The dyslexic postman

The number 5 on our letterbox is fairly prominent. There are only four houses in our court, but for some reason we keep getting letters for number 3 delivered to our box.

We think many of our letters are being delivered to number 7, because every so often a bundle of mail is dropped in our box in the morning, several hours before the postie makes his rounds.

So what’s going on here? How hard can it be to put a few envelopes in the right letterbox?

It could be symptomatic of the general labor shortage. I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard: “Why would anyone be a postman/teacher/gardener/cleaner/journalist/road worker/bus driver when they could earn $100,000 a year in the mines?”

Well, of course not everyone is qualified to work in the mines nor does everyone want to. I’d rather push a pen than work shifts, dress in fluorescent overalls and take a 90-minute bus trip at 5am to work all day in a big hole in the ground at 45-degree heat. But that’s just me.

However, there is a genuine problem in getting people to work unskilled jobs that aren’t in the mines, such as postmen.

There was a story in the Kalgoorlie Miner about how posties are now coming here as fly-in fly-out workers. I’ve heard the same about aged care workers, nurses and various other professions. Last year the high school couldn’t get a science teacher and taught the subject by video.

As the workforce shrinks the skill level inevitably falls and quality standards come under pressure.

A local council revealed financial mismanagement this week and blame was attributed from some parties to turnover in the finance department. The councillors chose to blame the former chief executive instead.

I can relate to the CEO’s dilemma. As an editor I accept the buck stops with me when it comes to the quality of the newspaper.

However, I’m only as good as the journalists and photographers who work for me. Fortunately they are good, but recruiting them, developing them and retaining them is a constant challenge.

It’s sort of the same with postmen. I’m sure the postmaster would take responsibility if I could be bothered to complain about receiving our neighbour’s mail every second day.

But what hope has he got if he can’t recruit posties who can read?