Lincoln Post Office struggles with not enough staff

The Lincoln Post Office has had to close for periods of time during the day due to lack of staff, and it’s unclear when the problem will be resolved.

“We’re just so short-staffed,” said Lincoln Postmaster Gerald Dichiara, who started his position in Lincoln about two months ago. The South Lincoln location is supposed to have two full-time clerks, a part-time clerk, five mail carriers, and three assistants to cover absences. Right now, however, there’s only full-time clerk Liz Kenney and one assistant, and one of the mail carriers is retiring soon, he said. Sometimes he works the window himself, but when he can’t, he has to post a hand-written notice on the post office doors informing customers that the office is temporarily closed.

Dichiara works with post offices in Concord and Acton to move staff around as needed, juggling days off and lunch breaks. Complicating the matter is that the post office must remain open for passport appointments. There are usually about half a dozen total on weekdays, but on Saturday mornings, “we’re swamped with them,” he said.

Changing the post office’s official operating hours (for example, by closing for lunch every day)  is apparently not possible either. “There’s nothing I can do about changing the hours on the window. You have to go through a chain of command to have that done,” Dichiara said.

Lincoln is not alone; many post offices all over the country are short-handed due to Covid-19, staff turnover and other issues. Dichiara said that Lincoln just went through two rounds of advertising positions internally and had no applicants. Three other external candidates were offered jobs, but two never showed up for orientation and one didn’t pass a background check.