Heat's Rising at Postal Service Pressure Cooker : Stress: Holiday crush and violence elsewhere make attention to harmony crucial at Orange County office.

By DAVID REYES

Nov. 30, 1991 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Every month or so, the man in charge of more than 11,000 workers in the huge Orange County regional post office dons an apron and, with other managers, fries up a chorizo- and-egg breakfast for employees.

The ritual takes place at a different post office each time, sometimes in the cafeteria and sometimes on cooking equipment rolled in for the event. Everyone in the post office is invited.

“It’s an effort to raise their self-esteem, and it’s good hearing a ‘thank-you’ from the top man,” said Hector Godinez, general manager and postmaster for the Santa Ana Field Division of the Postal Service. “It’s a feeling of camaraderie.”

It also is an effort to preserve harmony among the ranks, Godinez said, in light of recent violence that has hit other post offices in the nation. Those incidents have caused a nervous ripple among Postal Service officials, they admitted.

“We’re walking on eggshells over here,” Godinez said.

With more than 11,000 workers, the district includes parts of the counties of Los Angeles and Riverside and all of Orange County. In size alone, it ranks among the largest divisions in the country, with an average daily mail load of 10 million pieces.

But that average shoots up 25% to 30% during December, with Christmas cards, teddy bears, toy trains and other gifts that arrive at the division’s 112 post offices. The volume often doubles two days before Christmas, a postal employee said.

Such a workload means a hurried pace for postal workers. It’s a flurry that can take a toll on clerks and carriers, who must meet increased demands that often mean 12-hour shifts.

While the overtime pay makes it worthwhile for most, Godinez said, the Postal Service watches for signs of strain that could lead to eruptions.

Earlier this month, Thomas McIlvane, an employee who had been fired, killed three of his former co-workers at a post office in Royal Oak, Mich., and wounded seven others before killing himself.

In October, another fired postal worker--armed with a machine gun, grenades and a samurai sword--went on a rampage in Ridgewood, N.J., and killed four people, including a former supervisor who had accused him of harassment.

Two years ago in San Diego County, suicides of postal workers began mounting alarmingly, including a letter carrier who walked into the lobby of the Poway post office and shot himself.

The Santa Ana Division has escaped serious violence, Godinez said, but it too has had some incidents. A year ago, Lmanyeo Darnell Scott, 23, of Corona, a postal clerk at the main Santa Ana post office on Sunflower Avenue, was struck and killed on the Costa Mesa Freeway as he ran from a call box back to his disabled car.

In a suit pending in federal court, his family alleges that the Postal Service was to blame. Co-workers said, however, that Scott had left work angry and drunk. Godinez denied that the post office was in any way at fault.

Two weeks ago, Michael Houston, a mail clerk for eight years, entered the lobby at a Santa Ana post office, shouted several times, “The world’s going too fast!” then grabbed a hammer and smashed a glass display case.

No one was threatened or hurt. Postal officials contend the incident stemmed from a broken marriage and other personal problems, rather than work. The incident has been referred to the Investigation Service, the law enforcement arm of the Postal Service, for possible criminal investigation. Houston could not be contacted.

A union steward who wished to remain anonymous said postal clerks and carriers face increasingly tougher performance criteria, the threat of increased automation by 1995 and a higher volume of mail for processing.

“They have to begin talking about our frustration at a national level, or shootings like the one in Michigan are only going to continue to happen,” said another steward, who also did not wish to be identified. “There is more stress in here than any human being should be confronted with.”

Ralph Lefter, president of the American Postal Workers Union local, declined to discuss working conditions.

A pilot program has begun in the Santa Ana Division that is intended to increase management’s awareness of workers’ problems and concerns. An independent research firm conducting an employee poll is expected to release the first results soon, said Christine Dugas, a spokeswoman for the division.

In addition, Godinez said, “we have employee involvement, and we like to bring people and management together to talk over issues. We figure out how things can be run better.

“We know the workplace is changing,” he said. “Ordering people to do things is changing. The day of the whip is gone, in favor of involving more motivational techniques. I believe that we have to give our people more recognition, and we have to share our problems with each other.”

Postmaster Gen. Anthony M. Frank, in a bid to prevent outbreaks in post offices, has called for a 24-hour employee hot line for screening the nation’s 750,000 postal workers for emotional or psychological problems.

But Godinez said he is skeptical of Frank’s screening plan. Identifying problem workers or fired employees with violent streaks “is virtually impossible,” he said.

“We don’t have exams that tell us who is dangerous and who is not.”