Postal Carrier wants me to move my car. I say I dont have to....

Factual Questions
101

I have never known a mail carrier to go over time except for very rare weather conditions. I worked as a temp around Xmas more than once, and while the story below never hapenned to me, it did happen to others I knew. Temp has a delivery route slated for 3 hours. Temp delivers mail in substantially less time and returns to post office. Regular workers tell kid not to show his face four at least 3 1/2 hours since he clearly cannot do the job quicker than the regular guy.

I have also personally witnessed three or four mail carriers having lunch together for 2 to 2 1/2 hours in the local pizza place. And yes I know at least one of them was on duty as he’d delivered mail to me and said when leavin ghe had to complete his rounds.

102

Believe me the job itself is far from easy.

Anybody can shove bits of paper through holes in doors…that’s the easy bit, the only one!

Getting up at 0430, walking the streets in all weathers, keeping clear of dangerous dogs, obstacles and shitty people who seem to think that their mail takes priority over all others…just some of the hard parts.

Putting up with management who haven’t the foggiest idea of actual mail delivery.

Having your social life curtailed because you can’t go to a party on a Friday night if you have to be at work at 0500 the following day.

Suggest you give it a try sometime

103

Ok, so they have crappy management. So do a lot of people I know. They have to get up early? BFD. So do I, so do a lot of people. I deal with people all day who think their problem is the number one priority and needs to be fixed now. Full serve Gas Station employees have to work in all types of weather, have people yelling at them to pump the gas quicker, and why don’t you have the change (I worked through high school at a gas station). On weekends I had to be there at 6am. My boss was an ass. No one here would say that being a gas jockey is a stressful job.

As I stated before, of course there is stress. In any job, any career there is stress. There are problems with all jobs, yet no one tips me. I don’t have some regulations I get to point to, silly ones at that, about nope sorry I can’t get out of my car for this reason but I can for that. On top of all that you get paid well, and great benefits?

Its an easy job, as easy as any career type job, with common complaints of many job. the amount of “stress” gets blown WAY out of proportion, I still can see no reason for the label of it being a high-stress job. Suggesting I try it for a while is, IMO, somewhat silly. Anyone doing any job right from the start experiences a higher then normal stress level, due to unfamiliarity. I suggest these people do my job then. I have to get up at 6am, I am on call, I have to work weekends, I get no benefits, my superior is an ass, and a cheapskate, doesn’t care about anything but the bottom line, I could go on. Do I think my job is “highly stress”, and I should have sympathy from the general public because “Oh, you have to work so hard with mean dogs and jerky people, and it can rain? poor you”. No, and I don’t expect to. Why do postal workers think they are special? Or maybe more accourately, why does society?

However I fear I am treading very close to moving this out of GQ, and into GD or maybe the pit, depending on reactions, so I should shut up now. Maybe I will start up a thread in one of those forums.

104

I don’t think the stress is more than in any other crappy job (of which there is no shortage on this blue marble). Maybe there is a little bit of extra stress for the expectation that you will “go postal”. That said, the USPS is big and monolithic. That means that even the most minor percentage of postal employees adds up pretty quickly. Maybe that is why they get extra attention.

105

Sounds pretty stressful to me, actually.

Also sounds pretty stressful. Are you upset just because you feel like people should have more sympathy for you? Well, I have sympathy for you. Those job conditions sound pretty crappy. I’m not saying there aren’t crappier jobs. Of course there are. But just because someone else’s job is more stressful doesn’t mean that yours (or a postal worker’s) is stress-free. I feel like you must be reacting to all the news stories about postal workers, uh, “going postal” and the subsequent media frenzy of, “Oh, well, the USPS is a super-high-stress job.” That’s media overkill. Of course the USPS isn’t the most stressful job in the universe. That doesn’t mean that it’s extremely easy or non-stressful, either. And frankly, coming into a thread where people have repeatedly stated, “My/my husband’s/my wife’s job is stressful” and saying, “No it isn’t, you’re making that up” seems fairly silly to me.

You’re right, this does feel pretty hijacky. I will therefore end my comments on this matter here (I think that’s pretty much all I have to say, anyway – that while not the world’s most stressful job, being a postal worker still kinda sucks sometimes and is not what I would consider “easy”.)

106

They’re called clusterfu…s, er, clusterboxes, and you better hope you don’t get a lot of packages bigger than those little boxes.

BTW, the “motto” is (only) an engraving on the main post office building (somewhere-NYC, I think). “Neither rain nor snow nor gloom of night shall stay these faithful couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds” or close to that (from memory-Dad was a career postal clerk).

107

On the other hand, How this for dedication, in the face of folks who won’t move their vehicles?

http://www.townonline.com/marblehead/homepage/8999342502291605087

108

Queuing,

It’s the BENEFITS and decent pay that make people go postal.
If it paid $8 per hour and they didn’t have benefits, people wouldn’t go crazy, they’d just quit and go to Taco Bell.

109

I got one of their slips in the mailbox today. Thing is he doesn’t have to get out of the truck to deliver my mail. Now he does have to back up to go to the next box to go around a truck parked in the cul de sac until I can get the title in my name and it sold. On my street cars are parked on both sides so I suspect he has to get out a lot.

110

The zombies are going postal!

Don’t know if you realize it, barelypure, but the thread you responded to is 8 years old (almost to the day!).

111

To get back to the OP, the mail guy might have the legal right to tell somebody to move their car. Nobody owns a public street so your right to park your car on it can be limited. That’s why you can be legally ordered to move your car for public works or emergency vehicles or be told to clear the street for snow removal or a parade.

112

its your mail want it? or not

113

The mail is from 2006.

114

And the check was in it. Tsk.

115

Somebody better let Zombie Czarcasm know about this thread.

116

try dogs that bite

117

skycypher, welcome to the Straight Dope. We prefer that old threads in General Questions not be reopened except to post new factual information. For that reason, I am closing this.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator