Joseph Harris shot two of his former co-workers to death at the post office in Ridgewood, N.J. Harris had already killed his ex-supervisor, Carol Ott, with a 3-foot samurai sword and shot Cornelius Kasten the night before. On Nov. 14, 1991, at the Royal Oak Post Office in Michigan, recently fired postal worker Thomas McIlvane shot and killed four co-workers, wounded five others and shot himself. On May 6, 1993, there were two shootings in two cities. A fired postal worker wearing a "Psycho" T-shirt sneaked into a California post office and fatally shot a letter carrier. In Michigan, a mechanic killed a co-worker in a Postal Service garage before killing himself. The most recent post office shooting happened in 2003, when Jennifer Sanmarco, a former postal employee, killed four women and a man at a mail-processing plant in California and then killed herself. This was the only postal shooting carried out by a woman. Many more events are listed at these sites: Google Answers: Postal Shootings Boston.com: List of Deadly Postal Shootings