Where did the term 'going postal' originate?

Question

Was it from one incident? Or are mental health issues common among mail carriers?

Answer 1

There was an incident in which Patrick Sherrill, a postal worker, went insane and caused a massacre at an Edmond, OK post office. In fact, there were several incidents throughout the 80's and 90's in which homicides occured at post offices throughout the United States. However, the Edmond, OK massacre was the worst since 14 people were killed and six were wounded.

Answer 2

Both conditions. Back in the 80's postal workers were the biggest threat. The long hours, disrespect and overall poor working conditions sent a few individuals "over the edge". There were, I think two or three, incidences within a short period of time to each other. Workers brought in guns and opened fire. The term "going postal" arose from that time, referring to job stress being too much. Hope this helps. Take care of you.

Answer 3

The term "going postal" was coined due to the amount of postal workers going into there work place and shooting there co workers.

Now the term means to lose self control at the work place and attack there co workers, either verbally or physically, or both.

Answer 4

It originated with a former US Postal employee who had been fired. He went back to his former work location with guns and killed a bunch of his former co-workers.

Later the term "going postal" came to mean anyone who was violently disgruntled against their co-workers.

Answer 5

I think it was in the late 90's when a postal worker went nuts, went into his post office and gunned everyone down.

Answer 6

after the Vietnam war the Post office hired a lot of Vietnam war veterens , and many of them had post traumatic stress syndrome. And a lot of them went crazy at work killing their co-workers. That's where this term came from.

Answer 7

For some reason, it's always the postal workers that go nuts and decide to kill everyone. I think they're pretty common.

Weird, huh?