My name is Jacqueline Thomas and I’m the plant manager at the Dominick V. Daniels Processing and Distribution Center in Kearny, NJ.
Most plant managers work during the day, but I love the night shift. I start between 3-4 p.m. and I’m here until 10-11 a.m. the next morning, Monday-Friday.
Most of my employees work at night and they want to see the plant manager. They want to talk to the plant manager, know the plant manager and feel the plant manager cares.
I believe visibility is key — when people see you and know you care, they care.
I walk the entire work facility multiple times a day. I want to know what’s out of place, what’s in place, what has gone wrong, what issue we may have because if you catch it early, you can fix it early.
This facility is 1 million square feet over three levels with two work floors. There are 1,300 employees, 78 Executive and Administrative Schedule positions, 60 supervisors, three engineers, two senior operation specialists and almost 16 managers working here. Covering that much ground takes a few hours.
Employees love to give me feedback and information. My best training in the Postal Service is courtesy of the employees. I have learned the operations from the ground up.
I began my postal career 37 years ago.
After my mother passed away, I was responsible for raising seven brothers and sisters and I needed to find a second job to supplement my full-time job as a bank supervisor. That’s when I joined USPS part-time. I worked both jobs for 10 years to help care for my siblings, but I was burning the candle at both ends.
I had to decide between the two jobs; the Postal Service had more to offer. The benefits were better. The hours were flexible. The opportunity for upward mobility was there. I think I made the best choice of my life by staying at USPS.
I also met my husband, Richard, through the Postal Service. He worked here for 39 years and was a mail handlers’ union president. We’ve been married for 30 years. USPS helped put our daughter through college and graduate school.
Our job isn’t just to move the mail. Our job is to encourage our employees, to mentor, to let our employees know this is your future and you can be happy here, too. We spend more time here than we do at home.
When you give out good energy, you get it back.
“On the Job,” a column on individual employees and their contributions to the Postal Service, appears regularly in Link.
