The phenomena that inspired the term ‘going postal’ does have its origins in the United States post office. While the motivations of violent attackers is often complex, sometimes including medical conditions like a brain tumor, the wildly accepted explanation originates from around the time the Zip code was being introduced.

##Brief history of mail

The United States postal system was a unique concept in its inception centuries ago. Most of civilized history prior to this time relied on trusted messengers, personalized wax seals (to prove you sent the message and that it hadn’t been read or tampered with) and sending letters was generally for the well off; royalty and merchants. For the vast majority of human existence there was not a good way to communicate with people far away. In summary; the advent of lightweight writing materials, literacy and transportation eventually inspired a system of trusted message deliverers—this would benefit all in a society as information was power and the key to success.

The first century of the US postal system was one built with brute human labor. Stamping, sorting, loading bags on wagons or hauling them on horseback. Delivery times varied between days and months depending on distance, a miracle of convenience at that time in history. We’re spoiled nowadays, really we’re overloaded with info, but back then any news was exciting. General news was worth money to local newspaper printers. Naturally, the post man became a welcome sight; if he didn’t have any mail for you he’d still have some news from afar worth hearing. If you were waiting on something important your local post man was your temporary best friend.

##Post Civil War

As the population grew so did the number of letters. America entered the second industrial revolution (the one it’d come to conquer), the post office adopted new techniques and technologies that improved service times. Stamps, like bank notes, became valuable and so you see that printers began adding elaborate scrollwork to foil would-be counterfeiters. Pneumatic tubes shot letters across factories and even across blocks of New York City. Railroads hauled US mail cars and could even grab sacks of mail without slowing down—they’d grab it off a big hook as the train zipped by the station.

Over the decades even zanier technologies were adopted in the name of speed; gasoline powered vehicles, aeroplanes, etc. One thing remained constant during these innovations; the post man at the end of the line was always your neighborhood friend. He wasn’t some stranger jumping out of a truck, tossing your package on your doorstep and running off without saying hello. But the folded pieces of paper kept coming, the mound of mail to be delivered grew and grew.

##Post WW2

Following WW2 every industry was looking into using computers to speed up whatever mathematic computation problems they were faced with. International Business Machines had adding machines that’d help your accountants double their computing. Computing machines were shifting from mechanical (gears) to vacuum tubes and eventually to transistors. No industry was spared a productivity analysis to see where things could be improved. These methods had been developed for WW2 and they’d won the war so they must be the way forward!

The post office found out they could significantly improve their delivery times if they had sorters use a special computer console to type out a few numbers, rather than the old way of sorting by the address. Some packages were often labeled ‘National Register Company. Toledo.’ And the old system had no problem getting the package delivered. Everyone in Toledo knew where the big cash register factory was in town, especially the post man.

##Zipcodes, productivity and the 1971 reorganization act.

This new system is what we’d call the zipcodes. Zipcodes made it easy for letters to be zipped along to the correct bin. Perfect, yet another improvement in efficiency for mail delivery; cheaper postage rates and better delivery times, fewer sorters needed because they weren’t sorting by hand anymore.

What they hadn’t anticipated was that the new system of sorting was far more draconian than the old ways. Employees now sat at a strange looking typewriter, letters flashing passed them on a conveyer as they typed in the digits in the zipcode. Hours a day of letter flying by and you punching in numbers. Punching in numbers. Punching in numbers.

Sorting had always been a dull part of the process but the pay was typically good and a post office employee was typically well-regarded by the community. This was the heyday of mail-order catalogs and letters from summer-camp. The mail was vital. Some post offices, faced with either declining revenue (towns had experienced boom and bust cycles before) and a general policy of cutting back on expenses and boosting productivity, resorted to nefarious techniques to try and force out long-time employees. The Post Office reorganization act was passed in 1971, this led to staff reductions or reassignment to new duties. For many, this was a seismic change in the culture they’d worked in for decades of their lives. Some postmasters, faced with the need to fire staff and keep costs down, resorted to cruel and dehumanizing techniques we’d call a hostile work environment.

The age of chatting with your friendly neighborhood post man had ended. Times were a changing.

##”They can’t do this to me, I’m part of the community.”

Some of the postal workers didn’t like the new post office. Seemed to go against centuries of tradition. Now they had the people on the postal routes driving around in little vans so they could deliver more mail each day. How was a postman suppose to say hello to the family if they had a quota to meet? Not to mention; sorters really hated the new system that meant sitting at a console all day typing numbers. Add to that a few local offices instituting a policy of cruelty to their employees and you had a powderkeg, no insurance purchased before shipping, waiting to go off.

A few disgruntled employees sought revenge, typically against their tormentors but also against former co-workers. Big network news was at its peak during this period and so these instances of workplace violence got national coverage (when most were ‘small’ incidents by modern standards… as sad as that sounds.) News agencies have always resorted to catchy headlines to keep the viewers attention and to create new nomenclature to aid in communication; and thus for a few decades the term ‘going postal’ was how one described an instance of workplace violence.

Here is a good documentary covering what I’d just summarized.

Murder By Proxy: How America Went Postal

Don’t let the title mislead you, it does include tons of info about the specific causes of the ‘going postal’ phenomena. From what I recall it doesn’t sensationalize or lean any particular way in terms of politics.