rural carrier associate

mail carrier

distribution associate

mail handler

postal clerk

United States Postal Service

First and foremost hit the clock before you do anything you always clock in. Then you go to your case, start casing your mail, once they announce keys/scanners you go sign off on your keys and go check your vehicle make sure there is no visible damage to be reported, make sure the vehicle runs and can honk, fix your mirrors, and check for gas in case you are running low you ask for gas card. Then as you walk back ideally in a perfect scenario you always make clock rings for everything even when you pull your mail from the hot case. If that's the case then you would have to cut all the zip ties off the flats and count flats and letters(there is a proper way to do all of this I'm just giving you an idea) and as a regular carrier you then ask for a 96 form and ask for time if you are estimating over 8 hours for your route. Again I probably don't make sense unless I could physically show you what I mean. Clock rings & clock rings always remember to let the USPS know what you are doing with your time by making a clock ring move. Once you are done casing your mail you pull down your flats and rubber band by swing. A tip for those of you casing for the first time always start from the bottom left and work your way around the case but always start on the bottom left. Once you are done look at your parcel volume and include that in your 96 if it looks like you will be back snd forth to your delivery truck on the route once you are on the street delivering your assignment. Hand the 96 to your supervisor and go load your truck. On your way out the door you move from office to street time at which point you grab your dps(delivery point sequence) letter trays already good to go according to your case. Separate and load your parcels and mail on to your truck and load it as you would deliver so last hour towards the back and work your way around to the front. The truck should have 6 numbers labeled on the side to guide you and make it easier for you to grab your mail/parcels once you start delivering your route. You close your truck push equipment back inside the station and the supervisor should have the 96 ready for you either giving you help or giving you overtime on your assignment. If you are on the ODL please ignore this post as you already know what time it is. You check for accountables(certified mail/express mail/registered mail) sign off accordingly and hit the street. They recommend you do the route as it comes on the case but sometimes you know what's best for you depending on mail volume, daylight savings, or traffic. They recommend you take a lunch at around 1 or 2 but ideally speaking what works for me isn't waiting the 6th hour before I take it. I usually knock it out before I begin my route that way it's continuous delivering leaving myself open to check on other carriers. If you are falling behind on your assignment make sure to send a message from your scanner to a supervisor asking for additional time and make sure its before 3pm. You don't have to use your personal phone to answer or call them. Just refer to the contract and the union's contract in case they give you s hard time about not texting back or answering their phone call just to avoid conflict or a chew out. Some of these supervisors forget what it is to carry mail so they come at you sideways sometimes or often. Keep in mind to pace yourself fairly for longevity purposes because you may retire on your assignment one day and 30+ years will take a toll on you so one day you might not be as fast as you were the first 3 years on the job. The job gets easier the more you do it. Head back once done make sure to take your entitled breaks and lunch always. Park your vehicle, move back into office, and unload go back mail and all that good stuff. I didn't word it how its worded around the station this is just s brief summary as to what goes on in a day. I forgot to mention you clock in with a scanner now so once you get there in the morning you grab a scanner and clock in. Same for the end of your tour you check in with the closing supervisor turn in your keys, gas cards, & turn in your 96. Once you clear and get the green light hit the clock and call it a wrap. I enjoy everything about the job even the heavier rainy days. I've been incarcerated multiple times for missing court then picked up on warrants do a couple of months snd come out on probation. Hectic work schedule/personal life balance is weird sometimes and some people like me have child support take most of my money and I hardly see my kids. I would prefer to make money than lose a day to go to court to show them a progress report on my probation. I already transitioned well back into society but for what ever reason bench warrants and probation alone will be enough for a detective to take you off the streets because they label me as a bad person? I've never been a thief nor have I murdered anyone so I can't say I'm a criminal. I now lost my job, I haven't seen my kids, I lost my apartment, and I'm 23k behind in child support and in debt with a family member with a couple of bands. I am 2 days from living on the streets because I refuse to go to a program knowing my phone gets taken away, I won't see my kids for a longer time because that would have to wait till I'm out, I had a job I loved I don't feel like getting another one if it isn't at the post office. Rehab would be another form of a half way house or re-entry program that can house me but I want those places are flooded with bad influences. If you don't have problems like me then you will really love the job because even though I wasn't happy in my personal life I was happy while I was in uniform and feeling useful and keeping myself occupied. I am a private person but I am happy I made friends at the station I was at. You will be straight though as long as you don't quit you should be fine. Rome wasn't built in a day. This isn't very specific to me though because I left out the fact that at my station in particular I would always be in a good mood knowing I wasn't alone. For that I am thankful for the rest of my life. 

The reality of this job is it really is not for everyone and I want to be blunt in expressing what it’s actually like. When hired, I was asked by my trainer if I had family or an active social life, because you will not have any free time with this job. They start you as a ‘sub’ carrier, which means you are always on call and will be called in if anyone calls out. As a ‘sub’ you are told you can apply for a full time regular position after a year, but the reality is most don’t see a promotion like that until 7-10 years with the post office. You’re expected to learn multiple delivery routes without any training on them. You will only be trained on one route when you first start out. I typically had 1 day a week off, because I was called in every morning to cover a route regardless of if I knew it or not. You will work Sundays, the post office is closed, but ‘subs’ are required to deliver packages on Sundays still. If you’re lucky, you’ll be in an office where each deliver route on Sundays only takes about 2-3 hours with an average of 30-40 stops. Not all offices are though, some will be a regular work day in terms of hours and you’ll be out from 8:30am-5pm. A regular work day consist of coming in at 8am, grabbing the scanner, keys, and all mail/packages for your assigned route that day and bringing them to your case. Once there, it’s an unsaid thing that you have till about 10:30/11:00 am to case (think sort all your mail in numerical order of the route), organize, and load your truck/van. Remembering to get a gas card and a key (for apartments or businesses, and they will not remind you if you forget either!), and completing a full vehicle check before leaving. This job is seriously only for someone who can be self sufficient, because there is no supervision or handholding at any point. If you forget something or mess up, it’s on you to remember it all, of course you can call your management for help, but if they don’t notice it in the office after you’ve left, don’t expect them to call you! The job on the road itself isn’t too bad. I had a handful of times I had to interact with anyone. There is a bit of a learning curve to driving on the right hand side and adjusting to the mirrors used on a mail truck, total of 7! You will be made to complete a driving academy in the vehicle so you know what you’re doing, and if you fail well you are out of the job unfortunately! Can’t deliver if you can’t drive the truck (and they are not easy on you either, so if driving isn’t your strong suit, apply to work inside!) There is no GPS or anything in the vehicles, you learn a route by being trained on it or following the mail in order by address as you deliver. You’re expected to memorize these routes turn by turn on your own. It is not just mail you’re delivering either! You will have at least 3 different kind of mail trays to pull from at each mailbox (DPS which is about 3-4 trays on a busy day and 2-3 on a not so busy day. Raw mail which will be your small packages and any magazines or loose mail you had to case, and marriage mail or box holders which go to EVERY mailbox on the route! Sounds weird to say that, but not every mailbox gets mail everyday, so it’s a pain to get marriage mail and have to stop at every single box!) so it’s easy to miss something if you’re not paying attention! You also will be delivering packages along side your mail (that’s what the back of the truck is really for!) on average I would deliver over 100 packages everyday, some small enough to fit in a mailbox, others as tall as myself! So be prepared to be getting out a lot on these routes! An average route is about 700 houses too! You gotta be a well organized person for this too, because fitting all that mail and packages into a small truck is harder than you’d think, and you want to do it in a way that you’re not having to move around too much trying to find something! You only get paid for the time the post office has determined that individual route is expected to take. Meaning if you’re schedule to deliver on route 27 that day, and route 27 has been evaluated to take 8 hours to complete (from the moment you clock in at 8am, to the moment you clock out, not just the time spent on the road delivering, time in the office counts towards it), you will ONLY be paid for the 8 hours. Regardless of it you finish the route in 6 hours or 9 hours, you will be paid for 8. So it’s nice if you can finish early, but a pain if it takes you longer to do. Also, if there are open routes when you come back from your route (because of call outs, accidents, etc.) you might be sent back out at 5 pm to take part of that open route. I have come back to the office expecting to do my evening case work before leaving only to be greeted with a supervisor shoving trays of mail my way telling me to take half of a route I’d never been on before. When you come back from a route, you will gather everything out of your truck (empty trays, outgoing mail you picked up, throwback mail to recase, any packages you picked up or couldn’t deliver), and begin PM casing. Which is re-casing any mail you could not deliver (mailbox blocked, missed the mailbox, etc.), putting all outgoing mail and packages in their designated spots, as well as all other types of throwback mail (rejected, forwards, any mail someone out back in their mailbox and didn’t want really), returning your keys and gas card and signing off on them, and filling out your time cards. That parts really the kicker, if you fill it out wrong in even the slightest way, it’s on you. So, make sure to ask someone to throughly explain time cards to you because there like 3 kinds at least that I knew of! 

So in total, it’s an incredibly demanding and individualized job that I wouldn’t recommend to most people, but if you’re willing to work through all of the stress and frustration it comes with, well the pay makes up for some of it. 

The foundation of working for the post office is built upon the shoulders of the laziest and most ignorant people on the planet. When i work somewhere, i give it my all and try my best, those efforts where quickly noticed and immediately i was told to do the opposite. People who come in and try their hardest, were judged by the fact that "they don't know how things work here". The philosophy is the harder you work, the more work they give you. Like by some miracle the effort Gods would send more letters to be mailed if you broke a sweat. The "career" workers are the most hypocritical and backstabbing workers i have ever encountered and i believe it is a cesspool for everyone in society who cant and refuses to contribute to the greater good. They still somehow manage to get paid more than the average teacher or nurse while using copious amount of drugs due to the fact they don't drug test after the initial testing, even after an injury. The managers sit in the office and do not use any team building for further improvement, they instead stand and point aimlessly for people to do a job they cant do themselves. They promote people that cant do the simplest jobs in the hope that they are better managers than workers. The career employees hide when work needs to be done and it is left up to the casual workers who make half as much and work twice as hard. A countless number of times i was given 4 hours of overtime at a moments notice due to fact that the career employees didn't want to do the work that they are overpaid for. Management is filled with spineless halfwits who take their frustration out on employees who are not union members and are disposable. And when management is notified that the regulars are sitting in the break room, they laugh and say, "well.... what can we do?" I made regular in about a year and during my 90 day probation period i pulled a muscle in my back. Following company policy and consulting with my union rep i reported the injury. Unreported injuries are grounds for dismissal. Unfortunately for me, getting hurt in my probation period was also a fire able offence. Both my supervisor and union rep both assured me that my job was secure and i needed to report my injury following the standards of the company policy. A week later i was fired and was told it was due to my injury and my "attendance." My available PTO that i had used was documented as call-ins. The mediation representative for the post office could not determine which days were sick days and which days were pre-approved PTO days, so they were all used against me in determining my termination. I called out sure, and as a product of my environment i stand by with my call outs. We hopefully received one off day a week and worked 14 hour shifts the remaining days. I'm not trying to justify calling out, due to the fact that every "career" employee completely abused both FMLA and any program offered to get them out of coming to work and sometimes came into one shift a week. In my defense i went through a documented illness and provided doctor notes. I have the E.R. bills to prove it. Erlanger is still sending me letters hoping i can pay them. Working for the post office was the worst experience but also a mind opening one as well. I was reminded that there are terrible people in the world who only care for themselves and exert more energy into not working other than just doing the job they are paid for. Its all a big joke and everyone who works there knows it. They are living in an endless trail of denial that is ironically so obvious it should be posted on the daily to-do list. Cops and soldiers risk their lives and the compensation for doing so is so minimal compared to the pay at the post office it is criminal. I am reminded that there is a scary unbalance in the world and i believe the post office is at the head of that ship that will ultimately lead to the destruction of the human race and the collapse of society. The worst part is, all everyone does is complain and the tag line "that's not part of my job" was used so often if i could somehow convert words into money, i would be so rich, i wouldn't care to leave this review. Also i wouldn't have WiFi on my yacht in the middle of the Caribbean. I would never recommend anyone to work there, ever, even someone i hated with the force of a thousand winds. I would recommend your steer clear just like the Bermuda triangle unless you hope to be sucked in and completely forgotten by everyone only to become a myth of the person you used to be. It acts like a virus that corrupts everyone that steps foot in the building so much so that i'm surprised its not the setting for a Stranger Things season. Even four kids on their bicycles don't stand a chance in saving the corruption that dwells there. It is legitimately the upside down and i fear for anyone who steps foot in that place. Buy your stamps online. So if you want a job with really good pay, unfair practices and lazy coworkers that feed the dark cloud that hangs over the non-career employees, then the post office is for you. Eventually after you make it through the waiting period of getting converted to a regular employee, it averages from 6 months to three years, longer for clerks, you can contribute to that dark cloud your self with minimal effort and repercussions.  Also jobs are held up by people who have not been to work in years but can hold their job due to the outstanding work from the "union". If i start down a trail explaining my thoughts on the union i am pretty sure i would have to replace the keys on my keyboard. Just to paraphrase my thoughts, they are elected by the regular employees to represent them in the off chance that they break the rules and need representative to help them get away with it. In closing, don't apply for the plant job, you will hate your life and question your very existence. Good day.

Everyday at work no matter what craft you work or pay location at the post office there is always plenty of work to be done and pressure to get it done in a timely manner. They rely a lot on employees being there more than any other thing, there is very little to no flexibity. I feel like its a good job for order people, singles without children and those who do not have a lot of hobbies, obligations, and responsibilities outside of work. But if your a student, have another job you work, a parent of younger children, or a care taker to someone older or ill in your household this is not the company you should be working for. 

I learned a lot about mailing, postal procedures, and the history and service that USPS provides that sort of make you feel a sense of purpose in your job and how you serve the country. But I have also been learning that the Postal Service is fighting to keep up with todays technological advancements, the decline in sales and use of first class mail and and trying to keep up with services and the expectations that are promised to customers. USPS is always hiring, because there is always a high turnover rate for CCAs (Mailman) and the Clerk craft (processing or SSDA clerk)  conversation time from being a PSE (Postal Service Employee/non-career) to Full-time regular career employee is long with most people not staying long enough to become regular. So their always hiring for addition help but that additional help don’t last for long especially if your in need of the benefits offered to regular employees now. 

 Management is very stressed (resulting to employees becoming overstressed), lack orgnization skills, have very unrealistic expectations of productivity and what it takes to meet those goals, and come off unreasonable and unrelatable to employees. Especially those you have never worked in the craft that there managing employees in. Also, a big no-no that happens a lot is management crossing crafts or doing things out of there job description (for example, casing mail, processing mail, or anything that the non management craft employee should be doing. The reason that this is a big no-no because there now crossing over and taking the work from someone of that craft, in which a grievance with the union can be filed. I’ve witness that too much and it impacts the bids or need for clerks if you have people crossing crafts.

The average postal employee is 55 or in there 50s has been with the post office for at least 15 years and are set and satisfied with there job. They see people come and go, especially the young. I’m pretty young and not many of us stay there as long. It’s a lot of work for low pay to the younger adults, and also you wont max at the income they will if you became a career employee after 2011. So the higher seniority employees are chilling and comfy, they dont even work as hard, they will tell you when you first come like dont work so hard you will make yourself tired and the reality is there will always be something to do so take your time. This used to bother me because I’m a fast and hard working person and that will be taken advantage off, they will work slower if they know you will lighten there load. Most people there also dont have much going on or obligations outside of there work,  there reliable always there and never miss work. Despite the fact that they may not work as hard and take there time working, showing up is the most important part. 

The hardest part if the job is holiday season and the amount of work that needs to be done, being understaffed often, and no time or energy for things outside of work. I was a student when I first started my work here, then I had to reduce my course load because of the schedule, mandated overtime, and lack of flexibility and exceptions. Eventually I had to stop, and that’s why I am set on leaving the postal service, its not suitable for a young single mother with little support of a younger child, who also is working towards a degree and wants to be able to complete schooling and provide for a young child without compromising the nurture and quality time and attention children need. My son started to have really bad behavior issues within my first year with usps and rarely had time to spend with me. 

The most enjoyable part is the satisfaction and appreciation one receives from customers when you provide good service and go above and beyond. You can make it your mission to find something enjoyable and purposeful about your role. I also will add that the union fights hard for you and is always making sure they protect your job and make sure management is not cutting corners, crossing crafts, being fair and following procedures and protocol. They do not hesitate when it comes to filing grievances, they will protect you from termination and even if you get terminated they will try to fight for you to come back and get you your lost wages if they can proof error, misconduct or failure within the steps it takes for removal, or if there was some sort of discrimination. People don’t say a job at USPS is a job for life for no reason!

Worst work environment I've ever experienced, all because I was heavily misled. I'll just paste the rant I gave them in the email they sent me after I quit, inquiring as to why I wouldn't go back to USPS:

"I don't know where to begin.... the United States Postal Service is the most unprofessional, disrespectful, unintelligent, arrogant cesspool of systematic ignorance I've ever witnessed in my entire life. Privatization is honestly the only real solution to all that plagues it on every level. I should've followed my first mind and turned down the job when I caught the first red flag in the form of the trashy lady in administrative laughing at me with a derisive tone as we ended our phone conversation due to a simple miscommunication on my behalf (seriously, why USPS insists on putting disrespectful, non-people-persons in people- person positions just escapes both business logic and plain, old common sense). I stated during my hiring process that my goal was to become a Window Clerk, as the customer service skills required align with my career path as an eventual real estate broker, with USPS being a stepping stone for me while I study. I was told that taking the position as a PSE was the precursor to that, granted I make it through the 90-day probation period. The way this was explained ultimately proved to be misleading, as I was under the impression I could relatively waltz through a transfer after a mere 3 months; the reality of the situation wasn't specified, which was either I wait and hope a Window Clerk spot opens up and that a supervisor offers it to me before someone else who would take it(assuming that it's not too far), or wait to be converted to career and bid for it (an entirely different beast that, surprise-surprise, wasn't explained to me). But despite these hiccups, I decided to ride out the PSE position thinking either I'd still finish school in my planned time or get converted and be able to at least bid for my preferred position, but guess what? Didn't happen. Didn't even come close to happening. "Just one year!" That was what my orientation class was told (and by someone with a bigwig position, to boot). That was in 2016, I'm assuming at this point they mixed up 'one year' with 'one light-year'. Stop being cowards and lying to your employees. I'm used to working for organizations that have some modicum of integrity and I made the mistake of assuming USPS walked that same path of integrity due to the supposed prestigious 'government job' aura it holds, but it's clear USPS is the McJob of 'government jobs' with the integrity of a greedy dog biting its owner even after being fed. Get rid of these ridiculous job titles that only exist to feed the ego of ignorant, unqualified lame-brains (what is a 204-B anyway? An assistant supervisor? Why the confusing title? ). Train your supervisors with an emphasis on interpersonal skills. Be upfront about the most common hangups of the job so folks can make FULLY informed decisions that affect their life and family. Stop using conversion as a carrot in front of the donkey and admit it only happens when regulars retire (which most seem intent on never doing) or die. Give an actual d---n about your company culture, beyond those embarrassing, borderline-offensive "safety" videos. Show concern for the spokes in the wheel and eliminate the many structures that only serve to keep USPS in the cycle of dysfunction it's mired in."


There was much more I wanted to add, but unfortunately they put you on a time limit. There is rampant favoritism and cronyism based on ethnicity. I and many others had our signatures forged by a coworker and we approached the MDO about it and he explicitly told us he wanted nothing to do with it. Not to mention this particular coworker was infamous within the facility for being an absolute terror (a PSE, not even a regular), yet nothing was ever done about all the drama she caused. Oh yeah, this coworker and the MDO are both Indian, but I'm sure that's just a confidence. Speaking of this MDO, he is a shameless liar and a jerk. I suffered a very bad toe injury performing a standard DBCS setup courtesy of a defective pie cart that was in desperate need of replacing (and which was still on the work floor at the time I resigned). He gave me a hard time while I was on light duty with a fractured toe, bothering me about my sitting position in the sorting area with no regard for my comfort (on one occasion he tried to get me to work standing up....on a fractured toe). Then suddenly when the building got on this super-duper safety kick, he has the audacity to claim he cares about my safety more than I do. What an assault on my intelligence. All in all, USPS consumed my time and adversely affected my personal goals, putting me in the very kind of job situation I tried to avoid by being upfront during my hiring that I only wanted a temporary gig that would provide decent work-life balance. I wasn't desperate for a check, nor was I even unemployed, I just wanted a transitional job before moving into my real estate career. For some people I can understand why USPS would feel like a blessing to them. However, if you value work-life balance, if you have a family, if you operate your own business on the side, if you have long-term goals that don't involve USPS, then I highly suggest you stay far away for the sake of your peace of mind.

Your labor will always be taken advantage of. No one will help you transfer when you didn’t want to work at this location in the first place. You will witness coworkers have near death experiences from heat strokes. LLVs have no AC or Heat so expect to melt to death while you are driving around the city to your next route. USPS business model is living in the stone ages. Walking routes are Not necessary in this day and age. You will walk 10 to 12 miles every day in the heat and in the cold risking heat stroke and frostbite. You will not have time to take a lunch because their expectations are too high and expect to work you to death. You will witness coworkers leave work early some days to go to the hospital because of how extremely hard they will work you. They will try to get free labor out of you at the end of your route which they call pivots. Your LLVs the trucks you drive will have a ridiculous amount of miles on them and most are unsafe to drive. You will be expected to know exactly what you’re supposed to do like you’ve been there 10 plus years when you start your first route. After a week you will no longer get any help figuring out each new route you will be assigned almost every day so expect to be clueless on where to go next a lot of the times when they give you routes that are all over the place. These routes are not full routes just something they pieced together that don’t start and stop on the same streets. They will cause you to waste time and frustrate you to death yet Management will just expect you to figure it out regardless of how bad your route has been cased. Most guys do a lot of shady things on the job just to keep their job so they can continue to make rare everyday. After awhile you will be expected to stop what you’re doing in the middle of your day to start collections which a lot of the times means loading your LLV with thousands of packages to the point the entire vehicle is completely full of packages, bring them back to the station, and unload them all and bring them into the station then finish the other half of your route. Then they still want to try to give you extra work on top of that which is the pivot I was talking about. Pay is not bad but considering you nearly have to die for your paycheck everyday, you will risk dying on days that’s how hard they will work you, it’s really not worth it to have your labor taken advantage of to this level. You will come home from work crying and being extremely depressed which will be very hard on your relationship if you have a Wife like me. Some nights you will have sun poisoning from work to the point that you will get extremely hot and cold causing you to toss and turn in bed all night which will make you have to go into work the next day on almost 0 sleep and this is one of the hardest jobs manually in America. You will be forced to work 70+ hours every single week with only one day off a week if you’re lucky. You will be forced to carry 50-60 pounds of mail on you at all times while walking 10-12 miles everyday from your bag being loaded down with boxes and advertisements, to carrying stacks of magazines on your forearm that are extremely heavy, to having so many letters in your hand that they barley fit and sometime will dump on you while you’re walking your route. You will have extreme back pain almost everyday from the amount of weight you have to carry every day all those miles which by the time you retire you will need back surgery. I was there 4 months and my back is in bad shape from it all. I wouldn’t recommend this job and especially wouldn’t recommend Anderson USPS in Indiana unless you truly like working like a slave, being depressed every day, love extreme back pain, and love unorganization. You will have PTSD from this job. It is so bad that even military veterans have quite the post office because the work is so horrific that they have ptsd flashbacks from the job and management doesn’t care. So to summarize working for USPS was the worst decision I have ever made in my life. Your labor will always be taken advantage of, and by the time you do get to retire your body will be in such bad shape and need several surgeries you won’t be able to enjoy retirement. The Post Master of Elwood Indiana even told us who she interviewed that she would never send us to Anderson and she herself would never workout. Anderson USPS has that bad of a reputation. I still haven’t even been paid for my first week of work and the Anderson Post Master is Refusing To Pay Me Which Is Illegal! Do yourself a Massive Favor and work anywhere else other than for USPS. Amazon is going to take them out anyways in a few years just solely because they treat their drivers 100 times better and their New Mercedes Vans are actually air conditioned. Ooo and btw one of the days I was being overworked in 100 degree plus weather I actually threw up twice from it right out of my LLV and was forced to work till the end of the day. I didn’t even get any help until 40min before the end of the work day. That is how horrible USPS is. Do No Work For USPS!!!

In the 1980s when I began my career at the USPS, there weren't very many automated mail processing machines in use.  The jobs were mostly manually worked mail positions.  I began on an existing machine, the MPLSM (multi-position letter sorting machine) and the atmosphere was congenial despite 7 day 12 hour work shifts.  The Postal Service began to become threatened by privatization and began frenzied attempts to automate, streamline and become more budget oriented especially when they became non-federal and the overall atmosphere began to change.

I successfully bid the job of General Office Clerk in 1995 and held that job until it was abolished in 2010.  Typical nights meant that I was responsible for originating and maintaining Postal forms, annual leave books, staffing books, overtime desired books; generating outgoing correspondence; telephoning employees for overtime; answering all in-house and customer telephone calls; paging employees and supervisors; pulling data from automated machines; working as a liason between management and the unions; working all in-house official mail; ordering, distributing and keeping count of all on-hand supplies; canvassing employees for holiday staffing; all filing and maintaining necessary forms; directing visitors, customers and employees to the proper departments or people; and assisting the Manager of Distribution Operations on Tour One (overnight) with any and all tasks when needed.

After the General Office Clerk job was abolished, I bid a City Section manual position which mainly involved sorting letters and flats, tying them out and sending them to the proper trucks for dispatch.  At this time i was diagnosed with severe Type 2 Diabetes. Since the manual section didn't involve a lot of physical activity, my diabetes was controlled by medication.

In 2011, I bid a job on the FSM (flat sorting machine) which involved heavy physical activity.  In this position I had to walk/stand/run approximately 7 miles per night; load mail into the machine; sweep mail out of the sorted bins and load them into the appropriate containers for dispatch; push and pull containers weighing upward of 500 pounds, bend, stretch, lift, throw, lable and scan barcodes.  I lost a great deal of weight in a very short time while in this position and my diabetes became out of control.  I was taken off all medications and was instructed to try to control it with nutrition.  I was having severe hypoglycemic "lows" and contracted many communicable diseases, as well.  It was the burden of the Postal Service to offer me  "reasonable accommodations" to help me gain control over my disease.  I was unaware of the Americans with Disabilities Act and i was also unaware that there was an "Accommodations Committee" at the Postal Service.  The USPS never made me aware of these options and, when counseled for my sick leave by my immediate supervisor and I asked to talk to him about it, he told me to "shoot myself."  I was removed from the USPS in May of 2013 for sick leave.  As I stated, it was unlawful, and, being a union position it is being grieved after having been denied at Step 2, it is now at arbitration.

Whether or not I am offered my job back, I will choose to retire from the USPS after almost 30 years.  It has become a very hostile work environment.  Managers and supervisors come and go very quickly and they ignore Contract rules and safety rules, as well.  Very many people who were not planning on retiring or quitting have felt pressured enough to leave their jobs. Incidents and altercations happen almost daily.  I have been in contact with Postmaster General Pat Donohoe, Congressmen, the American Diabetes Association and the Americans with Disabilities Act personnel.

All in all, my experience with the Postal Service was always stressful because of the continual fear of competitors and the pressure of management, but generally co-workers, supervisors and managers were always wonderful to work with.  It was a well-paying job and gave me a sense of pride to work for what I considered to be an American institution with such a great and rich history.  I learned to be a very fast team player and I got a great sense of accomplishment when the mail "made" the trucks in the morning.  I was continually astonished with the vast amount of knowledge I could retain and the masses of mail I could move rapidly and accurately and within the time constraints.  It was a bittersweet experience.

I barely know where to begin. Going in I honestly thought this would be the job I would retire from because everyone claims that the Post Office has an amazing retirement plan but those days are long gone and now you get stuck working Sundays and days with 4 hour lunches barely scraping 30 hours a week in that time frame. The offices have no real managerial overhead, and postmasters have no accountability as long as their numbers look good.
To begin the training doesn’t prepare you running the window at all. We spent the whole week reviewing a book of information that was essentially irrelevant to the job 95 percent of the time. Most of the information was useless, and what you did learn that might be useful wasn’t done so in a way that made it applicable to the job at hand for a beginner. There’s too much information at a time when you won’t know how to apply it rather than learning the RSS/meter and then working up to how the information is relevant so most people completely forget it.
I started off in a manual office with no training because no one knew how to operate a manual office. I was just thrown into the job and told to “figure it out” The first month I spent about 4 hours a day off the clock merely trying to dig around to find and read whatever I could find just on how to do the daily functions and by the end of my first week I’m sure the accounting helpdesk was ready to have me disappeared. There’s no good guide or how-to that walks you through daily office functions and even the available information is so obscure and hard to find because it requires you to know what you don’t know before you can search for it. 

My first Postmaster is a garbage human being that somehow ended up in a position she clearly had no business being in. Foremost, she had ZERO idea what she was doing yet coming from her she was god’s gift to the postal service. The other employees (including myself) performed all of her work, and she would come in long enough to get on the Teleconference and then go home claiming she was doing "route inspections" in an office that had two routes. One of the other clerks filed a grievance over higher level and when the PM found out she treated the clerk like s#@% calling her names and making her scrub toilets with a toothbrush for a week. We all did everything we could to report it and of course it fell on deaf ears because postal employees are just numbers that are easily replaceable but sure enough word got back to her because "no one could believe she would treat her employees like that" and then she started accusing us of recording her so then she started making us empty all of our pockets and hand over our phones which she locked in her filing cabinet for "safe keeping." Luckily, I was only there for about a month after that started but when she found out I bid out I spent my last week scrubbing toilets. I spent most of that month training the new employees in our RMPO’s so hopefully they gained some idea on how to manage the manual offices without her help.

Unfortunately, the office I transferred into was just as bad if not worse than the one that I left. HR took six weeks to get me into TACS. SIX WEEKS! The USPS shorted me SIX WEEKS of pay because my PM “couldn’t pay me” because HR couldn’t be bothered to do their jobs but did my PM care? NOPE, he was too busy worried he might overwork his 9-4ish and god forbid anything work related cut into his “good ole boy” time so I never received any of that pay which alone is reason enough to never work for the USPS again. Needless to say, I followed procedure and tried filing a grievance to get the money but as always it fell on deaf ears because I’m just another disposable number. In this office the supervisors were doing all the clerk work because one of the clerks was lazy and would come in, sit on her a#%, and do absolutely nothing until time to open the window at 8:30. The PM refused to say anything for fear of causing problems in the office so this clerk walked over him and everyone else because he let her get away with it. I being the new employee got the blame for everything she didn’t do or screwed up. The other employees knew better, and most of them were great to work with but I got sick of the BS, Sick of everyone just doing as they please because they know they can’t be fired. But with that being said when asked if I’d ever recommend anyone take a job with the USPS, I will happily show them this and ask them if they’re willing to subject themselves to being treated this way for any amount of money.

Good pay with annual step and COLA increases, nice benefits with health insurance, average PTO (2 weeks a year), and very lucrative overtime pay. 

Starting with the cons; management can be a pain in the butt, as their whole existence is to pressure you into rushing your route so they can give you more work and still expect it all to be done in 8 hours. Get to know your union rep's and steward and ask them as many questions as you like, even if it feels stupid. The union is the best tool you have to combat management. The hours are long especially when you first start but overtime pay is nice, if you like getting 2-3k a check in your first year, you probably wont mind the ot. But expect up to 55-60 hours a week average when you first start. The actual job it self is pretty mindless once you get used to whatever route they have you running, but personally I liked it and that made it easier to get through the 9-10 hour days. One other thing that i didn't like was the off days. when you first start you will have one day per week off (chosen seemingly at random by management) Sundays are reserved for "Amazon Sundays" ie: go to your nearest distribution center and just run packages for about half the day (some Sundays are heavier than others, don't expect a 4 hour day every Sunday). However once you make "regular" (the career position) you no longer have to do Amazon Sundays and you will always have the day off. Once you secure a route (either through a hold down or a citywide bid) your second off day of the week rotates every week based upon your route. Your off day will move one day every week with the exceptions of weekends. It was super confusing to learn for me at first so to explain; if your routes off day this week is Monday, then you don't come in Sunday nor Monday that week. next week you have Sunday and Tuesday off, next week Sunday and Wednesday, after that Sunday and Thursday. Fridays are a little different. Since the work week for the USPS technically ENDS on a Friday, you will have Sunday and Friday off (we'll say Jan 1 for Sunday and Jan 6 for Friday for an example) and then technically the work week is over and its time for your off day to move one next week (the first day of that second work week being Jan 7) now the off day moves to Saturday Jan 7 and includes Sunday by default. So all in all for your Friday off days you will be off (in this example) Jan 6,7 and 8. Then it resets back to Monday off day but NOT the coming Monday (Jan 9) because your off day for that week was technically Saturday (Jan 7) so you will work Monday (Jan 9) all the way to Saturday (Jan 14) THEN you get Sunday and Monday off. This cycle repeats until you retire or change route as everyone obviously cant have Monday or other days off all at the same time, so each route is on a different rotating schedule. 

For the pros; the pay is good, starting at 46,000 a year once you make regular and increases every year for 12 years until you reach the final pay step which I believe maxes out near 70,000 a year but I'm not positive, and there's cost of living adjustments each year too which usually gives you a nice extra chunk. Another big plus for me was, once you actually begin your route there's no one watching you or breathing down your neck so you can chill and work at a decent pace so long as you make it back on time. Also depending where you get stationed the customers on your route can be very friendly and really just make your route. not to mention, at least in my area, it was customary to get tips for Christmas and the holidays surrounding. The last thing was the overtime which was really nice pay-wise, especially where I was, as it was a higher volume area. you're absolutely guaranteed 8 hours a day once you make regular. Then anything after 8 hours in a day is 1.5x pay, and anything after 10 hours is 2x pay. However the same overtime rules apply to weekly hours at the same time, so anything over 40 is 1.5x and anything over 60 is 2x. Which ever metric you hit first is the pay "multiplier" that takes effect, so if your already at 40 hours and you still have to work Friday, all 8 hours are 1.5x. I also believe there's night pay as well, any time after 630pm I believe, your earning an additional 10%. Its very easy to make your yearly earnings go from 46000 to 60000 while still being in your first year.

Like the title says, if you have nothing else going on in your life (I mean NOTHING else), then the USPS is a great job. Otherwise, you should look elsewhere. 

Let me give some background. When interviewed for a CCA position, i was given the usual speech about what was required of me. After this, my postmaster explained to me that i'd be working between 30-40 hours a week (With 40 being the absolute most) and my schedule would be reasonably flexible so that my wife could continue to go to work. Furthermore, while i would be required to travel to other stations to help, the last time that happened was two years ago and was such an infrequent occurrence that i shouldn't worry about it. This was great, i thought, seeing as i only have one car, which my wife uses almost exclusively and i live within walking distance of the post office anyway. This was explained to the postmaster, who said this arrangement shouldn't be a problem. (None of this was honored and on more than one occasion, i was threatened with discipline and termination.) Thinking all of this was actually going to happen, i agreed and was shipped off to training.

The difference between the training they give you and actually performing your work duties is like the difference between night and day. When you're done with it, you will be wholly unprepared for doing anything at an actual post office. To add to that stress, I was ordered to start delivering mail before finishing my in-station training.  In addition to this, if you screw up, break something, hurt yourself and report it, or call in sick, within the first 90 days you may as well not bother coming again the day after. Naturally, I got into an accident within the first week of actual duty. The only reason i wasn't fired on the spot was because of a voucher from both my supervisor and the postmaster. 

With that said, should you work for the USPS here's some things to watch out for. First, do not believe anything anyone tells you, especially from management. Not because they're bad people exactly (Though there are quite a few terrible people that work there who will attempt to take advantage of you), but more because they have protocol and rules to follow, or they have personal preferences, just like you do. You are better off figuring these things out for yourself. Ask questions constantly and learn the rules. The post office does not function like other work forces. Their rules and your rules will not mesh well on at least one occasion. Count on it. Second, do not expect anyone in any level of this job to care about you or your well-being. As far as regular, long-term, and management co-workers are concerned, you are expendable in every sense of the word. Decent-minded employees will be more polite about it, but there it is.

The culture surrounding the job promotes mediocrity in the worst way. Working faster, smarter, and harder only rewards you with more work and no reward. Other employees will notice this and dump their work-load on you at every given opportunity possible. Worse yet, doing this consistently will become expected of you after a certain point, with even more work piled on top of it. Worse yet, you'll never be given a chance to recuperate. As a CCA, you're expected to do pretty much everything, every day of the week, except maybe Sunday. MAYBE. If Amazon calls, you'll be expected to work then as well.

My favorite part of the job was actually delivering the mail. I met a lot of great people both in town and in the post office itself. Unfortunately, middle management was unwilling to work around my schedule when my wife was promoted and absolutely refused to hire anyone else to ease off on the near-constant overtime.  In addition to that, they denied my workers comp claim when i threw out my back, then proceeded to give me formal discipline for any of the days that i missed due to the injury that was their fault in the first place. In all of the time I've been working, my job at the USPS was the first where i actually WANTED to leave at the end of the day. I didn't even work in a particularly large station either. I can't even begin to imagine the nonsense that goes on in a larger city.

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