Site for Postal Employees Flourishes on the Net

PostalMag.com owner Tom Wakefield has heard the joke more than once when he tells someone he runs a Web site for postal employees: "You sell guns on the Internet?" PostalMag.com however is no joke. In just two and a half years it has become one of the most popular sites on the Internet for postal employees. There are no guns to be found at the site. What visitors do find however is an interesting mix of the postal culture, from the latest postal news, to postal eBay auctions, dog attack stories, editorials, letters to the editor, benefits info and other items of postal interest.

Wakefield, a letter carrier in Dallas, Texas, got the idea for the site in 2000 when he went online searching for information about postal benefits for a fellow employee. He was expecting to find a category site for postal employees, much like Military.com's site for service members. What he found, however, were a few personal sites that were infrequently updated.

"I found that many postal employees didn't even know basic facts about their postal benefits," Wakefield says. "Postal benefits are governed by a complex mingling of union, postal, and federal regulations. Many postal employees, for example, don't even understand how their leave and sick leave is computed. I wanted to provide postal employees at least the basic facts about these regulations."

Wakefield posted the information but received few visitors initially. He soon learned a few elementary facts about the Internet. "First, you have to find a way to be found. So I registered with search engines and traded links with other postal sites." Wakefield says. "Second, I found that Internet surfers have a voracious appetite for information, and they frequent sites that are frequently updated and discard sites that aren't. When I began updating my site daily with postal news found throughout the Internet, the hits started coming," Wakefield adds.

Another lesson that Wakefield learned is that, though information is power, a professional Web site design equals credibility on the Net. He believes that the design aspect of the site is important. "On the Net, all people see is what is on their monitor. A professional design levels the playing field with the big guys," notes Wakefield. In PostalMag.com's case, the design betrays that the fact that the site is a one person operation. Wakefield both laughs and is humbled when postal employees ask him such questions as "how many employees work for PostalMag.com" and when job seekers apply for such positions as the Chief Technology Officer.

One of the most popular features at PostalMag.com has been their discussion boards, which allows postal employees from all across the nation to voice their opinions, vent their frustrations and share information using anonymous postings. Wakefield admits that he was a little nervous at first about some of the content that might be posted, considering the boards allow for anonymous postings. Actually though, he has been quite surprised at the quality of the postings. Out of more than 30,000 messages, Wakefield remembers only one that he has had to delete for objectionable material.

Sites such as PostalMag.com have revolutionized the way postal workers are communicating with each other. Before the Internet, many postal employees received only sporadic information from the Postal Service, most of it pertaining only to their particular tasks at hand. Today, postal news stories are culled from online news sources from around the world and posted for all to see. As a result, local postal stories are also becoming national stories. For example, the story about a Missouri letter carrier killed while delivering mail in the dark became a national story that was discussed on workroom floors across the country the next morning. The incident, and publicity from the incident led to a national outcry among letter carriers and has led to some reforms concerning delivery after dark. The local paper that initially ran the story was surprised at the volume of e-mails received from postal employees around the nation.

One of the most important stories PostalMag.com has followed has been the anthrax through the mail terror attacks. The site has links about the attacks and anthrax, and includes editorials and commentary about who the killer(s) might be and their possible motives behind the attacks. Many postal employees have contacted PostalMag.com saying that they received more information about anthrax and the attacks from the site than any other source.

As for his own thoughts about who the perpetrators might be, Wakefield believes that there is a slight possibility that the 9/11 hijackers are responsible for the Florida (AMI) attack and that a "government insider/scientist" is responsible for the Northeast attacks. "That could be the reason why the investigation is going in circles between Florida and the Northeast," Wakefield says.

A recent addition to PostalMag.com is GoPostalTravel - an online travel agency for postal employees. PostalMag.com and GoPostalTravel recently coordinated their efforts after realizing the opportunities each offered the other. GoPostalTravel was started by a retired postmaster in California who wanted to secure "travel club" discounts for the nation's postal employees. Now operated by his son, David Max, the travel agency has been successful in negotiating some great low rates from travel suppliers such as Carnival Cruise Lines.

Though Wakefield is a postal employee, the site is not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. Postal Service. Wakefield says that he is very careful with the ethics part of the situation. "I don't use inside information and most all of the content at PostalMag.com can be found somewhere on the Net. And though I developed the site primarily for employees of the U.S. Postal Service, the site is generic, in that, it is a postal site, not a United States Postal Service site," Wakefield notes. In fact, Web statistics show more than a few visitors from from such diverse places as Great Britain, Saudi Arabia, Germany, and Australia.

What do top officials at USPS headquarters think about PostalMag.com? Wakefield is quick to point out that they are probably a bit under whelmed. "Their site, usps.com, is one of the most frequented and one of the most important sites on the Internet." Nevertheless, Wakefield knows from his Web statistics and from e-mails that top postal officials regularly visit the site.

Wakefield believes that an informed employee is a better employee. He likes to tell the story of a manager at a district manager's meeting who knew all of the answers in a question and answer session about postal reform - because he was a frequent reader of PostalMag.com.

"PostalMag.com's goal is to inform postal workers about postal news, information and resources they need to make their careers with the postal service as rewarding and enriching as possible," Wakefield says.

In that, the site has been hugely successful. In January 2003 for example the site registered more than 1,800,000 hits and close to 29,000 unique visitors. But Wakefield notes that a lot of work needs to be done about informing postal employees about the site. "There are over 800,000 full-time and part-time workers at the U.S. Postal Service alone," Wakefield notes. "Though we have reached a large number of those on the Net, there are many others that simply haven't stumbled across the site."

The biggest lesson Wakefield has learned at PostalMag.com over the last two years is that there is a vast amount of untapped human potential among the 800,000 plus employees of the Postal Service. "Due to the repetitive and controlled work environment involved with working the mail, it's hard for postal employees to realize their full potential at work," Wakefield adds. "Hopefully PostalMag.com can help unleash some of that potential."




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