By Kiya Edwards – January 26, 2018

ST. LOUIS – A St. Louis mail carrier claims she was bullied on the job for months. Now, she’s on a leave of absence as USPS investigates the allegations.

The woman asked 5 On Your Side to hide her identity out of fear of retaliation.

She said she loves delivering mail.

“You meet so many different people,” she said.

In 2015, she lifted a tub and felt a pop in her back.

“It shoots sharp pain down to my toes,” she said.

She knew the injury would affect her work on the streets. She didn’t expect to have a hard time, years later, at the post office station.

“The managers at other stations, supervisors, they were perfect,” she said. “No problems. As soon as August comes around and I move to another station, that’s when the bullying began.”

She claims her supervisor called her a poor, sorry mail carrier and took away the task she loves doing the most.

“She deemed me unable to deliver mail,” the woman said. “We are the carriers. We need that same respect while we’re out there, just as well as we need that same respect while we’re in the office.”

Adding to the emotional pain, a fellow carrier constantly pestered her, she said.

“He’s also a shop steward,” she said. “Sometimes, he would come up to my case and start barking like a dog.”

It got physical, she said, when her supervisor threw a key at her stomach. It was a master key used to open blue mailboxes and buildings.

“It’s heavy,” she said. “It’s metal, it’s all metal.”

One day, she couldn’t take it anymore.

“I thought about committing suicide because it had gotten that bad,” she said.

Now, she’s on leave from the post office, which was a doctor recommendation. However, on Monday, she’ll return.

“Anxious,” she said. “Nervous. I’m a single mom with four kids. I cannot afford to quit. I have a household to maintain, I have a vehicle to maintain, I just, I can’t afford to quit right now.”

A USPS spokesperson provided a statement:

The USPS does not publicly discuss employee personal matters,” he said. “The Postal Service’s highest commitment is to the safety of our employees. As soon as we become aware of employees’ concerns of any type, we take immediate steps to investigate, as we are doing in this specific case.

Source: 5 On Your Side – ksdk.com