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You talkin' to me?

Posted by Word Camel on August 21, 2002

In Reply to: Go Postal posted by TheFallen on August 21, 2002

: : I thought that the meaning behind this was the fact that in the States, a psychological study revealed that postal workers were more likely to go on a killing spree than people in any other profession.

: ... and I thought that it was a darkly-humoured oblique reference to an actual specific occurrence of a killing spree as described above - though I have no clue as to details. Which, I wonder?

You're exactly right. After several high-profile incidents over the past decade(between 1985 and 1998, 35 postal workers were killed by disgruntled colleagues) Webster's Dictionary added the lexicon, "going postal." The postmaster general was so concerned that he set up the United States Postal Service Commission on A Safe and Secure Workplace.

According to a study it commissioned back in 1998, postal workers were no more likely to be homicidal maniacs than people in other professions. They are also less likely to be victims of violent crime on the job. Retail workers are 8 times more likely to be killed on the job, and taxi drivers (well, we all know about *them*) are 150 times more likely.

Postal workers were found to be calmer,less violent and less tense than other workers.

Now, taxi drivers...

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