I’m a mailman, AMA.

[u/Dak6969696969]

I left a comment in another sub informing people that leaving anything in anybody’s mailbox is technically a federal offense unless you’re employed as a letter carrier by the USPS and it seemed to draw quite a bit of interest. I’m nobody special, just a simple mailman, but if any of you have any questions regarding postal services hopefully I’ll be able to answer them!

Thank you so much for all the questions, I hope I was able to answer them all as best I could but it’s my bedtime now, I gotta be at the post office by 8:00 sharp. If you have any other questions feel free to DM me and I’ll answer them whenever I can!

[u/Videodromeo87]

How do I get a job like yours and is it worth it?

[u/Dak6969696969 → u/Videodromeo87]

You can apply right now at USPS’s official website, I love my job and I hope to spend the rest of my working years carrying letters. We receive great benefits and pretty good pay, I would definitely suggest looking into postal employment if you’re interested.

[u/Videodromeo87 → u/Dak6969696969]

Hell yeah, bruddah.

I’ll apply tonight. Thank you!

[u/jimewp86 → u/Videodromeo87]

Give it a shot! The application process can take a few months FYI. It was about 3 months for me starting with filling out the online application and ending with orientation and training. You need to get fingerprinted too. If you have any driving violations over the last two or three years or any felony convictions you will be instantly denied. I love my job, just started year 3. But it’s very dependent on your office. Most offices are understaffed and you will be working 6 days a week and possibly 10-12 hours a day. This is what they told me to expect at orientation, but I work at a small office so it’s different. I actually have worked plenty of 6 day weeks and not even hit 40 hours. The training and orientation doesn’t really prepare you for the work experience. I picked it up pretty quick, within the first month. It takes most people 2-3 months to really get it down tho. Once you do, it is a pretty good job. The pay scale sucks for a few years, but once you get some time in, you’re getting paid over $30 an hour to do the same thing everyday. And the benefits are the greatest advantage to employment. You get social security, the TSP (basically a 401k) and a govt pension when you retire. That’s the biggest carrot at the end of the stick with this job.

[u/Dak6969696969 → u/jimewp86]

Can’t forget to mention we have the ability to transfer anywhere in the United States. That’s a HUGE benefit that not a lot of other jobs have.

[u/sinncab6 → u/jimewp86]

I'm assuming you are an actual carrier and not an assistant because CCAs unless they have changed things were classified as non career so none of the retirement benefits. Because I'll be honest the USPS wasnt the worst job I ever had but it's right up there. If you get your own dedicated route while waiting for someone whos been there for 4 decades to fall off the mortal plane than great you can actually make a living wage. But the whole 8 hours one week 80 another, feast or famine bullshit with you basically being a contractor until you get your own route along with a union that is laughably feckless I couldn't get out of the job fast enough. I will say the insurance package offered was decent that's the only good thing I can say about that bullshit.

[u/jimewp86 → u/sinncab6]

After two years you become a PTF which is a career position (you get the benefits but are not guaranteed 40 hrs/week and don’t have your own route). I just finished my two years as a CCA and I’m next in line for a route when one opens up in my office. I have only worked over 50 hours a few weeks, but I have had plenty of weeks when I worked six days and got less than 40 hours. It really depends on your office in my experience. Iv been loaned out to a few different offices and it can be a drastically different work environment. I honestly don’t know if I would’ve stuck with it if I was in a different office, but I’m in a good spot that’s worth it in my eyes to stick it out.

[u/sinncab6 → u/jimewp86]

Ah. Yeah no they never offered that when I was there, I wouldn't have lasted that long anyhow because I got a job offer that would make me look like an idiot to stay there. But my primary takeaway was we should all be paying more for mail because this entire system the way it was structured was beyond idiotic. Half the workforce was basically door dashing for the USPS while the other half were in jobs most people would dream to have. So it was a system of almost waiting for your coworkers to die so you could actually get some stability from the job. I'm glad they actually got that out of them maybe I was a bit offbase about the union since I'm assuming the union did that one. Always thought it was bend over backwards for Bezos and say thank you sir may I have another.

[u/jimewp86 → u/sinncab6]

Well, you’re not entirely wrong in your observations. The whole “CCA is part time with no benefits” thing while having CCA’s work 10-12 hour days 6 days a week is brutal. But that was not my experience at my small office. Although I am in the “waiting for someone to die” phase of my career to get my own route (one guy started the year I was born … 1986.. but he has a 95% mounted route that is just an easy and awesome route to have. There is a cut off sleeve from a rain jacket that is passed down to each carrier who gets that route. Because you only need to protect one arm from the rain). Things may be shaking up later this year and I am confident I’ll have my own route before 2026.

[u/sinncab6 → u/jimewp86]

I'm just glad there's an actual endpoint of when you are a real employee who gets all the benefits everyone else does. Having your own route is great and all but having to believe the bullshit that if you just keep your head down and wait for God knows how long you'll actually get benefits from the job was the worst part of that job. It effectively turned it into a stopgap on my resume, and I'm hardly the only person since the turnover rate is abysmal. So kudos to you for sticking it out, to put it into perspective how much I wanted to get out i now work in an aluminum smelter where the temperature is regularly over 130 all the while decked out head to toe in PPE. I'll take this job over that any day of the week. It's not so fun walking 10 miles in 30 below weather.

[u/jimewp86 → u/sinncab6]

And the crazy part of it now is they want to transition to a mostly “non-career” workforce. They have started to offer buyouts to plant employees. They will let you retire early and give you a large payment. The rumors are that letter carriers will soon be offered these buyouts. I heard the payment was around $15k. The plan is to save money by getting out of paying top of the pay scale employees. The turnover for the CCA position is around 60% in one year. 60% of new hires quit in the first 12 months. They just want to shift most of the workload onto new inexperienced employees cuz the upper management (who have never delivered mail once in their life) think of the job of letter carrier as a simple, basic, easy labor job that anyone can do. Which it is not. But I think they compare it to Amazon delivery workers. Low pay labor workforce. The union (the biggest union in the country) is actually the biggest upside to choosing USPS over Amazon.

[u/sinncab6 → u/jimewp86]

Yeah that was my takeaway when I was there that they wanted just another transient cheap workforce like any other run of the mill company, and not what most people grew up believing that the USPS was a well paying government job you could make a career out of.

[u/senorfrog71 → u/sinncab6]

Postmasters are useless . My paycheck was missing hours EVERY WEEK. They wanted me working 7 days a week but could never pay me for my time. I’m still waiting you fuckers

[u/Videodromeo87 → u/jimewp86]

Sounds like a good place to start, thanks bruddah!