That's good man! I still have a year to go..maybe 2..luckily, I have a pretty nice route with parts out in the country (rare for Columbus, Ohio). So it's not too bad. I'm going to try for 35 years. I feel for the ones just coming in now tho...tough gig. Probably won't be a whole lot showing up today lol.
Joe....where are you on the seniority list?...…...Columbus Ohio (home to Frankie Williams)...nice place ...I went to a Salesian Ordination there years ago....Today's letter carrier job is not for the weak or feeble....You must be ready to pounding into the ground and then pounded again...Work many 7 day weeks.....Thankfully in this area Amazon went private for delivery....The boys were inundated every day
It's a pretty dysfunctional place to work at , I wasn't a carrier, I was a mailhandler.
I started as a PTF ( part-time flexible around 1997 or 1998, back then part-time was 50-60 hours a week, about 1998 I made FTR ( full time regular ), this gives you a defined shift like 11 pm, 2300 in postalese to 0700 , off Tuesday and Friday for example.
You then bid on jobs as openings occur, seniority rules.
Mailhandler are typically level 4, I wound up being the one level 5 lead mailhandler in short time, pays maybe 60 cents per hour than level 4. The only reason I got the position is because the job sucks and nobody senior to me wanted the responsibilities that go along with it.
I was a total paper tiger, I'm like 36 and in charge of guys that are largely Vietnam era Navy and Army 20 year veterans, I have no authority and they damn well know it, once you pass your probationary 90 days or whatever it is/was, it's almost impossible to get fired.
So I'm stuck as the " foreman" of the loading dock doing all kinds of silly paperwork while receiving and sending mail at 8 bays, stupid shit like driver's name, truck #, how many postcons, bmc's, pallets they took and brought back, estimated percentage of truck filled,yada yada yada
If they wind up leaving late, I have to fill out a form explaining why , I came close to signing the late slips
Epstein's mother, more than once !
It was so much nicer to just be a 4 and sort the mail.
Carriers are usually level 6, at least that's the way it was about 15 years ago. It could be different now.
Carrier is not an easy job, I never tried it but it is not a glorified paperboy job, you don't even need a HS diploma to be a postal worker, but many have college degrees or at least some college.
Carrier is the most common job there, I know it ain't easy !
A fairly easy job is window clerk
Hands down the very best job at USPS is level 3 custodian, empty the postmaster's trashcan,maybe wipe his desktop, you'll never be noticed the rest of the day, do whatever you want to do, get paid about 80 % of a level 6 carrier's pay, no stress at all, you're virtually invisible
You just about have to be a veteran to get that gig, preferably a disabled veteran.
I started as a PTF ( part-time flexible around 1997 or 1998, back then part-time was 50-60 hours a week, about 1998 I made FTR ( full time regular ), this gives you a defined shift like 11 pm, 2300 in postalese to 0700 , off Tuesday and Friday for example.
You then bid on jobs as openings occur, seniority rules.
Mailhandler are typically level 4, I wound up being the one level 5 lead mailhandler in short time, pays maybe 60 cents per hour than level 4. The only reason I got the position is because the job sucks and nobody senior to me wanted the responsibilities that go along with it.
I was a total paper tiger, I'm like 36 and in charge of guys that are largely Vietnam era Navy and Army 20 year veterans, I have no authority and they damn well know it, once you pass your probationary 90 days or whatever it is/was, it's almost impossible to get fired.
So I'm stuck as the " foreman" of the loading dock doing all kinds of silly paperwork while receiving and sending mail at 8 bays, stupid shit like driver's name, truck #, how many postcons, bmc's, pallets they took and brought back, estimated percentage of truck filled,yada yada yada
If they wind up leaving late, I have to fill out a form explaining why , I came close to signing the late slips
Epstein's mother, more than once !
It was so much nicer to just be a 4 and sort the mail.
Carriers are usually level 6, at least that's the way it was about 15 years ago. It could be different now.
Carrier is not an easy job, I never tried it but it is not a glorified paperboy job, you don't even need a HS diploma to be a postal worker, but many have college degrees or at least some college.
Carrier is the most common job there, I know it ain't easy !
A fairly easy job is window clerk
Hands down the very best job at USPS is level 3 custodian, empty the postmaster's trashcan,maybe wipe his desktop, you'll never be noticed the rest of the day, do whatever you want to do, get paid about 80 % of a level 6 carrier's pay, no stress at all, you're virtually invisible
You just about have to be a veteran to get that gig, preferably a disabled veteran.
I'm not unacusted to being in charge, I've been the foreman at construction jobs before, within my company not overall, I might have 5-6 guys that I supervise and assign tasks to, I got there by merit
The lead job at USPS was a total farce !
So many improper things went on there, it was comical
The lead job at USPS was a total farce !
So many improper things went on there, it was comical
Lol..you hit the nail on the head, Doug..dysfunction rules.
TheMailman, in answer to your question, I'm not sure where exactly I am on the seniority list, but there was one carrier who retired earlier this year from the OSU station who started in 1958, I think. He was over 80. I think that there are a handfull of carriers in the US who are over 80, which I think is pretty amazing.
TheMailman, in answer to your question, I'm not sure where exactly I am on the seniority list, but there was one carrier who retired earlier this year from the OSU station who started in 1958, I think. He was over 80. I think that there are a handfull of carriers in the US who are over 80, which I think is pretty amazing.
That is amazing carrying at 80.....The things these guys have seen and had the will power to stay the course....Not me for sure.....Being hired per automation (1986) I found it hard to adjust to all the changes where you were once a valuable part of the community to being nothing more than a machine in management's eyes...I was told by a 30 year vet my first week...."The more you show them you can do the more they will expect you to do"....Amen to that
I did a Google search and found one mailman who is 93 years old. I'll bet that if a new supervisor comes in (the average seniority time for a supervisor these days is probably around 1 year, since they can't get anyone else to do it) and that 93 year old comes back 15 minutes late on his route, he will have to hear the supervisor's smart ass mouth. I am serious.
I was lucky enough to hold the same route for 22 years.....A slightly upper middle class community (99.99 % Caucasian one inter race couple)….It was a pleasure to serve my route.....I became a part of many families....I had pets named after me....Then management came up with the idea of automation, gps tracking of carriers and then the downfall began
You didn't find getting your letter mail sorted for you by the DBCS machines helpful at all ? I'm sure you need to make some tweaks to it, but I'd think it should be somewhat useful ?
I could never get off of the graveyard shift, one reason I left. One of our graveyard clerks made the transition to carrier. This was in 06320 , a racially diverse tiny old city with a huge problem with prostitution and drug dealing. This guy goes out on his route one day in his LLV, decides to make a stop for a quick blowjob on the clock, the Ho turns out to be an undercover cop, so the mailman gets busted for soliciting a prostitute while on duty !
He didn't get fired but it made the local newspaper. He was the butt of jokes for years after that ! You'd get fired at a lot of jobs for that !
If he was on his lunch he was not on the clock....In the LLV??? There wasnt an alley they could have ducked into? Her place?....The problem with DPS is it did not recognise your mark ups, vacants, FTEs and so on...Also single sheet letters would also come stuck together...The top one being yours and the next 5 anywhere....
