How Not to Be a Dick: When Compliance Smokes Out Judgment
Before I ever sat in an HR office, I was hauling mail through Michigan blizzards. From 1979 to 1986, I worked as a letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service, and if you think the USPS has labor problems today, trust me, it was worse back then. The culture was pure command-and-control, supervisors lived for clipboards, and grievance slips flew like confetti. I joined the National Association of Letter Carriers, became a shop steward, and learned labor relations the hard way: face-to-face with managers who thought enforcement was a form of leadership. It was less “career” and more “combat training,” but it gave me the foundation for the 35+ years I’ve spent in employee relations since. And it gave me villains. Not crooks — pettier than that. Petty tyrants with clipboards. Which brings me to Ron. Ron was one of those. He managed me when I was a young letter carrier in Michigan. To this day, whenever someone asks me what pointless management looks like, I think of Ron’s Pinto rolli...
