New Leadership, Outlook at Dana Point Post Office : Workplace: The emotional scars remain from the May 6 shootings. But newly installed Postmaster Ray Voisine is getting positive marks and morale is high, postal workers say.

A new postmaster was sworn in Friday, declaring that the troubled post office is back on track, even while some employees remain on disability leave months after a gunman fatally shot one postal worker and wounded another.

After a brief ceremony, Ray Voisine said employees have begun recovering emotionally from the bloody attack on May 6 when fired postal carrier Mark Richard Hilbun allegedly entered the facility and started shooting.

“They basically want to move on,” said Voisine, a 19-year postal service veteran who worked his way up from a clerk in the San Clemente mail room. “The attitude here is really good.”

Voisine replaces Postmaster Don Lowe, who left the office and never returned after Hilbun allegedly went on the rampage, firing a bullet through Lowe’s locked door. Lowe was not injured.

Employees welcomed the change of command, saying that their new boss has already improved morale at the office. Voisine and San Clemente Postmaster Ken Capps had temporarily carried out the duties of postmaster since Lowe’s departure.

“He’s an excellent choice,” said John Gargan, who was sorting letters during the swearing-in ceremony. “He gets along with everybody. He’s more easygoing. He talks a lot with the people who work here.”

From accounts by management officials, union leaders and workers on the floor, Voisine’s trademark is his willingness to listen to employees.

During his 10 weeks at the office before his actual appointment, Voisine made it a practice to walk the floor and talk to workers every day, sometimes showing up at 3 a.m. to converse with morning shift employees.

He has also started weekly focus groups, in which employees discuss workplace issues and suggest solutions to problems.

Already, Voisine has switched some workers from part-time jobs to more regular full-time jobs and done things to improve worker morale, such as moving the time clocks to a location more accessible to all employees.

Such actions, many employees said Friday, is a marked difference from previous conditions. They described a stressful work environment before the shooting, saying there was intense pressure to process mail and a staff suffering from poor employee relations.

“The standard phrase used to be ‘Face the Case,’ ” referring to the wall of bins where mail is sorted, said postal worker Paul Manola. “We used to have a non-communicative postmaster to the extreme.”

Manola, who two months ago wrote a letter to U.S. Postmaster General Marvin T. Runyon Jr. complaining of workplace conditions, said he was pleased with the Voisine’s selection.

“I think he’s terrific,” Manola said.

Lowe could not be reached for comment Friday and has previously declined to be interviewed.

“You have to understand that within in any work force, not everyone is going to be happy all of the time,” said Christine Dugas, a Postal Service spokeswoman. “You can never please everybody all the time.”

After the shooting, five postal workers, including a female employee whom Hilbun stalked before he was fired, took disability leaves.

“Their counselors and therapists have not yet released them for duty,” Martinez said. “Some of them, though, have indicated an eagerness to return to work.”

In addition, 12 employees initially requested transfers after the shooting, although only seven followed up and were sent to other offices.

However, postal officials say the number of transfers is typical for an office the size of Dana Point’s, which has 73 employees. They noted that one worker who was transferred to Carlsbad after the shooting will be returning later this month.

“We have thousands of employees transferring each year,” said Arthur O. Martinez, the Santa Ana district manager. He said he didn’t know whether any of the transfers were a direct result of the shooting.

Voisine declined to speak about previous tensions at the post office.

Instead, he said, he wants to help speed along the healing process, something with which he’s familiar.

A Vietnam War veteran, Voisine on Wednesday donated a memorial to his fallen comrades to current members of the U.S. Marine Corps regiment he belonged to during the conflict.

“That completed a cycle for us, a healing process,” he said. “What I see that I can do here is give my support to the employees.”