Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending my first Port Orchard Chamber of Commerce meeting. It was such a treat! We had an absolutely delicious home-made lunch by local community contributors. On top, I had the good fortune of meeting a number of other local business owners and learning about their businesses and upcoming events. At the luncheon, we engaged in fun (and festive) games and icebreakers, and everyone was so welcoming and interested in learning about my business.

I grew up in a small town. I almost forgot how good it feels to again be in a small town, surrounded by close, warm and welcoming people. Port Orchard is an amazing community. I strongly recommend everyone to come and have a taste of this community, even for a short visit. I am looking forward to future Chamber of Commerce luncheons and events and to supporting my fellow Port Orchard business owners.

In workers’ compensation when injured workers hire an attorney, all claim related correspondence comes through the law office. This includes checks for time-loss compensation benefits, regardless of whether any fees are deducted from those checks. Until recently our office received all correspondence at our physical address in Port Orchard. The result was inconsistent delivery times. Some days mail would arrive by 10 am and others not until after 4 pm. More often than not, it was the later. Late mail delivery impacts our productivity because it gives us less time to review and respond to incoming correspondence. It also forces clients to wait, sometimes for hours, for mail containing their checks to arrive.

Our solution was to rent a post office box where our mail would be deposited by 11 am. With reliability and consistency of mail delivery, we would increase our productivity and provide better service to clients. We thought. After a tedious process of getting Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) to acknowledge our address change, our hopes of reliable mail service were dashed. We opened an empty post office box that we expected to be full. After waiting in long holiday lines at the post office, we learned that the post office couldn’t locate the PO Box they assigned us. They returned our mail as undeliverable back to L&I. They assured us the situation would be rectified. But it was not.

We had to go back to the post office to speak with the post master general. We were getting call after call from L&I informing us that our mail was being returned as undeliverable. Imagine my frustration and disbelief when the postmaster himself could not find the PO Box they had assigned us. Because it was mislabeled on the inside.

I feel terrible for my clients that are awaiting checks in this holiday season. I wish my attempts to provide them with better services hadn’t turned out so poorly. More than anything, I hope for a very full PO Box this week.