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OP might look into work locating underground utilities. The work is somewhat seasonal and can involve sketchy traffic situations, but much less heavy lifting compared with package delivery and lots of time outside.
In my opinion, pay correlates pretty well with the amount of money over which a job exercises relatively independent judgment. There may be a hardship adder for the most unpleasant and dangerous work, but I think the main reason most professional jobs pay more is not because they are "harder" but because the judgment calls can cost the employer more when missed.
They generally don't pay well in the beginning while you are getting your feet wet. It is after many years of experience more professional jobs accumulate to better pay.
Nothing is great in the short run. After years of education, training and experience then you want to compare a govt professional to a ups driver and say they're overpaid (when they may have the weight of the world on their shoulders - quite literally in some cases / and close enough in many).
Obviously I can't speak for all jobs, but when I took a 55% paycut to pivot into entry-level accounting, I can tell you that I worked much harder on more menial tasks in the entry-level accounting role than I ever did in my prior career.
Because here's the thing. When you're "paid to think", you don't always have pressing issues that need to be worked on. I had plenty of days when I didn't really have that much to do, or nothing that was urgent that I couldn't get done at a later time. When you're "paid for production", you are typically assigned that maximum amount of productivity they can squeeze out of you in a given day. You don't have as much downtime for anything--creative thinking, analysis, problem solving-- when you're in a production role.
I was a clerk at a rec dept. and I took a pay cut for my first accounting analyst job.
When you're young you have no idea what people go through to get where they are (which may only be a couple notches up from ground zero).
The only people that get something for nothing are either related to the owner or slept their way to the top (or where they're at). Being born into privilege (or marrying it are still the best ways).
I think if you had a walking USPS mail route it would be miserable working in every type of weather, heat, rain, wind, snow, all while walking a block or more. I don't know how they do it. You have to worry that houses have been shoveled to get the mailbox on the front door.
I was a clerk at a rec dept. and I took a pay cut for my first accounting analyst job.
When you're young you have no idea what people go through to get where they are (which may only be a couple notches up from ground zero).
The only people that get something for nothing are either related to the owner or slept their way to the top (or where they're at). Being born into privilege (or marrying it are still the best ways).
Well stated, and far truer than many people think!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Roselvr
I think if you had a walking USPS mail route it would be miserable working in every type of weather, heat, rain, wind, snow, all while walking a block or more. I don't know how they do it. You have to worry that houses have been shoveled to get the mailbox on the front door.
When I was fairly young, I delivered mail at Christmas time, for some extra cash. Of course, they gave us "temps" the difficult routes, while the full time people stayed in the warm, dry post office, sorting the mail. First, I had to drive to the post office, which was about 2 miles from my home, then load up my car, drive 5-6 miles, to where the route was, then trudge through the snow, delivering the mail, then 5-6 miles back to the post office, for a couple of hours, then home.
The one route I delivered, had front yards that stretched about 75 feet from the street. Sure, in the spring, summer, and fall, the carrier could walk across the lawns, and go front porch to front porch. But in the winter, with the snow piled up along side the driveways, that wasn't possible. It was up and down each and every 75 foot driveway on the route.......and when you'd get back to the post office, the regular crew would ask, "What took you SO long"???
UPS seems more high stress, but USPS seems a bit less hectic, you split time between the mailroom and delivery, but more downtime.
That statement is obsolete, it ended with the adoption of automated sorting of letters into route carrying order. 25 years ago a letter carrier would spend half of his day preparing the route and half actually carrying mail. Today it takes about an hour of final prep and the the remaining 6 to 7 hours loading out the vehicle and delivering mail. In effect they are not really spending time in the station.
A City Carrier Assistant (CCA) a new letter carrier who is at half benefits and pay of career USPS employees and not accruing career time might be assigned to support the other non career lower tier USPS employees the Postal Support Employee (PSE) basically a beginning clerk, in distributing parcels to the carrier routes before carrying a route. Because stations are also starved for clerks and the CCA serves as a swing force and can be plugged into as many distribution holes as possible. But the CCA would never be on a retail window as clerks moved to after finishing parcel distribution.
Districts that are successful in getting old and lame carriers to retire might see CCAs move to career employee status earlier but most wait for 2 years before they can start earning seniority to get pay raises and additional vacation time. And then later than that for many comes "regular" employment with a set schedule as well as guaranteed 8 hour days when scheduled and 40 hour work weeks.
Like the UPS Driver the letter carrier carries a GPS tracker on him at all times and it is a matter of how far a local supervisor will go in checking on non movement times. All 3 minutes of "stationary events" are flashed to the next level of management with the stuff rolls downhill intent. Now rural carriers are on a different pay system from city carriers and their complaint is the wildly inflated workload due to more parcels which they must absorb on their own time
Well stated, and far truer than many people think!
When I was fairly young, I delivered mail at Christmas time, for some extra cash. Of course, they gave us "temps" the difficult routes, while the full time people stayed in the warm, dry post office, sorting the mail. First, I had to drive to the post office, which was about 2 miles from my home, then load up my car, drive 5-6 miles, to where the route was, then trudge through the snow, delivering the mail, then 5-6 miles back to the post office, for a couple of hours, then home.
The one route I delivered, had front yards that stretched about 75 feet from the street. Sure, in the spring, summer, and fall, the carrier could walk across the lawns, and go front porch to front porch. But in the winter, with the snow piled up along side the driveways, that wasn't possible. It was up and down each and every 75 foot driveway on the route.......and when you'd get back to the post office, the regular crew would ask, "What took you SO long"???
Yeah, that's miserable.
My mail lady delivers to the boxes at the curb but on the other side of town where my daughter is, it's on the house, a walking route.
Her postman looks miserable, never says hi when mine is always cheery. What's funny is she also delivers on the road going to my daughters house, for some reason that street is at the curb unlike a block away.
I used to pump gas at my dad's station from when I was 11 till I was 28, minus a few years doing hair so I was always outside in the weather. It's one thing when young but now in my 50's, I'm a light weight, can't handle the extreme heat or cold. Spring and fall are fine.
I never wear a winter coat since I'm always in my car or walking from the car to where I'm going, just a flannel shirt. I'd over heat walking if I had a coat on, but standing around, I freeze lol
Quote:
Originally Posted by Taiko
That statement is obsolete, it ended with the adoption of automated sorting of letters into route carrying order. 25 years ago a letter carrier would spend half of his day preparing the route and half actually carrying mail. Today it takes about an hour of final prep and the the remaining 6 to 7 hours loading out the vehicle and delivering mail. In effect they are not really spending time in the station.
A City Carrier Assistant (CCA) a new letter carrier who is at half benefits and pay of career USPS employees and not accruing career time might be assigned to support the other non career lower tier USPS employees the Postal Support Employee (PSE) basically a beginning clerk, in distributing parcels to the carrier routes before carrying a route. Because stations are also starved for clerks and the CCA serves as a swing force and can be plugged into as many distribution holes as possible. But the CCA would never be on a retail window as clerks moved to after finishing parcel distribution.
Districts that are successful in getting old and lame carriers to retire might see CCAs move to career employee status earlier but most wait for 2 years before they can start earning seniority to get pay raises and additional vacation time. And then later than that for many comes "regular" employment with a set schedule as well as guaranteed 8 hour days when scheduled and 40 hour work weeks.
Like the UPS Driver the letter carrier carries a GPS tracker on him at all times and it is a matter of how far a local supervisor will go in checking on non movement times. All 3 minutes of "stationary events" are flashed to the next level of management with the stuff rolls downhill intent. Now rural carriers are on a different pay system from city carriers and their complaint is the wildly inflated workload due to more parcels which they must absorb on their own time
You're not kidding with the tracker. I didn't know it until a few years ago. I run a FB group for my development; people will post that their package is missing. It's usually when there's a sub. I'll mention it to the regular woman, she told me about the GPS, how she knew exactly what neighbor is not giving the misdelivered package back to the owner. Told me it's not the first time. The woman will flat out lie saying it didn't get delivered to her house. I posted that they carry the hand held GPS, since then, that woman has not been keeping packages.
The mail woman would tell me she can't hang out too long while I get tomatoes to give her because of the tracker. They watch everything, it's almost pathetic that they don't have any trust.
I checked into the USPS a while back and what stopped me from applying is, around here anyway, you had to hire on as a substitute mail carrier. You only worked when somebody was taking off. Then you worked your way up. I didn't need a job where I might get to work one day every week or two.
Why not check into jobs stocking shelves? Walmart has crews working third shift doing this.
Perhaps due to my high degree of burn out, I've been pondering making a huge jump from working in this sedentary desk position to something far more physically active with little customer interaction. I've considered USPS carrier jobs but am more than a little concerned about a number of potential issues, centered largely around the future of the organization itself. I've also read many negative reviews and anecdotes from people starting out in the "CCA" role (which is what you do prior to becoming a "career" carrier), as the understaffing is so severe many work 6 or 7 days per week and up to 12 hours per day. If I were younger I might be able to endure that, but I'm a bit past mid-30s now. The federal benefits are tempting but I'm concerned that may dry up or evaporate entirely depending.
...
Questions: Any former office workers willing to share a similar experience and how it turned out? Or any postal employees who can share their experiences (I'd apply to an office which serves a city of about 15k, if that helps)? I'm primarily interested in hearing from people who worked in office/administration roles and changed to physically demanding jobs mid-life (30s or later) and what the adjustment was like, any regrets, etc.
As an (not insignificant) aside, I also have substantial student loans which currently qualify under PSLF; I'm halfway through the 10 year term. USPS would be a qualifying employer, but the other job would not. I'm thinking about applying to the warehouse job first, and see if I'm fit for physically taxing work (I have done physical jobs in food service in the past, but many years ago now. Currently I'm quite out of shape, and despise it. Another reason I'm seeking physical work). Then I could apply for USPS down the road.
Any other thoughts, suggestions, virtual head smacks (lol) would all be welcome...I'm very miserable as is and feel my career is suffocating my joy in life, I dread it so much. Anything you kind souls have to offer me I will be grateful for.
I made the jump a lifetime ago. but back then the job was less physically demanding being the task was mostly carrying letters. And as I touched on in the previous post a lower percentage of the day was actually on the street delivering mail. I was still a drilling National Guardsman and in decent letter carrying shape but those first few months were still tough. And back then we did not go over 10 hours for any reason as a cost control measure. Mail was brought back for delivery the next day.
Today we see a great turnover in CCAs, the pay and benefit package is not as competitive especially since the full federal package does not kick in until you become a career employee. And unlike real federal employees there are no local cost of living adjustments in the lower 48 states. So you might out earn the local Mississippi Police Sergeant or you may get out earned by the Seattle area burger flipper . Recently the USPS and NALC , City Carriers union, came to an agreement that by your second year even if there are no regular assignments available the CCA will be advanced to the old starting position a career Part Time Flexible (PTF) with the full benefit package.
Due to automation the basic route is about as long as what I carried back in the day when I carried a route and half of a second route on overtime making for 10 hours on most days. But as we never went over 10 hours we also never worked more than 56 hours a week to avoid excessive overtime payments. And thus in those days before the Amazon contract we didn't work 7 days a week. It was only during the UPS Drivers strike that I was ever brought in on a Sunday and I didn't work all holidays like many CCAs do today but only about 1 in 3 collecting mail from the blue boxes.
Today, at least in my district new CCAs are more likely to be over 40 that under 30 years of age and the service does the best they can with the people they have. Consider that the average carrier is likely a grandparent you can work your way into shape as they are very forgiving of probationary CCAs since they know there is no guarantee another is coming.
That statement is obsolete, it ended with the adoption of automated sorting of letters into route carrying order. 25 years ago a letter carrier would spend half of his day preparing the route and half actually carrying mail. Today it takes about an hour of final prep and the the remaining 6 to 7 hours loading out the vehicle and delivering mail. In effect they are not really spending time in the station.
A City Carrier Assistant (CCA) a new letter carrier who is at half benefits and pay of career USPS employees and not accruing career time might be assigned to support the other non career lower tier USPS employees the Postal Support Employee (PSE) basically a beginning clerk, in distributing parcels to the carrier routes before carrying a route. Because stations are also starved for clerks and the CCA serves as a swing force and can be plugged into as many distribution holes as possible. But the CCA would never be on a retail window as clerks moved to after finishing parcel distribution.
Districts that are successful in getting old and lame carriers to retire might see CCAs move to career employee status earlier but most wait for 2 years before they can start earning seniority to get pay raises and additional vacation time. And then later than that for many comes "regular" employment with a set schedule as well as guaranteed 8 hour days when scheduled and 40 hour work weeks.
Like the UPS Driver the letter carrier carries a GPS tracker on him at all times and it is a matter of how far a local supervisor will go in checking on non movement times. All 3 minutes of "stationary events" are flashed to the next level of management with the stuff rolls downhill intent. Now rural carriers are on a different pay system from city carriers and their complaint is the wildly inflated workload due to more parcels which they must absorb on their own time
You'd have to do a pretty fair amount of convincing to convince me that the types of people I've encountered at the local post office work 12 hour shifts without even being able to take a 3 minute break or risk being fired day in and day out.
There's people I know with that kind of work ethic, but they wouldn't be applying for jobs at the post office.
That said, if the job sucks, it sucks... who am I to argue?
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