How bout War-shit-ons for my new founded pacifi(isti)c movement?
My dad was a lifer with the P.O. (as it was then). He went straight from his army service in WWII to that job. He started as a letter carrier using a shoulder pouch. It made him develop bursitis in his shoulder. I don’t think they had the little tripod carts until well after he moved up in the “ranks.”
Carts wouldn’t be practical here. The mail boxes are at front doors, and there are lots of stairs. Even a single step is a barrier to a rolling cart.
One of my routes had many steps to the mail boxes. You can leave your cart on the street, bring the mail for that house (and often the one next door at the same level) and scamper up. Much better than lugging a heavy bag up the steps.
But I think the carrier has the option of using either.
That describes my neighborhood, as well. Our carriers operate out of USPS vans; they park the van, load a shoulder bag with the sorted mail for one or two blocks while in the van, walk and deliver to those blocks, and then repeat the process.
The majority of houses in my town were built in the 1920s - 1950s, and a lot of them (including ours) are “Chicago-style bungalows,” where the ground floor is actually a half-dozen steps up from street level. A few years ago, our local post office asked residents to consider relocating their mailboxes from next to the front doors, to the bottom of the stairs, so that letter carriers didn’t need to walk up and down stairs to deliver the mail. We haven’t done so yet, but we may do so when we have some work done on the outside of the house, this year or next.
That’s how our mailman did it when I was a kid.
Last week I declined a position that I was being onboarded for, so as to accept a position in Bellingham. Then I was advised that the position (which I accepted) was actually different from one of the other ones I’d applied for. I received this email:
I will hold on to your ARC (ASSISTANT RURAL CARRIER) application a few days to see if the RCA (RURAL CARR ASSOC/SRV REG RTE) application will process for Bellingham.
So I was anxious that I’d thrown a sabot into the machinery.
But I’ve just received the conditional offer for the RCA position in Bellingham, and have accepted it. They already have my fingerprints, so I don’t think I need to do those again.
Earlier you mentioned that you were pursuing retail positions at Costco or Trader Joe’s. Are you still hoping for that (or something else) or are you going to stick with the USPS position?
Either one of those retail positions would undoubtedly not be full-time. I’m going to try sticking with USPS and working to build a reputation that eventually moves me into a full-time role.
Congratulations!
I received some files earlier this morning. These are ones only I can work correctly. I did my thing, and let the receptionist know that they are ready to be sequence-loaded (because they haven’t loaded last month’s data, because Tampa hasn’t returned usable files – which I did, so at least they have those).
It’s strange that at the start of the ‘datalanche’, I haven’t received any more files; not even ones that don’t need anything done to (the receptionist can just save them and send them). So I checked, and I am off the distribution list.
I’ve set up an automated reply, and turned it on for internal and external emails:
Thank you for contacting [us].
3 March 2026 is my last day with [us]. It has been a pleasure working with you over the past 19 years, and I appreciate your support of the organization.
Please address all data-related emails to [mailing list address], and our data team and Customer Care will receive them.
Best regards,
Just to say, my retirement-aged cousin took a job with the post office a few years ago to build up some retirement income, after having been a freelancer for most of his life. He really likes it. He works in the facility, not delivery routes.
I’d rather work in a building, but ya gotta start somewhere.
Huh. I was mistaken. Apparently, I’m still on the distribution list. I guess it just didn’t show me when I was testing it.
I much preferred being out to being inside, but it didn’t rain all the time where I was. (One of my kids lives near you.) Many people taking the test wound up loading mail sacks in JFK airport on the night shift - I did way better than that.
At 15:01, seven minutes ago, I clocked out for the last time.
The end of an era!
Yep. TRW established Business Information Services in 1968, and my now-former employer has been loading our members’ data to their database for more than half a century. Now, TPTB decided quality no longer matters. Everything will be automated. If accounts do not pass validation, oh, well.
Not your problem. I hope your USPS onboarding goes well and you get an easy/attractive to drive route.
It is not.