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When the only post office in Lawrencetown, N.S., shut its doors June 30, a local disability employment group moved in to keep the mail flowing.

The announced closure of the pharmacy that hosted the Canada Post office in the tiny village in Annapolis County would have left the 668 locals with no access their mail. So the Carleton Road Industries Association (CRIA), a non-profit group that offers vocational training and employment opportunities to people with disabilities, made a bid to start a new branch.

They were already running a flyer-delivery service, property maintenance, a gas bar and a woodworking shop – all staffed by their clients with disabilities. A post office seemed like good next step.

The new office opened up in a renovated home on Tuesday.

Mackenzie Akin, the CRIA’s execuitive director, said things are running smoothly.

The CRIA has three clients working at the post office now, sorting mail and weighing parcels. When it starts offering full retail services on July 17, they’ll rotate through other clients who want the opportunity to work with the public and earn some independent income.

“It gives them a great self esteem. It gives them inclusion out in the community working,” said Akin.

Erica Pettipas, a CRIA client for 18 years, was on duty for the grand opening. She wasn’t available to comment on Tuesday, but she told CBC this week how excited she was for a new opportunity.

“If it wasn’t for them to get me in the community I wouldn’t be here. I’m excited. Overwhelming. I’m just going home to my parents to tell them all the good news,” she said, her eyes welling up with tears.

The project has also been big for the community.

The house, which was donated by a local resident, needed a lot of renovations to be ready in time for the opening. So community members donated their time and materials to get the new post office up and running by deadline.

“This project here has really brought the community together. They’ve been excellent. Really excellent,” said Akin. “The community has really come together on this.”

Canada Post said the CRIA wasn’t given any special preference because of what it does. They simply had the best business proposal.

“For us it’s about keeping the mail delivery services in the community and we take that very seriously,” said Anick Losier, spokeswoman for Canada Post. “They remained the best option. Which I think is great.”

The CIRA also plans to open up some sort of retail section in the newly renovated house and turn its upstairs into apartments for some of the postal workers.

“We think it’s great that the community is embracing this. We’re excited for them, It’s a great way to keep the post office in the community.”

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QUESTION: I share an office with a woman who makes all kinds of irritating noises. She is constantly coughing, burping and clearing her throat. I have mentioned this problem in a nice way, but she continues to do it. Our supervisor has not been helpful at all.

I know I should not let this get to me, but these sounds are so disruptive that I can’t concentrate on my work. After listening to her for eight hours, I go home stressed and angry every day. I am about to lose my mind. What can I do?

ANSWER: While these ongoing physical rumblings could certainly be annoying, I’m afraid the real issue is your overreaction to them. If you are allowing this rather minor issue to make you “stressed and angry every day,” then you are really blowing it out of proportion.

You may not realize that one contributing factor in this situation is your own sensitivity to sound. Physiologically, people vary quite a bit in their ability to screen out background noise. Some can easily ignore it, while others, such as yourself, are acutely aware of every sound in the room.

If your office mate was playing a radio or using a speakerphone, you could reasonably ask her to reduce the volume, but these bodily responses are largely beyond her control. The key to serenity, therefore, is learning to manage your own emotional reactions, because right now you are primed to be angry at the first hint of a cough.

To distract yourself, try using headphones or playing a radio at low volume. When you hear noises emanating from the other side of the room, just shift your attention to the music. If you keep this up, it will eventually become a habit, and you will be able to go home in a calmer state of mind.

Q: I work for a temporary service, but I’m often overlooked for the best assignments. Many of my co-workers get full-time positions, while I usually work only a couple of days a week. Sometimes the placement supervisor says there are no jobs available, then I later find out this wasn’t true.

I have been with this service a long time, but seniority doesn’t seem to matter. A new employee was recently given a great assignment that would have been perfect for me. How can I get them to give me more work?

A: While you may be focused on seniority, your agency is only concerned with performance. Because pleasing customers is their primary goal, the most highly rated employees are likely to receive the prime positions. Your lack of work may indicate that management has concerns about your competence, your attitude, or your work habits.

Since management’s opinion of you will be based on both customer feedback and their own observations, you must be consistently pleasant, professional and dependable in all your business transactions. But if you feel that you have no problems in this regard, then you should simply ask what you can do to get better assignments and pay close attention to the answer.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Marie G. McIntyre is a workplace coach and the author of “Secrets to Winning at Office Politics.” Send in questions and get free coaching tips at http://www.yourofficecoach.com, or follow her on Twitter @officecoach.

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Scott Adamonis, Director of Sales, Everstaff

You’ve been hearing for months that the recession is over, but like many other business owners you might be adopting a wait and see attitude. The only fact that seems undisputable is that the economy’s next move is not easy to predict.

In an uncertain environment, one solution for employers is to hire temporary employees for any downturns — or upturns — they face.

“Businesses used to have a steady flow of business throughout the year and they were able to budget for what their staffing needs would be and hire full-time,” says Scott Adamonis, director of sales for Everstaff. “Nowadays, business ebbs and flows and having a relationship with a staffing company allows companies to be able to fluctuate.”

Smart Business spoke with Adamonis about how companies can roll with a changing economy using temporary employees.

How common is the use of temporary employees?

More companies are shifting toward a flexible workforce, especially with the instability of the economy over the past five or six years. It’s very unpredictable and having a staffing company able to provide contingent labor is a great business model that many have adopted. More often than not, the decision of how many temporary employees to use is based on the business environment and is not necessarily industry specific.

Temporary or contingent employees aid companies because of their flexibility. In the past, businesses would use temporary employees to cover for vacations, maternity leaves or something along those lines. Now business is fluctuating — based on what the economy is doing — so employers need to have a flexible work staff in order to ramp up and ramp down based on their business needs.

Along with flexibility, what are some additional advantages of temporary employees?

Flexibility certainly is one of the largest advantages as it fills the widespread need for an adaptable workforce, especially for companies that experience ups and downs in their business activity with project work or seasonal swings. Employers are slowly bringing people back into their workforce but in contract or in contingent labor positions as a test of the economy. Then, if business activity decreases again, employers can — with the help of a staffing agency — respond quickly to changes.

Hiring temporary employees is also a great cost-saving tool. For example, a company will utilize contingent labor to handle unexpected increases in workload and accomplish this without the burden of hiring additional full-time employees or forcing overtime hours on their current staff.

The most expensive item on a PL or balance sheet is labor expenses — from salary and benefits to unemployment and employee taxes. Partnering with a staffing firm can help a company ease some of these burdens by providing a flexible workforce on an as needed basis

Using supplemental staff for large projects or seasonal work increases the morale of your core full-time employees. When you, as an employer, get major orders and you already have full-time staff working 10- or 12-hour days, you don’t want to increase their workload and risk those employees burning out.

Employers also can treat these temporary employment situations as working interviews, utilizing short-term work to assess work ethics, cultural fits and skill levels.

As a business owner in an uncertain environment, how do I identify my staffing needs?

Forecasting who, what, where and when those needs are going to arise is a difficult task in today’s world and partnering with a staffing company is an excellent solution. A lot of times you think projects are coming in and can anticipate them, but other times you might not be able to do that. You don’t want to have your workforce sitting around waiting, so you can build a relationship with a staffing company and use it as an extension of your HR department. A quality staffing company will recruit and build a specific pipeline of talent so the turnaround time of implementing your workforce is seamless.

You always want to ensure your full-time employees are taken care of first. Many employers offer extra hours to their permanent staff initially, but as the year goes on they need the additional help of temporary employees. It’s an added resource that companies can utilize as needed.

What should an employer know about hiring temporary employees through a staffing agency?

The most important aspect of partnering with an outside source is to have your relationship in place with a temporary staffing agency ahead of time. The more a staffing agency knows about your company, the better the agency is going to be able to find people who fit your needs. The staffing agency does much of the groundwork before placing someone, so a strong prior relationship will enable the agency to understand the company’s culture or the background checks and screening requirements that are necessary to work at its facilities.

A close relationship between a business and the staffing agency not only alleviates turnover but also speeds the hiring process. Employers may not have any staffing needs for several months, but when they do require temporary employees they will need them quickly.

When looking for the right staffing company, don’t be afraid to review all your options. There are many specialty staffing companies that are job-type specific, others offer employees for a variety of jobs such as general labor; office and administration; accounting and finance; sales; legal; call center; information technology; and engineering. Look for an agency that can blend your staffing needs, company goals and culture with the right skill set, service, and technology to deliver the solutions necessary to help manage an ever-growing need for a flexible workforce.

In the end, there needs to be a comfortable working relationship where the hiring managers and staffing companies share the same business philosophies and practices.

Scott Adamonis is the director of sales for Everstaff. Reach him at (216) 369-2566, ext. 111, or sadamonis@everstaff.com.

Insights Recruiting Staffing is brought to you by Everstaff

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