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What Next | Daily News and Analysis

A Post Office Insider On What We're Getting Wrong

What Next | Daily News and Analysis

Slate Podcasts

News, News Commentary, Daily News

4.32.4K Ratings

🗓️ 8 September 2020

⏱️ 21 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

John Nolan worked at the United States Postal Service for a total of 24 years. He retired in 2005. The last couple of months have been a frustrating time for someone with intimate knowledge of the institution. What are we getting wrong about the Postal Service? Guest: John Nolan, former Deputy Postmaster General  Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

John Nolan spent a good chunk of his career working for the U.S. Postal Service.

0:09.8

A total of 24 years, 19 years, and my first stint ending up as Postmaster New York City,

0:17.2

and I went to work for Merrill Lynch for 11 years and then came back for five years as

0:21.2

the deputy postmaster general.

0:23.6

All of the controversy surrounding the post office, it's been hard for him to watch.

0:29.0

It's very frustrating.

0:30.2

The lack of understanding of the Postal Service and how it works and what's important to

0:35.7

it by people who have control over it to a certain extent is very frustrating.

0:41.6

It take a lot of pride in the time I spent with the Postal Service and I know that Postal

0:45.6

people are very proud of the organization.

0:48.4

So it's frustrating.

0:51.1

Even while he was at the top of the organization 20 years ago, a lot of people didn't understand

0:56.8

how the Postal Service is run.

0:59.1

You know, while it's not rocket science, it's not a simple process in a simple organization.

1:04.6

It's very, very big.

1:06.1

A lot of moving parts.

1:08.1

And so you see over and over again, the things that are just irrelevant being raised as

1:14.6

big issues and the important issues really not understood.

1:24.5

Ron says those photos of blue mailboxes and sorting machines being removed, they're

1:30.1

causing more of a stir than is really necessary.

1:34.1

Part of it is that people shouldn't jump off on things.

1:38.4

You know, saying right now that they demand that the machine should be put back online

...

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