 Hello everyone, my name is Carly Harden. I'm from Marion County. I'm a 4-H state ambassador and I have a wonderful lady here today with me joining me. Her name is Ms. Kelly Welcher. Hi Ms. Kelly Thank you for joining me today. If you are ready, let's get started. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? I Was born and raised in Alabama. I went to school in Selig in Alabama. I started working when I was 14. But I started selling snow cones that summer and then I just kept working from then on around school. You know when school came back in I would work in the afternoons at video stores and gas stations stuff like that. After I graduated, I Went to Bevel State Community College in Fayette and Hamilton campuses took different classes and then After Bevel, I went to Auburn for a while and then I went to UAB. So after that I got into the post office and I've been there since. Okay, have you always wanted to work in a postal service? No. But I have always admired what they did and never saw that in my future, but it kind of feels natural because it makes sense to me that there is such a service. I can't imagine our lives without some kind of order or communication and how to find each other and things like that. So it kind of just naturally flowed into that direction. Okay, when did you start working at the post office in UIN and did you become a post, did you just automatically become a postmaster or did you have to work your way up for the position? Most of the post office jobs you do have to work your way up. Very rarely do you just start in as a full-time position, for example. But when I came to UIN, I was a postmaster at that time. I was actually here for six years before I was officially postmaster of UIN. I became a rural carrier sub in Birmingham. I delivered in the Hoover area and I found out about the clerk tests. So and that meant more hours, more paid, benefits. So I put in for the clerk test and scored pretty good on that and I became a clerk. I was a clerk for maybe two or three years, I can't remember. And then I heard about the supervisor test, so I became a supervisor. I believe I was a supervisor for four or six years and then I became a postmaster and this is the third office that I've been a postmaster at. But I don't say no and leave it anytime soon. Okay, next question. What is it a day like being a postmaster? Like what's your routine you have to do every day? It's hard to say it as a routine because it took a while for me to realize that the main reason that you need a postmaster is because routine is not going to happen. You know, you have your basic structure of what you want to happen but then you need somebody to overlook everything and put everything back in its place so that it goes smoothly for the day. So it's kind of like you wake up and you're available. So of course we have one to 30 reports we have to respond to. We have all these deadlines. We start early. We get the mail in. It's rush, rush, rush right in the beginning because you have carriers you want to get the mail out to and they're going to be on the on the streets five, six hours sometimes and then they have to get out there and get it back in before our truck leaves so that they're out going mail catches. So any time that we waste in the morning is crucial and so it's push, push, push, get the carriers out, then get the peel box mail done and we, you know, of course we help our retail customers, but in the midst of all that it's moving out all the problems for the day. Someone may have a flat tire or the computer might not be working in one of the instances scanner may not be working. It's I learned one thing to handle anxiety was do not expect a perfect day ever. I mean the reason that we have a job is because something needs to be fixed usually you know and so if I go in expecting it to be perfect I'm not going to have a good day. If I go in expecting to have problems to solve it's not going to be a surprise and the day actually ends up easier than what I had outlooks for. Okay So now that I understand that there is different positions for Postmaster and what it kind of requires um in your position as Postmaster do you only work at the Guin post office or do you ever get to travel? Uh it's varied throughout my career depending on what different different hats that I wore um at one point I was traveling down as far as Selma to visit businesses or other post offices to help them with certain things. Right now my primary location is Guin. We also manage Beaverton post office and so I'm usually going to be at one of those offices or at a business that one of those offices handles were cause you know inspecting a route or inspecting the box or um for example today we had a late arriving express mail and what that means is uh somehow it missed the plane somewhere and a plane plane came in this morning but it came in after all of our trucks left Birmingham so there was an express mail piece coming to Guin Alabama that needs to be delivered by three and about 20 minutes ago we found out about it so that's back to that availability issue you know you drop everything and you go get that express mail because that customer's expecting that by three o'clock today so luckily um another office nearby has one and she had called and said she would pick up hours for us so that's wonderful and um in those cases then yeah I do have to travel to go fix that situation because it's a service emergency but if the go if the day goes normal then I'm just going to be at one of the two office okay Can you work well knowing your performance is based on work with yourself and with others around you? Uh can um It's important to be able to trust your co-workers and the people under you to do their job faithfully I in this particular situation and we have a great group and I trust all of them to make good decisions. They usually um, I mean it took time to learn but Most of the time I'm very proud of the decisions they make because the top two things are safety and customers and of course time and service and so they're weighing out all of those priorities and Then they kind of let me know what happened, you know, because when the carriers are out on the streets, they may not have a signal and um, they're kind of left to their own devices on making decisions and it's not that easy and feeling on them sometimes but um over time they've Learned uh, sometimes they call in and say what what do I do here? You know, and I just say, you know, this is this is what we can do And then I guess through those mistakes everybody has learned. It's not their mistake It's just through instances of something crazy that come up and they have learned how to confidently make the best decisions so um because of them my job's a lot easier because um What they do I have to answer for and that's not easy. Whenever people are out there making crazy decisions Okay What is the time schedule for when y'all have to be there in the mornings and whenever you have to leave in the afternoons? On paper it's eight to five or generally around that Here it pretty much is eight to five And they try to keep that for pretty much all the offices Uh, sometimes it varies depending on how far your mail truck has to travel from the closest facility which ours travels from Birmingham it stops at about eight offices and Ewan is the next to last stop and then beaverton is the last stop so because of them being at the end of that route That's some challenges and then they're at the beginning So it's like they had the least amount of time to get the mail out get the mail back in get it back to wherever you know, so um We can do the eight to five But then when things happen somebody might be heading to Birmingham to take mail or you know It might be a late night that night or Some reasons a day after a holiday We may come in early to get a head start on whatever's coming in for the day But typically it's it's very possible to have eight five schedules Okay So have you and your fellow employees ever had to work over tom or at not tom? Past whenever y'all are supposed to be gone Very many times, but it's usually more of a voluntary thing It's not enforced over time. I guess you say Okay What are some challenges that you might have as kind of being a role model as a postmaster? Um, let's see What are the challenges that I personally have? Yes um Well, I have an introvert type personality where there's a lot going on inside but You may not know that because I'm not Speaking, you know, I'm not verbalized in every thought that I have um One of the issues that I have here that I've had to overcome Because I can hear a lot of what goes on And if I'm supposed to be focused learning on a new procedure that I've got to train everybody how to do And it's got all these little details to to know But yet I can hear someone talking about growing their squash and how well it's going and all this It's not that I don't care about their vegetables But I can only focus on one thing, you know, so it gets really hard for me to gloss that out um And another challenge I have is time management and compassion being able to juggle that because um I mean I really do care about our customers and their service and even like an upset customer I usually have a lot of faith That if they'll just hang on, you know, they can understand more about whatever their issue is and then they're not so upset It's just that they don't understand, you know Why did their mail come in a different time today and after I educate them a little bit more? They're like, got you, you know, they just want to know what's going on. So, um But I don't always have a lot of time to give to them like I want to So then that puts a lot of stress on me trying to Still do my duties for the day, but yet take care of people the way that they deserve Yes, you say Okay What's the best thing about your job and your opinion? It has good pay and benefits. I appreciate that because since I um get into all kinds of stuff and I have kids and I like to get to the sports things and everything like that So that gives me less time to work and You want to get paid good when you work because uh one job may take Two hours to earn what another job can get you for one hour, you know And then the benefits when I was younger I didn't understand the importance of that as much Now I understand the importance of that that weighs just as heavy as the pay raise because you know you um planning for your future and your health and Um taking care of your body, you know, you never know if you're going to get sick You never know if this or that's going to happen So those benefits that kind of cushion around you and plan for you when you're not even realizing it are very important to so I don't mind work. I enjoy work and wherever I'm at. I don't care if I'm getting minimum wage I'm going to work hard And so it's nice to finally have a job that I'm working hard at and it's and it pays me decent for it, you know So I think that's one of the biggest benefits of it is that you're going to work hard, but you're going to get paid good for it Okay um one question I have is How is COVID-19 affected you and your police jobs? Like what are the steps that y'all are having to take for y'alls on safety? um It was scary at first for them and myself It wasn't as much for me because um, I guess I was reading up about a lot of it and I kind of can Tell when someone's not coming from the facts and they're just trying to scare us and things like that but um I did wonder if everybody was going to take it serious. They did That was good, but then I worried about um I didn't want my employees to feel like they had to go put themselves in harm's way Because to honor their job for me, you know, I didn't want that for them So I left it open to them to do what they felt comfortable doing and all of ours, of course They want to be here and they want to work through it and figure it out whatever they're whatever it takes But at the same time, I didn't know how well they were familiar with germs and staying Sanitized and I mean we have tons of safety talks, but specific to that I didn't know, you know, and um, so I basically had started out telling them. Okay guys, you're probably Let's just look at it this way. You're going to come in contact with that virus and It depends on your habits, whether or not you're going to transfer it or spread it or Let it affect your body or take it home So you need to you know focus on not touching your face keeping your hands clean You know all these things just pretend like the virus is already around you basically and straight out from that they did great and um, I think we all fear the unknown So that's why I wanted to go ahead and give that to them for the for just a comfort Sort of but I also put out there for them to not feel like they had to do anything that they didn't feel comfortable with And everybody has successfully come out of this healthy and it was it was very scary because one of our clerks Her husband, he lives off oxygen So, you know, if I go by her desk and I touch her keyboard because one day I was feeling a little Iffy I didn't have a fever or nothing, but you have that fear of the unknown What if something happened on my way in and I have that virus on me? And um, I go by and tapping something on her computer And then she carries that home to him and loses her husband because it's my carelessness, you know, and um, so that that really did get to me one day, but then um We kind of had to secure our fears with you know doing the responsible And and being aware and mindful of what we do and everything like that and um The carriers they have parents that are vulnerable and things like that So everybody has done very well with that and they're just kind of following our guidelines from here and we have had Probably 30 Covid safety talks to go over in the mornings, you know, and We have been taught to death about it. So I think it's hammered in really well mentally That's good. Um, what are your long-term goals as a postmaster? I am okay with it if I stay here and just retire from this location. I have Considered venturing out to kind of better any of our operations in ways that I can bring A new insight to Um, one of the reasons I'm comfortable here is it's close to home and I still have one left in high school So I don't want to be traveling and doing things until he's Done with school and kind of more on his own then I might feel more comfortable helping At wherever they need me because they definitely need people and um And it's changing it's changing so much these days. So It's exciting to think about, you know, is it going to be a little bit easier? And um technology is really bringing in some great factors to it too Okay Um, what advice would you give To a youth that might be interesting in being a postmaster? Anyone who chooses that path will not regret it Uh, it's beneficial in so many ways. You have no idea you're walking into um Respect it I believe that it would be more rewarding to them than just being a job a career You know, it would reward their life. It would reward their family Um I'm very thankful for everything. It's brought to my life and my family. It's I've learned things about I'll you know about the area about logistics and I love things about logistics, you know about mapping out stuff and and um How odd and even Things about odd numbers on this side of the road even numbers on this side of the road Interstates around north and south uh things like that I mean like uh odd numbers and easy numbers with the interstates but uh Teaching that to my kids for example has been a big factor for me, but uh, just teaching them things about how to understand How a town was built and put together that is really cool Uh, you know, we're born and we live in our hometown and we never think What made this address be this address or why does this run this way and so um When I took this job in in This organization, I never saw that I would get to see all that built You know from seeing the history of it. So I think that's very beneficial in many ways Well, I want to say thank you for coming on here today and Making me aware of how your career is and it seems really wonderful. It's been really interesting to talk to you about With it and it's been a pleasure. So I want to thank you again, and I hope you have a wonderful day Thank you very much