Working It

At work I often find myself trying to persuade my bosses in order to get them to agree to doing something that is in my best interest.  When my Postmaster recently changed our start times from 7:00AM to 7:30AM I knew that it would have a negative impact on me personally.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays I have a class at Sierra College that starts at 4:15PM and with our previous start times I could skip my lunch on days that I could finish my route in 8 hours and get off at 3:00PM or if I had to cut mail to make it in time I could still get off by 3:30PM with plenty of time to make it to class.  With a 7:30AM start time if I had to cut mail I would get off at 4:00PM which would not give me enough time to make it to class on time even if I went straight from work and wore my uniform to school (which would be incredibly embarassing.)

All of my bosses know that I have school, so my Postmaster was not surprised when I asked if I could still start at 7:00AM on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  He was reluctant to let me do so, because if he makes an exception for one employee it could lead to other employees requesting change of schedules and if he doesn't grant their requests than he could be facing grievances for disparity of treatment.  I used a little bit of 3 different persuasive appeals in my attempts to change his mind.  I used a logical appeal by reminding him that before I even registered for my classes I asked him if a 4:15PM class would be manageable and even specifically asked him if there was any chance before December that our starting times could be pushed back.  I also reminded him that at the time he said they would not be pushed back and that they would work with me and I should be fine to have a 4:15PM class.  I appealed to his emotion by reminding him how important school is to me and telling him that it would be hard for me to pass my class if I was getting marked tardy every day for the next 5 weeks of school.  My third and final appeal was an appeal to speaker credibility by reminding him of how good my attendance is, what a hard worker I am, and how in the past I have done anything I could to help him and all of my other bosses out whenever it has been asked of me.  I also made sure that all of my persuasive attempt came from a positive, request for help angle instead of seeming whiny.

In the end my Postmaster said that I could come in at 7:00AM every Tuesday and Thursday until school was out and that if I wanted I could even come in at 6:30AM most Tuesdays since we usually have more mail ready early on Tuesdays.  I was ultimately more persuasive than I had even hoped to be at the onset.