# How to handle my layoff? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 15, 2025, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-handle-my-layoff/1024867 "2025-11-15T03:38:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 16
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2026, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-handle-my-layoff/1024867/301 "2026-02-23T16:03:34Z")
Yay! I hope the weather where you live isn’t too unpleasant. But delivering mail strikes me as a decent way to get paid for doing a healthy amount of exercise. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2026, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-handle-my-layoff/1024867/302 "2026-02-23T16:08:47Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Yay! I hope the weather where you live isn’t too unpleasant. Well, I do live in the Pacific North **wet**. Summers are glorious. > [@puzzlegal](#): > > But delivering mail strikes me as a decent way to get paid for doing a healthy amount of exercise. I presume I’ll get some exercise. But as a rural route carrier, I’d be driving a delivery vehicle. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2026, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-handle-my-layoff/1024867/303 "2026-02-23T16:28:48Z")
Ah. My letter carrier walks from house to house, carrying a sack of mail. I guess that’s a nearly obsolete model. Anyway, that sounds very promising. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2026, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-handle-my-layoff/1024867/304 "2026-02-23T17:00:08Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > My letter carrier walks from house to house, carrying a sack of mail. They do the same here, few mailboxes on the street. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2026, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-handle-my-layoff/1024867/305 "2026-02-23T17:38:58Z")
I’ve just received a request from an Indian (Native American) college for three letters of recommendation and a couple of completed forms if I’m still interested in the Financial Aid Program Assistant position I applied for. I have one from La Jefa. A colleague wrote one for me on LinkedIn, and I asked her to put it in a (signed) .pdf document. She did, but it’s rather crooked. I’ve asked one of the Account Executive for one. The position pays barely more than minimum wage; but it has more hours than the Post Office, and it would be cool to work for a college. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2026, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-handle-my-layoff/1024867/306 "2026-02-23T18:19:17Z")
And… I’ve just received a conditional offer from USPS in Bellingham for the same position I accepted in Blaine. I’ve asked how much work there is, as they had two positions open. As I said, Blaine only has a couple of days a week, ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2026, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-handle-my-layoff/1024867/307 "2026-02-23T19:02:00Z")
How far will you need to travel for the postal routes? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2026, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-handle-my-layoff/1024867/308 "2026-02-23T19:10:13Z")
Blaine is about 4 miles away, and Bellingham is about 25 miles away. As for the routes themselves, it sounds like I’ll be driving one of those little mail trucks; so it wouldn’t be ‘travelling’. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2026, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-handle-my-layoff/1024867/309 "2026-02-23T19:15:31Z")
Okay, so neither is very far. That’s reasonable. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2026, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-handle-my-layoff/1024867/310 "2026-02-23T19:23:59Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Ah. My letter carrier walks from house to house, carrying a sack of mail. I guess that’s a nearly obsolete model. I delivered mail one summer when I was in college, about 55 years ago. They didn’t trust me with a truck, but I did have a little wheeled cart the mail went on. It was a great summer job - good exercise and well paying. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2026, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-handle-my-layoff/1024867/311 "2026-02-23T19:29:06Z")
I remember when I was a kid, the mailman (it was always a man) had a three-wheeled cart with a leather bag on it. He would go house to house, putting mail in the mail slots in the front doors. We don’t have mail slots here. We have a mailbox at the street. Other people in the neighbourhood have their mailboxes in groups. Just regular mailboxes, but fastened in a row on a plank. The pay here is 82.5% of my current hourly wage… which is lower than I should have been making for the duties I’ve been performing. Tomorrow is a staff meeting, and I am expected. At the end of the meeting there will be a toast/roast to me, followed by a lunch. I think it’s in poor taste to fire someone, and then give him a going-away party, and I could have declined. But I feel I owe it to my coworkers who have been so supportive of me to attend. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2026, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-handle-my-layoff/1024867/312 "2026-02-24T18:32:10Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Well, I do live in the Pacific North **wet**. Love it! I’ll have to ask my whole family who have moved to the Seattle area if they’ve heard this phrase. Their only complaints about the move has been about the wet. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2026, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-handle-my-layoff/1024867/313 "2026-02-24T18:39:14Z")
I’m very glad you have a couple of offers. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2026, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-handle-my-layoff/1024867/314 "2026-02-24T21:36:28Z")
I am currently in the office in Burien. We had my last staff meeting. There were tributes to me, followed by pizza (none for me, I had a specially-ordered salad). I really wish I had a kabuki costume. Talked to the boss, who apparently the first one ever to be laid off from here. (There have been retirements, people taking other jobs, and one guy who was fired for cause, but no layoffs.) I’ve turned in my laptop, keyboard, mouse, power supply, and key card. I’ll clock out in about an hour and a half, and work from home until next Tuesday, and then turn out the lights. I was in the process of being ‘on-boarded’ to the Blaine Post office. After talking with the supervisor there this morning, I have accepted the conditional offer from Bellingham (automatically declining the Blaine position). So now I don’t know when I’ll start. ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2026, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-handle-my-layoff/1024867/315 "2026-02-24T22:02:35Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > > [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > > > Well, I do live in the Pacific North **wet**. > > Love it! I’ll have to ask my whole family who have moved to the Seattle area if they’ve heard this phrase. Their only complaints about the move has been about the wet. Seen on a bumper sticker: “Washatonians don’t tan. They rust.” ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2026, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-handle-my-layoff/1024867/316 "2026-02-24T23:47:07Z")
Congrats. Do you know which areas and days? Also rural, or urban? ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2026, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-handle-my-layoff/1024867/317 "2026-02-25T00:36:51Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > I delivered mail one summer when I was in college, about 55 years ago. They didn’t trust me with a truck, but I did have a little wheeled cart the mail went on. > It was a great summer job - good exercise and well paying Same here. I did quite enjoy it and that was even before the time of cell phones and music players ( I assume it’s more pleasant nowadays ) and all that kind of stuff. Lots of Being Your Own Boss kind of vibes. Best part was that I was home by 3:00 in the afternoon, starting at 6:00 a.m. So best wishes for your new role and I hope you’re really enjoy it. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2026, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-handle-my-layoff/1024867/318 "2026-02-25T00:51:39Z")
Interesting. My letter carrier uses a big shoulder pouch. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2026, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-handle-my-layoff/1024867/319 "2026-02-25T03:58:13Z")
> [@susan](#): > > Congrats. Do you know which areas and days? Also rural, or urban? Thanks. No idea. Since I accepted the Bellingham offer, I don’t know what’s in store. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2026, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-handle-my-layoff/1024867/320 "2026-02-25T04:34:33Z")
> [@OttoDaFe](#): > > Washatonians Sounds like Washaton is a lot like Washington! I wonder if Warshatons are as similar? 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-handle-my-layoff/1024867.md?page=15) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-handle-my-layoff/1024867.md?page=17)