Try to do something nice for someone and it never fails, it comes back to haunt you! My sub at the post office said she wanted off Saturday to have Thanksgiving dinner with her boyfriend's parents. Okay, I was planning to take the day off after Thanksgiving and would have to use an annual leave day for that normally, so I told her we could just switch days. The postal service has gotten very stingy lately with any overtime pay so subs are no longer allowed to take off on the days they are scheduled to work as normally this would cause the regular carrier to receive overtime in compensation for working on their off day. So some carriers will just switch a day for a day with their sub to help them out once in a while.
We had a good bit of mail on Saturday, but I was doing fine with it and would have gotten back to the office in plenty of time, but then on the route my car decided to have a fit! All of a sudden the steering wheel jerked and the car went left of center. I was lucky there was nothing coming so I slowed down and then it happened again.
Once I reached the road where I turn to go back into town, I decided I would just go very slowly and deliver the mail as I went which I did. The car continued to exhibit very strange behavior, making noises that I had never heard before. Once I got back to town I headed straight for the post office.
I explained my problem to the supervisor and she said that one of the girls would be back shortly from their route and they could help me get the rest of the mail delivered. That was the case and we managed to get done a little after 4 PM. I figured I would go in early Monday morning and take the car to the repair shop to have it fixed in plenty of time to use it for the mail once I got it ready.
That was the plan and that is what I did. I arrived a little after 6 AM and took the car to the shop and made arrangements for someone to bring me back to the post office. At about 10:30 AM, I called the shop and they said the car would be ready in 10-15 minutes. We went to pick up the car at 11:00 AM.
The man at the shop said he could find nothing wrong either with the brakes or the front suspension and said to just go ahead and use it like it was. I know my car and I know there was something bad wrong with it. I told him so and also said that I would be seeing him again shortly. I left and loaded the car with my mail at the post office and went to begin my route.
After about 30 minutes, the car began to make the same noises again and this time I was determined to ride it out and see what would happen if I continued. Well, it didn't take long. After 5 more minutes the wheel began to lock up and the next thing I knew something broke and the whole left front side of the car dropped down. The car would still move, but just barely. I pulled it off to the side of the road and got out to have a look.
I saw that the left front wheel was now at an angle instead of being straight up and down. So I went up to the house I was in front of and asked to use the phone. Called the repair shop to come get the car and they said they would. About 45 minutes later someone arrived and we hauled the car in.
Once back at the shop it was determined that the wheel bearing on that side had basically just fell apart. I told them to fix it and called the post office. I explained the problem and the postmaster said he would contact someone to get the mail. I happened to see my sub who was delivering the mail on someone else's route and told her what the problem was. She said she would be back once she got done with that route.
It was now about 1:30 PM and work began to repair my car. Parts were ordered and arrived, not the correct parts, more parts were ordered, etc. This happened several times and shortly my sub arrived to pick up my mail. She said if I got the car fixed to come check on her as she didn't have time to do the entire route before 5 PM. I assured her I would and true to my word when the car was finally fixed, now after 4 PM, I met her out on the route and took half of the remaining mail. We managed to get done with the route and back to the office a short time after 5 PM, the truck was still there so no real harm done as far as the mail was concerned. That was when the other shoe dropped.
The postmaster asked me how these things were normally handled as far as compensation was concerned and I informed him that normally the subs were paid for their time and I paid for their mileage. He then informed me that he didn't do it that way. He said I would have to take an annual day and let the sub have the evaluated time. In other words, just like I had taken off the entire day and my sub had worked for me. Wow, this day was just getting better and better.
He also said I would be required to pay the girls that helped me Saturday as there was no money in the budget for that. I told him that they had already put the time on their time cards as that was what they were told to do by the supervisor who worked Saturday. He said he would try to see if he could find some extra money in the budget then.
This all started because I tried to do something nice for someone. It just doesn't pay...
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