I don't think UPS is entirely to blame when someone kills themself. There have to be other things factored into the equation. If someone did kill themself over THIS job, they must have had many coping issues.
Steve
Anyone that kills themselves has coping issues.
The problem is that for many people, their job is a serious issue to cope with. The job is responsible for paying the house payment, putting food on the table and clothing the kids. It pays for the car and the truck to get to work. The job is a huge part of our lives, and in many cases defines who the person is.
To have that threatened, or taken away, is a huge stressor, one that is very difficult to cope with. Couple that with a nagging wife who could care less, as long as the direct deposit is there every week, and kids who all have issues and needs, and the smaller issues now seem much larger.
Then you take an already stressfully, physically demanding job, one where you work 10-13 hours a day, give your best, and all you get in return is bs about how you laid down on the job?
Yes, there are days where some drivers need a kick in the pants to get their heads focused on the job. But to daily berate, belittle, besmirch, and bedevil a driver just because you are sadistic makes no sense. It instead is counter productive.
You get the same productivity from that driver as the Nazi's got from the prisoners in the camps, instead of encouragement, there is punishment. Threats instead of council.
People are right, we make more than the job is really worth, but what they dont see(or rarely see) is the head games and bs that people with too much time on their hands invent. With that extra love from management, no, drivers dont make enough.
Getting back to coping, people that kill themselves feel alone. They might have family, they might have lots of "friends", but they still feel alone. Add to that, the singling out by management of the driver for harassment and you have one of the most powerful tools to torture a person with. The feeling of being totally alone. And the sadistic manager thrives on exploiting that feeling of being alone and inadequate.
Ask anyone that has been a pow in the last 50 years what it feels like to be totally alone, with no hope of reprieve.
And that is when you have people that kill themselves.
Of course there are also times where a letter makes its way home to a spouse that is terminally ill, where the spouse kills themselves before they let ups discipline the other spouse for excessive time off to care for the sick one. In that case, IMHO, UPS was entirely to blame.
So please, dont make a blanket assumption that the person just lacks coping skills. They might very well have been dealing with more stressors that would have put others over the edge long ago. While UPS might not be the main cause, they do play a huge part in making the other stressors much larger than they need to be.
d