Beyond Going Postal: Shifting from Workplace Tragedies and Toxic Work Environments to a Safe and Healthy Organization [Paperback]

Stephen Musacco Ph.D. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 27, 2009

Beyond Going Postal: Shifting from Workplace Tragedies and Toxic Work Environments to a Safe and Healthy Organization by Dr. Stephen Musacco examines the history of violence and toxic work environments within the U.S. Postal Service organization and its negative impacts on the health and psychological well-being of its employees. Musacco provides comprehensive evidence of the decline of the organizational culture within the Postal Service and the internal neglect, denial, and lack of accountability by postal management that fosters toxic workplace environments. This book is, to date, the most comprehensive analysis available on postal workplace violence and postal culture in general, and it includes a blueprint for postal management and government leaders to make the U.S. Postal Service a healthier organization for its employees. Written with postal rank and file, union, management, and government leaders in mind, this book sounds a clarion call to action that cannot be ignored.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Stephen Musacco retired from the U.S. Postal Service in January 2007, as a Workplace Improvement Analyst. In his thirty-five year tenure with the Postal Service, thirteen years were in the workplace improvement area, while six were in Employee Assistance Programming. He has a doctorate in Organizational Psychology, earned in May 2000, and has a Masters Degree in Counseling Psychology. Stephen has been licensed as a Marriage & Family Therapist, as well as a Certified Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselor. Dr. Musacco has a twenty-one year old daughter and lives in the city of his birth San Diego, California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: BookSurge Publishing (January 27, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1439220751
• ISBN-13: 978-1439220757
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #718,780 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A depressingly accurate account of life in the USPS, February 23, 2009

By 

Robert Warden (Kent, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beyond Going Postal: Shifting from Workplace Tragedies and Toxic Work Environments to a Safe and Healthy Organization (Paperback)

Beyond Going Postal (BGP) is a well-researched inside account of USPS' terrible workplace environment, and the stubbornly poisonous culture that drives that environment. My one negative criticism of the author-published BGP is that the apparent lack of an editor leaves it a little disorganized and repetitive at times, and replete with typographical errors. BGP is otherwise well-written, and is a significant expose from a long-term and relatively high-level retired USPS insider, author Dr. Stephen Musacco.

Dr. Musacco's account of the environment and culture of USPS is dead on from my perspective as a recently-former USPS manager. My own eclectic postal career started as a letter carrier, then a first line supervisor of letter carriers, labor relations specialist in a district, government relations representative at USPS headquarters, manager, labor relations for a district, a long-term detail as an employment litigation attorney for a field office of USPS headquarters, and, most recently, manager, customer service for a medium-size retail and delivery station. I "escaped" the USPS in August of 2008, transferring to another federal agency.

I was a labor relations specialist in another district in 1996 when my colleague Jim Brown was in the wrong place at the wrong time and was killed by Charles Jennings in the parking lot of the Las Vegas facility. I knew Jim personally; he was among the most honorable and caring people I met at the USPS. He was not the intended target, and his heroism in struggling to get the gun from Jennings surely saved the lives of others.

I was manager, labor relations at the time and in the district where Grant Gallaher killed his supervisor during his unsuccessful attempt to murder the postmaster. In my own experience, the postmaster was and continued to be a disrespectful and disagreeable person to work with. Only through sheer luck did he escape death on that April day in 2006. I was in the inner circle of management officials performing public relations damage control and CYA in the several-week aftermath of the Gallaher shooting. At no time did anyone at any level of authority consider that the shooting might have been the result of more than just a crazed mind. Though everyone knew that the action was triggered by PERCEIVED unfairness and disrespect by the postmaster, no one in authority ever bothered to examine the actions of the postmaster to determine if perhaps the incident could have been avoided through different management tactics. In fact, that postmaster has risen like a shooting star in the district. He has been promoted at least once, and is currently serving a higher level detail as officer in charge of a large post office in the district.

The bottom line, just as detailed in BGP, is that USPS managers are evaluated and promoted based almost purely on their efficiency ratio of work hours to mail volume. Treating subordinates with dignity and respect is not an activity that is rewarded, and is thus not an activity that is widely practiced. Conversely, treating employees in a demeaning and abusive manner at worst, or as mere unfeeling cogs in a machine at best, is openly condoned by management at the highest levels, and is thus an activity that is widely practiced. Dr. Musacco's recommendations to fix USPS' culture and work environment are thoughtful and well-intended. However, I doubt that Congress will prioritize USPS work environment legislation. My former fellow employees are, unfortunately, stuck with what they have.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars HOSTILE WORK ENVIRONMENT FOR BOTH WORKERS AND THE MAIL, March 9, 2009

By 

Joanne Brown (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beyond Going Postal: Shifting from Workplace Tragedies and Toxic Work Environments to a Safe and Healthy Organization (Paperback)

I have just finished this amazing book and it is like reading the blueprint for all the misery many of us have suffered throughout our postal careers. Dr. Musacco details the causes of the toxic and emotionally abusive workplace environment we have been enduring, and includes a chapter on his recommendations for ways the USPS might change its paramilitary and authoritarian corporate culture to a safe and healthy organization. One of the chapters is an open letter to Congress in which Dr. Musacco calls for legislation to achieve the following:

1. abolishment of the Postal Board of Governors;
2. restrict the PRC from being involved in efforts to privatize the USPS;
3. amend current law so that the Postmaster General (PMG) and the Inspector General (head of the USPS-OIG) report to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO);
4. amend the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA) to require a program to ensure that the USPS develops and maintains a safe and healthy organizational culture;
5. enact national legislation for the prevention of bullying in the workplace with accompanying sanctions, including the removal of management employees who practice bullying;
6. prevent the USPS from contracting out or outsourcing core postal services.

If you would like to assist Dr. Musacco's efforts to bring the attention of Congress to our work environment or if you would like to raise other issues regarding reform of the USPS, visit http://oversight.house.gov/contact/.

Dr. Musacco's book is also of importance to anyone interested in the subject of workplace bullying. He provides extensive and detailed information about studies conducted on the cause and effects of workplace bullying, with a wealth of references to pursue for those interested in the topic.

If you are now or have ever been a postal worker, this book is a must-read to help you "de-tox" from the idea that our abusive and toxic work environment is either acceptable or can be ignored. If you are not a postal worker, it is still important to become familiar with the issues of workplace bullying. The post office is not the only place this occurs, and we need a movement to seek national legislation to prevent workplace bullying. In the case of the post office, the link between a healthy environment for employees and a financially sound business cannot be ignored. Just as with domestic violence, the cycle of abuse passes downward with the customer at the bottom of the cycle. An abused employee isn't going to give you the best service. Instead the customer is used in the spiral of retaliate and be retaliated against. Please read this book and speak up to your congressional representatives about an issue which affects at least 600,000 employees and their families.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A researcher's perspective, March 7, 2009

By 

Loraleigh Keashly - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beyond Going Postal: Shifting from Workplace Tragedies and Toxic Work Environments to a Safe and Healthy Organization (Paperback)

As a researcher and consultant in the area of workplace aggression and bullying, I am always on the lookout for detailed discussions of issues in organizations written by knowledgeable insiders. Steve Mussaco's book is a fine example of this.

Written by a postal insider and an experienced internal consultant focused on workplace violence and aggression, Musacco has a unique perspective on the working environment within the USPS. Drawing together relevant research (both academic and organizational) with examples from his own experience s, Musacco critically examines the various sets of data gathered by the USPS and by outside agencies and argues convincingly that the postal service continues to struggle with an authoritarian work culture that perpetuates a difficult, stressful and hostile work climate. While his critique of the USPS culture and climate is scathing, Musacco argues for the possibilities of building a respectful and health y USPS workplace and provides a detailed discussion of processes by which to facilitate this development.


- Loraleigh Keashly, Ph.D., Dept of Communication, Wayne State University, Detroit.