Working at the Post Office - 2014

[Lainey]

http://www.themorningnews.org/article/blues-on-wheels

Interesting article on what it's like to work for the P.O. The new normal is to be hired as a contract worker, so that's what the author did. Hair-raising.

[Tammy]

Infuriating

[sweetana3]

My one brother works for the PO and he has been telling us this for some time. The other brother retired from UPS, took the training and lasted less than a week. Management at the PO is truly bad.

[Zoe Girl]

The USPS is a major client of mediation and has mediation written into their contracts I believe. I learned that from the mediation training I have been doing.

Maybe they need a lot of mediation because they suck

[ApatheticNoMore]

I was having one of my working for the post office fantasies again. I did wonder what the actual risk of dog bites really was while in my fantasy (because it's a cliche, mailman -> dogs biting). I wondered if the pay was low, but kind of shrugged it off, oh well, maybe it's not necessary to spend one's whole life chasing better pay, and eventually one can just settle for a low paying jobs that might be a little more rewarding.

However the article i guess shows that while it may not be possible to make every job a good job, it is certainly possible to make EVERY job a bad job if the company/bosses try hard enough! >8) Of course some of the abuses detailed, like illegal wage theft are done by lots of companies (never done it, but it's not just low skilled work, however they do prey on the desperate - say the long term unemployed etc. - because noone else will take that). But it does sound like a pretty horrible work place.

[awakenedsoul]

I have a great mail lady. I leave her bags of home grown organic fruit during harvest time. I give her hand knit socks or crocheted pot holders for Christmas. She's so appreciative. It seems like toxic abusive work environments have become the norm these days. What a a shame...

[Float On]

Around here usually just the postmaster and one other employee are actual USPS employees. Everyone else is contract (self-employed). In fact for years all our addresses were HCR and whatever route and box number. (Highway Contract Route). Drivers bid for the routes and do 6 day deliveries year round. My mail lady and her husband and one of their daughters have 5 routes between the 3 of them so they can sometimes cover for each other and get a full weekend off or an actual vacation.

[ToomuchStuff]

The post office has been having difficulties since they are required to prefund billions of dollars in retirement, that gets paid into a fund, that the government promises not to use for anything else. (sound like social security, ahem, we promise not to touch for anything else)
So many of the governent offices have been on hiring freezes for a while, and while the post office is "non profit" and "not part of the government" they still are (Postal polices, etc).
Things have improved here for the carriers a little bit, after last year when a postal carrier, back from heart surgery, was told he couldn't go home and had to finish his route, when it was in excess of 100 degrees and he died on the job. The entire post office has been trying to pass the buck solely to his supervisor (who they moved), while dealing with OSHA (small 70K fine), and his widow's lawsuit.
His former supervisor, has had two heart attacks from the stress related to the aftermath (irony). I wonder if he made himself go back to work.

[Blackdog Lin]

Thank you Lainey for the link. That was a very good article.

I could relate to many of her stories.

[catherine]

I'm pausing before sending this to my brother so that I can weigh in. He was a USPS employee for years. Twelve years ago his wife died, leaving him a widower at the age of 44. A few years later, he quit. A lot of people didn't really understand why (including his new wife). I have always thought that after his first wife died he got that "Life's too short" drug in his vein and he felt he had to quit. This article kind of clarifies that for me.

And I love how the author talks about what she loves about the job. I've always said that mail carriers know more about you than anyone else. My mail carrier has brought Beatle fan club membership cards, brochures from Catholic orders of nuns, college applications (and acceptance/rejection letters), collection letters, vegetarian magazines, and lately AARP cards.

One time a post office employee looked up my number and called me to tell me that my unemployment check got put in someone else's P.O. box by mistake and I could come pick it up. I asked why he went through the trouble to call me and he said that he had been unemployed once, and so he knew how much I needed that check.

My current mail carrier has a route that doesn't get the mail to me until 4pm, but if I get a check from a client, he delivers it at 10 a.m. I never asked him to do that.

Bottom line, great article, and great tribute to those who "through rain and snow and gloom of night.."

[iris lilies]

I love our postman, Mr. White. He's black. He's been our postman for the 25 years we've lived here. He's near my age and is very wiry and skinny so that shows this daily exercise is good.

[Packy]

I've heard two things: That the usps has gotten to be a difficult place to work, and that they have some very stoopud rules. That said, it PAYS well; it just is a bad place to work. That is what I've heard, from several sources.

[ApatheticNoMore]

Quite honestly if my workplace was that abusive, if I had no other economic opportunities I guess that's just that - economics. But otherwise, I'd wonder if there wasn't something quite wrong with me psychologically to make me stay.

[sweetana3]

My brother just keeps his head down and works his route. He is out of the "office" for most of the day and has a good life outside of work. They wanted him to run for union rep and he said "no way".

[Blackdog Lin]

In the 80's I told everyone that they should try for jobs with the Postal Service. Hard work but good pay and benefits, if you were willing to give up some family life.

In the 90's I told everyone that they should try for jobs with the Postal Service. Same as above. But boy we started going through "casuals" (the 90's equivalent of todays CCA's), who quit left and right, declaring $10.00/hr./no benefits wasn't enough for what they were doing. And that was more money back then - and they were right.

In the 00's I quit telling ANYBODY to try for jobs with the Postal Service. In small incremental ways, it started and just kept getting worse and worse. I spent half my energy doing my job(s), and half my energy fighting the USPS into making them honor their contractual agreements. (and I don't say this for niggling things - I speak of things like my getting an 8-hour break from work shifts in any 24-hour period. Which left, you know, 16 hours that they could do with me what they would. Or getting a 30-minute lunch break in a 6-8-hour shift. Or getting paid for the 45 minutes they required me to drive to and show up for a 0200 shift at an office 30 miles away from the one I worked at. And the 45 minutes to get back to my home office, to start another shift.)

Of course you appreciate your carrier - but please also appreciate all the behind-the-scenes employees who are also putting up with the daily **** to get that bit of mail in your box every day. Well paid: yep. Overpaid: I don't think so.