The reference was to a Christmas/holiday gift, because they get no Christmas bonus, unlike their supervisors who get hundreds or thousands of dollars based on the performance of the carriers under them. Also, during December they get no double time for hours worked past 10 each day; it’s paid at the usual time-and-a-half rate - a huge boon for their supervisors who get to look like they’re not giving out nearly as much overtime, and ups their bonuses even further.
It’s not unusual to give a holiday gift to people who do work for you regardless of their wage status - some people tip garbage collectors who do a good job, hairstylists, doormen, etc.
Oh wait, they do get a $25 Christmas bonus, which is sent automatically to their Christmas party fund. They have 10 minutes to line up, eat their food, and have their party unless they want to take their lunch period and spend a whole 30 minutes celebrating.
Why is it stressful? Because they have supervisors micromanaging them to keep those lovely bonuses intact. They get told every day, based on some computer running the numbers for their route and calculating off the mail volume exactly how long they should take sorting and delivering the mail, and if they’re off, the supervisor comes down on them - well, if they’re over the allotted time, then they get yelled at. If they’re under, the supervisor loads more and more work on them instead. My husband started running his route and skipping his lunch to do all of his work, and for his trouble he got more added onto his route with no extra time allotted, and he could no longer keep up the pace so he switched to a less-loaded route. Any reasoning is met with, “The computer says…” and a stare from the supervisor.
They are told that snow should not affect their delivery time - so according to the USPS, slippery sidewalks, unshoveled stairs and walks, roads that need plowing, none of that should increase delivery time at all. Same thing with darkness - some carriers have to strap a head lamp on to even read the envelopes, and try to aim it at a house’s number to confirm it, but that won’t get them any slack for extra time required when their long route is done during the fall/winter hours where it’s dark at the end of it. Rain either, for that matter.
In hot weather, their non-air-conditioned vehicles cannot have the windows open when they are not in the truck, so even on dangerously hot days they have to roll the windows all the way up and let their truck become an absolute oven while they’re away from it.
It’s the holiday season, and they’re also not given extra time for all those packages they’re delivering, even those on a walking route. Typically packages require at least one extra trip back to the truck for each series of blocks they deliver in, if not more.
He’s had supervisors threaten him that he can’t have time off (booked well in advance and approved by them) for our honeymoon, for family vacations, for doctor’s appointments when he needs medical care. He managed to get those times off but typically he has to say he’ll talk to the union rep, or even go ahead and file a grievance.
Getting back to something I mentioned before, being mediocre is most rewarded. If you’re average at your route, the supervisors don’t hassle you. If you’re awful, you get hassle. If you’re good, you get hassle because the supervisors assign you more work for the same pay rate - unless they let you have some overtime. If you’re on the overtime list and you’re a good carrier, then you get worked like a dog - the mediocre carriers on the list will get maybe any overtime on their route but otherwise aren’t pushed. The supervisors’ reasoning is “why pay Average Joe an hour of overtime when we can make Reliable John do it and he’ll finish in maybe a half hour?” So the reliable carriers see they’re being worked hard, more so than other carriers, and money’s nice but it can’t make your muscles not ache.
Customers let their dogs free and claim “he doesn’t bite!” while the dog is in obvious attack mode, trying to circle the letter carrier, snarling and snapping. They refuse to come get the dog, instead ineffectually clapping and calling for the dog. They put the dog on an invisible fence and think everything’s fine, but that merely keeps the dog from leaving the yard (unless the dog charges the line and goes past) - that doesn’t protect someone who has to cross onto the yard, like a letter carrier, meter reader, small child retrieving a ball, etc. Most letter carriers try not to use “dog spray” needlessly because that can prevent ever making peace with a dog, but if a carrier is bitten and it is determined that he/she could have brought out the spray and used it, the USPS can discipline them.
Customers do things like put their door slot mailbox on the side or back door rather than front so you have to go hunting for the box. Some refuse to answer the door for an item that needs to be signed for, then the other members of the house get pissed off at the carrier for “not ringing the bell - someone was home!” (my husband has seen people inside the house, and stood there for up to 5 minutes when one house is supposed to take under 30 seconds); others slowly meander to the door while on the phone, and refuse to put down the phone while he’s trying to explain that no, you print here and sign there - no, not there! One has even snottily told him, “I’m on the phone!” and sat there in front of him, talking, and refusing to sign while on her precious phone call.
Some never use their front door and so miss issues with their front steps, like slippery shellac’d stairs are still a hazard even if shoveled (please salt or put down traction strips!), or hornet nests forming in the eaves, and so on. My husband thinks that the best shovelers on his route are elderly people who are too frail to be heaving snow around, while able-bodied people - especially with able-bodied kids of the right age to be pushing a shovel - tend to not be as good. (And those who have a landscaping service do their shoveling are apparently awful at it because they usually won’t deign to lift a shovel or sprinkle some salt, instead waiting for the service to come around.)
One customer threatened disciplinary action against my husband when her mail from her last address hadn’t been forwarded to her new house for 6 months. Filling out a change of address form is the customer’s responsibility, but she seemed to think that it wasn’t and that he was throwing out her forwarded mail or something. (I guess she got an education in how the mail works because she tipped him $50 this year.)
He’s had people cut him off while driving in an attempt to force him to pull over, so they can get directions from him! (Almost inevitably they argue about the directions, and he asks why they’re arguing when they’re the one who’s lost.) People yell at him when he’s slogging through the pouring down rain that their mail is wet, and have the utter gall to ask him why, as he’s standing there soaked to the bone. He’s had people accuse him of stealing their mail (which inevitably arrives within days), blame him for things that other carriers did - even on routes that aren’t his, and so on.
So why is it stressful? They’re overworked, physically worn down, micromanaged to the point where they can’t open a window or back up the truck at the wrong time, drive crappy vehicles, rewarded for being mediocre and worked to death for being good and conscientious, and generally jerked around by supervisors to suit their needs. Meanwhile customers simply have no clue about what happens in their day, and blithely expect their letter carriers to magically avoid snapping dogs and other obstacles while getting them their mail but without ever actually needing anything in return from the customer.
:mad: 
and all that.