Each day, Eileen sorts hundreds of pieces of mail to be delivered throughout the hospital and Valley's offsite clinics and offices.
With dozens of departments and a staff of more than 3,500, Eileen utilizes multiple sorting areas in the mail room.
Two daily delivery routes amount to thousands of steps throughout Valley's main campus.
Brendan has delivered mail at Valley for more than 20 years.
Eileen and Brendan meet in the hallway during their daily routes.
One of the secret job perks--knowing where snack jars are located throughout the hospital!
In her more than 39 years at Valley Medical Center, mail clerk Eileen Mayer has sorted and delivered millions of envelopes, magazines and packages. Eileen starts her day at 8 a.m. delivering newspapers and picking up mail from the administrative office. Once she returns, Valley’s contracted courier service has arrived to deliver mail from the U.S. post office and pick up the first run of deliveries for the offsite clinics and offices. The next hour is spent sorting mail (or as Eileen calls it, “playing solitaire”) and preparing for in-hospital mail delivery. Each delivery is a new challenge as some pieces may have staff names but not department names, may be unmarked, or may be for people no longer employed with Valley. Eileen (and on Mondays, her trusty volunteer Steve) sort each piece carefully to ensure all mail is delivered to the proper recipient or unit. Eileen stays up-to-date on when people and offices move throughout the campus and at the various offsite clinics and departments to ensure that mail service is not disrupted. Eileen asks that everyone who has mail delivered to the hospital include the name, department, and if possible, mail stop to ensure prompt delivery.
On her personal delivery routes throughout the hospital, Talbot, Northwest Pavilion, and MAC buildings, Eileen encounters not only staff, but patients and families as well. She equips her two mail carts with campus maps to help lost visitors, and believes it is “important to give everybody a smile or quick hello because you don’t know what they’re going through.” Supporting Eileen in delivering mail throughout the hospital is Brendan, who has been a part of the Valley team since 1995. Brendan delivers to various units throughout the Tower, Olympic building, and the main hospital.
A second courier pick up and delivery in the afternoon brings more mail to sort and prepare for delivery the following day. A mail clerk’s sorting and delivering never ceases, but as Eileen puts it “the job is fun and very complex because of all of the inside stuff you need to know. It is very challenging, but exciting!”
Valley Mail by the Numbers:
- Approximately 18,000 outgoing letters per month
- An average of 420 “flats” (magazine, large envelope) per week
- An estimated 500 to 1,000 letters delivered each day
- Nearly 200 interoffice envelopes daily
- Pizza advertisements—too many to count!
You are truely amazing!!!
Nobody does their job better than Eileen! Not only is she highly competent, she is kind, gentle and friendly. Best wishes to a truly outstanding lady.
You are truly amazing, Eileen, at what you do and how you approach your work each and every day. Here, here to all that you do for so many people including Brendan. Take care ~ Jon Hankins
Eileen was there during my total 30 years managing the VMC Credit Union. She did an absolutely ‘fantastic’ job then and continues to do so. She is a friend to all, Valley is so lucky to have Eileen, she is truly a ‘Team Player’ to all. Marge Murtha, Credit Union CEO Retired.