Lazy postman raises questions about staff motivation

Royal Mail’s HR team could be forgiven for thinking it has one of the toughest jobs going as it attempts to manage militant postal strikes over pay.

However, they should spare a thought for the employer of a postman in Poland, who took so long to deliver letters to a village that some of the residents had died by the time the letters arrived.

It transpired the postman had not emptied the postbox in the village of Rzedziny in north-east Poland for five years, bringing a whole new meaning to the phrase snail mail. It also came to light that the lazy postman, had failed to deliver hundreds of letters to local residents sent from people outside the village and instead left them in a storeroom at the post office.

In response to questions about his sluggish working pace, postman Wieslaw Zawoz reportedly said: “It is not my fault. First, I was on holiday. Another time a trainee lost the key to the postbox and I reported it but no one did anything. Another time I was sick.”

The antics of the employee, who appeared to be on ‘go slow’ without a cause, would no doubt lead to questions being raised about the effectiveness of any staff motivation scheme run by his employer.