Neither snow, nor rain nor workplace gloom will keep the nation’s post office employees from getting the mail delivered on time.

But low morale and verbally abusive supervisors are common in post offices across the nation, including Lawrence, according to a book self-published by a retired Oregon letter carrier.

The book, “Going Postal II,” is the second authored by Al Ainsworth to relate stories from U.S. Postal Service employees in their bouts with management and what he calls lack of workplace dignity. The first “Going Postal” book came out two years ago.

“My sole goal was to get people treated better, and it’s not going as well as I hoped it would,” Ainsworth said in a telephone interview with the Journal-World from his home in Portland.

In “Going Postal II,” Ainsworth, who retired after 25 years in the Postal Service, included two stories related to him by Lawrence postal workers.

Ainsworth did not name names and only describes Lawrence as a “Kansas college town.” But Lawrence letter carrier Sam Segraves said the chapter titled “Smile … you’re on candid camera” is about him and fellow letter carrier Frank Regnier.

According to the book and Segraves’ account, the incident occurred about a year ago, while a district postal route examiner was following Regnier to see if he was doing his job efficiently. Segraves also was following Regnier and videotaping his work as a precaution against what the examiner might report.

At some point the woman examiner saw Segraves, became suspicious and called Lawrence Police, claiming she was being stalked. Officers arrived and talked to Segraves, Regnier and the examiner. Once they had sorted out what was going on and determined there was no crime taking place, they left, much to the chagrin of the examiner, Segraves said.

At the time both Segraves and Regnier had been in disputes with managers about getting their routes adjusted because of the time it was taking them to complete delivery. Segraves said he thought managers were unfairly criticizing them for wasting time.

Letter carrier Sam Segraves is opting for early retirement because of what he deems hostile working conditions at the Lawrence post office. Segraves is pictured at the downtown branch at 645 Vt.

Regnier, who is still a postal employee, declined to comment about the incident.

Segraves also is still an employee, but he is currently on disability leave because of what he described as stress and the after effects of a back injury from a slip on the ice last winter while on his route. He said he expected to turn in his retirement papers and wasn’t afraid to speak out.

“They (management) have created a climate of fear and intimidation,” the 25-year-postal employee said.

Forced out?

But not all managers were unpopular, and that might have been why one long-time supervisor was “forced out,” said Segraves and other current and former employees who didn’t want to be named.

Chapter four of “Going Postal II,” “Good supervisor ‘pushed out the door,'” also came from Lawrence. The unnamed supervisor was Sonny Larios.

Larios, who retired April 30, said he hadn’t seen the book nor read the account about him. He said he decided to retire because he thought he would soon be replaced anyway by a younger manager trainee.

Larios also was critical of the post office environment because of “number crunching” and the ignoring of the human element while trying to make the postal service more efficient.

“I looked at it from a human standpoint,” said Larios, who worked 37 years in the postal service, 20 as a carrier and 17 as a supervisor. “Everybody’s got problems and nobody is perfect. That’s the thing about machines. Everything that comes down the pike is based on a computer scenario.”

Larios, who lives in Ottawa, spoke highly of the Lawrence postal workers he left behind. He said Lawrence was a difficult town to work in because of the large number of Kansas University students who are constantly moving and changing addresses. That is something he doesn’t think district postal officials in Kansas City, Mo., understand.

Larios left without any special retirement ceremony.

“I was a little bitter when I left, but time heals everything and I’m doing OK now,” Larios said.

“There are good bosses and there are bad bosses,” Ainsworth said. “So many managers are not allowed to be what managers can be.”

Changing the guard

Much of the tension between management and the rank-and-file postal employees increased after former Lawrence Postmaster Bill Reynolds retired late last year, Segraves, Larios and others said.

The tension was enough to cause long-time letter carrier Will Lunn to retire a few months ago.

“Even if you are not the direct focus of intimidation, merely being in the presence of the pressure makes it a very unpleasant place to work,” Lunn said. “Decent people shouldn’t be treated in such a manner.”

Judy Raney was hired in December 2003 to replace Reynolds and an interim postmaster.

Raney said she was not aware of any morale problems between supervisors and employees.

“Nobody has said anything to me about verbal abuse,” Raney said.

Raney also said she had heard someone mention the “Going Postal” book but said she had not read it, didn’t know much about it, and was unaware of the stories from Lawrence that were in it.

As for the videotaping incident, she noted that it occurred before she came to work in Lawrence. She said she couldn’t comment on Larios’ retirement.