Anyone work for the postal service?

[tiggerlover]

Just curious if anyone works for the postal service and if so what are your thoughts about your job? DH has been talking about trying to join the post office, I am not sure if he is serious or not, but if he is I am curious to know more about it.

 

[Cindy B]

My Dad just retired from over 20 years of service in the post office. As he tells the story, his prior military credit enabled him to get a higher starting salary. Obviously, he was hired in the early 80's, so that may have changed since then.

His boss was always a jerk with him regarding his National Guard duties. My dad was in the Air Guard for many years --he just retired from that as well. His position was of flight crew, so his tours got extended time and time again.

He also wound up working at the post office with the anthrax in it (Hamilton NJ) so that was a whole other set of issues, with relocating to another office an hour and a half away from his home and on a late night shift versus the morning shift he had for many years.

I guess it all depends on the job position. My dad was a truck driver and a mechanic so he did have contempt for the "suits". Apparently the supervisors would talk down to the trades guys and treat them like garbage. Again, ymmv on that one.

The benefits were good for my parents. They paid an obscenely low amount for copays and perscriptions (I think it was like $5 for a doctors visit and $2 for RX)

My dad said he wouldn't do it again because of his hassles. It may have been issues with a terrible supervisor for many years. One time he told me "I know why people bring guns!"

 

[lunchmomd]

The post office has been very, very good to my family. My husband worked for a supermarket chain for 14 years before they went out of business. He couldn't find a job for almost 2 years. Just before thanksgiving 1992 his mother saw a sign in her local PO that they were hiring christmas help (at a whopping $6.00/hr.). My husband applied and they hired him. He busted his butt, and the right people took notice. They found a temporary position for him until they were offering the test. He did well on the test and by the following June he was a career employee. Now he has a great job, we have fantastic benefits (like full family health insurance for approx. $90.00/month), 401K, life insurance, etc. He makes a great salary and in that time frame we have been able to buy a house, pay cash for one car, pay my older son's tuition, etc. Yes, there can be some aggrevation working for the PO - there are some people who want to do the least amount of work possible, but I think you can find that with any large corporation. In this day and age, I think it would be difficult to find a more secure job with better pay and benefits!

 

[tiggerlover]

Thank you both for your replies.

DH had heard about the former military service being factored in when working for the PO, which is great since DH retired after 20 years. He has a decent job now working for the federal government, but he is still working shift work and it is getting old, we are looking for some normal day time hours as opposed to working one week of first shift, the next second shift and then the next 3 shift and then starting over again. It makes planning difficult. I am still not sure if DH is going the PO route, we are looking to see what kinds of salary ranges they offer and how his military service would factor into it, but who knows.

Thanks again. And if anyone else would care to add to this thread feel free to comment.

 

[poohbear2]

I worked at the Post Office for five years before deciding to go back into teaching. There are lots of pluses but the minuses offset the pluses. The worst thing was the fact that you will never have a "normal" schedule due to seniority etc. Like other places of employment, you have jerks and you have really nice people. I think the PO gets a lot of un called for criticism. I really enjoyed my short stint due to the fact that I was working in a more office like atmosphere. I didn't like working in the general mail facility...I 'll just leave it at that. The pay is great and you do have lots of opportunities to advance if that is what you are looking for. Although the pay was great, I left because I wanted to be home with my son and work a more normal schedule.

 

[Disney1fan2002]

I worked for the PO for 14 years. I started a year out of high school as a substitute rural carrier, and 9 years later, I got my own route. I left almost 4 years ago, because I got Rhuematoid Arthritis.

I will tell you, it is VERY difficult to get a job with the PO today. they are not hiring really. The PO has one of the best Unions, and as of 4 years ago when I left, there was no such thing as lay-offs. They have offered early-out retirement packages, to get people to leave. So, basically, you have a place that needs to cut back on the labor, and can't. So, they shuffle people around, and don't hire anyone new.

They'll always need carriers, unless they have robots do it. But, they hire within, and there is always someone willing to step into a full time position.

If your Dh does manage to find a place giving the postal exam,( I haven't seen an exam open to the public in years) and they are hiring, he should expect to work part time for a few years anyway.

Good luck. I was very fortunate to work for the PO.