posted by Ironman92
Tell me this....around town where I am the mailman was a very respected person who worked every day come hell or high water....and did it until they retired. Nowadays there is a new mailman every 6 months and subs all the time.
Something with Postal Service or just hard to find good help nowadays?
Yeah, I hear that a lot. The housing area I live in has 2 full-time carriers, plus a sub on their off-day. We're fortunate to have them, and they like working in our neighborhood, everyone looks out for them. They'll probably retire from those routes.
Two things:
- the job has changed since I started. So much mail is now presorted in order of how it's delivered, so the carrier doesn't have to sort it in route order. So they have less time in the office, there's more mail to deliver, and they more time on the street delivering. And you don't start as a flexible career employee with benefits now - you're non-career (but union-eligible) with some vacation accrual until you have enough time in the job to get converted to career status.
- the applicant pool has changed since I started. When me and my co-workers hired in, we knew we had to prove ourselves every day and we never took anything for granted. Many of whippersnappers applying for jobs nowadays have no idea what it means to commit yourself to the job, show up for work each day, and actually break a sweat. There are those that do, but they're fewer and farther between. Te trend now is the newbies have no fear, even of leaving a good-paying job. That means more and more of them quit in the first 90 days when they find out actual work is required. And then USPS posts for more applicants, and the vicious cycle repeats. Thus carrier ranks are short-handed.