Going postal
This article is about the violent social phenomenon. For the Discworld novel see Going Postal.
Going postal is an American English slang term, used as a verb meaning to commit murder, mass murder or a killing spree in the workplace, generally by a current or former employee. The term derives from a series of incidents from 1986 onwards in which United States Postal Service (USPS) workers shot and killed managers, fellow workers, and members of the police or general public.
On August 20, 1986, 14 employees were killed at the Edmond, Oklahoma, Post Office by postman Patrick Sherrill, who then committed suicide, bringing the total to 15 dead. Between 1986 and 1997, more than 40 people were killed in more than 20 incidents.
Following this series of events, the idiom has entered into common usage, and is applied to murders committed by employees in the workplace, irrespective of the employer; and occasionally more loosely to describe killings in the workplace other than by employees in situations in which the motive is not commonplace.
There is no consensus as to whether the incidence of workplace murder in the US Postal Service is atypical. Some defense counsels for perpetrators have suggested that a culture of poor or oppressive management leads to mental breakdown and loss of control on the part of employees. On the other hand, in 2000 the USPS released a study which refuted the belief that postal employees were particularly prone to this behaviour, concluding instead that workplace violence at USPS was around the average for comparable American workplaces.
Issues like this one are not uncommon. There have been several other incidents in international postal services. One of the better known ones is the Queen Street Massacre that occurred in an Australian Post Office in Melbourne Australia in 1987.
Influence on literature and popular culture
- The phrase was popularized in the 1995 movie Clueless featuring Alicia Silverstone.
- Going Postal is the title of a satirical fantasy novel by Terry Pratchett in his Discworld series. (ISBN 0385603428)
- Postal is also a controversial computer game based on the expression, developed by Running With Scissors.
This description of "going postal" is surprisingly biased against the numerous alienated workers of the USPS. You even mention a "study" by the USPS management which refutes the obvious fact that something is terribly wrong with the USPS! Unbelieveable. I'm sure my comments here will be promptly deleted. "Going Postal" didn't come out of thin air: the USPS has a notoriously BAD reputation for quasi-militaristic management style of employees. They spy on letter carriers as they do their routes. They verbally abuse temporary employees. Their hierarchical "boot on neck" way of treating workers creates a hostile work environment fostering resentment and alienation. In general, the United States has a hyper-lopsided pro-management bias in it's labor laws: if you don't believe me, go work at WalMart--which right now has the largest class action discrimination lawsuit grinding through the courts. The tragic "gone postal" incidents which created this slang term came into being because of an oppressive and unjust work environment in the USPS which exploits workers to the benefit of management. To work in the United States, sadly in general, is to be a wage slave.
Bibliography
- Going Postal: Rage, Murder, and Rebellion: From Reagan's Workplaces to Clinton's Columbine and Beyond is the title of a book by Mark Ames, which examines the rise of office and school shootings in the wake of the Reagan Revolution, and compares the shootings to slave rebellions.(ISBN 1932360824)
- Going Postal is also the title of a book by Don Lasseter, which examines the issue of workplace shootings inside the USPS (ISBN 0786004398).