What does a measly little 13 minutes really mean?

It takes 10 minutes to boil water. One quarter of a professional basketball game is 12 minutes.

There are 58 minutes in a 12 round boxing match. And running of the Boston Marathon is usually only two hours.

Unlike 10 or 20 or even 90, it is not a number people go around talking about. When was the last time you heard someone say “Hey, he was 13 minutes early,” or “hey I still have 13 minutes left on that meter?”

Having said that, something must be wrong in the United States Post Office when they are firing 18-year veteran mail carriers because they may be walking too slow when they deliver the mail.

One woman gave up the last 18 years of life to work for the post office. She was a dedicated employee and no one had any complaints about her performance. But because one observer said the strides she made with her 5’5″ frame were not long enough. Because one observer from the post office said she was was a lousy 13 minutes slower than what was considered a standard, she was fired after 18 years on the job.

Was she a terrible employee? No one has said so. Were the customers on her route complaining about this apparent lack of speed? No. In fact, they were appalled at her firing.

What if when she started carrying mail, she was actually an hour too slow and now she is only late by 13 minutes. Doesn’t that show some sort of improvement? Isn’t that worth something?

With all the problems the post office has had in recent years with employees and automatic weapons, this action answers a lot of questions about disgruntled postal workers. Yet, it leaves many questions about what the post office is really up to.