The Condobolin Post Office has been battling an unfortunate period of staff shortages due to COVID-19, and like many other businesses, is struggling to find workers.  

With over 100,000 active COVID cases in NSW currently, the Lachlan Shire has not been precluded from the disruptions that the virus has been causing in workplaces.  

Although an essential service, post offices these days are autonomous small businesses and owners Tanya and Glenn Sinclair say that the bad luck they've had over the last few weeks has been 'unimaginable.'  



The Condobolin Post Office is run with six employees who manage the shopfront and the town mail and parcel delivery, while out of town mail services are managed by contractors.   

However, four weeks ago Condobolin's postman had to leave the country urgently to attend a family emergency, leaving owner Glenn to take over the town mail run. 

Shortly after, the business lost one of their shopfront workers and Tanya and Glenn, who both have autoimmune diseases, fell ill with COVID.

This meant that the shopfront and the town mail and parcel delivery service had to be managed by the remaining employees who worked tirelessly to ensure that locals still received their mail.

If all this wasn't bad enough, just before Glenn and Tanya returned, two of the three remaining employees also fell ill with COVID, meaning the shop had to reduce their hours and remain closed for a short period.  

 "It was just one of those situations that you never imagine to happen," said Tanya Sinclair, who said she was extremely disappointed that they had to reduce their hours for what is believed to be the first time in the businesses history.  

Reduced opening hours, however, did not mean reduced working hours.  

"Once we came out of isolation we worked fourteen days straight. It wasn’t as though we were closing at 2:30 and putting our feet up - if the shop shut at 2:30, we were at home or out the back until at least 6:30 sorting mail, writing out postal cards and scanning parcels," Mrs Sinclair said. 

Although she describes the recent period as "an absolute nightmare," Mrs Sinclair says she was grateful to the community for giving them so much support during the tough time.  

"The town's support just made everything so much easier – most people were very understanding and patient and we'd like to thank them for that," she said.  

Now that the post office is back to normal hours, Tanya and Glenn say they are still struggling with a shortage of staff.  

"We are crying out for workers at the moment but we've had a number of people ask us for part time hours or say that they're unable to work because their benefits will be cut," said Mrs Sinclair.  

"It's ridiculous," she added, "we're not the only business in town that needs workers. It seems the government have created an even bigger problem."  

While it seems that the Coronavirus has been impacting local businesses in more ways than one, for now, the community is just thankful to see a return to normality for the post office and mail delivery services. Tanya and Glenn both thank the community for their support and ensure that they are always doing everything they can to get the mail delivered on time.