Canada Post Reviews

Pros

The pay is great for the work you do. The work is easy, although menial and sometimes tedious. The money makes up for it.

Cons

The people could use some attitude adjustment. The supervisors play favourites and try to push certain employees' buttons. With really good management, this could be a great place to work. Supervisors need to have motivational skills.

Advice to Senior Management

Supervisors should have experience as clerks.

Pros

The benefits are great and you could really grow with this company if you work hard and educate yourself as much as possible.

Cons

Sometimes managers have obvious employees that they prefer. It is a little daunting to have to get recognition if they already have someone they prefer.

Advice to Senior Management

Treat employees fairly and get to know them. People have alot going on in their lives make work an environment of fairness and help them grow.

Pros

Good Penison benefits. If you don't mind the politics you can move up in the company. Excellent benefits compared to the private sector.

Cons

A lot of talk about treating employees faily but it's mostly window dressing. Inadequate training. Increasingly changing processes that are not understood totally by the majority. Very heavy workload and lack of good managers.

Advice to Senior Management

More hands on training. Don't just throw a manual at supervisors and expect them to then know the material in it.

Pros

Good money compared to the popper salary many are getting for a hard days work in Montreal.
Good benefits, proud to be a mailman because of the respectful position it used to be and can still be. Have weekends and statutory holidays off.

Cons

When I transferred to Montreal with only three weeks left to modified duties, from a car accident about 9 months prior. The small minded supervisors declared war on me and used alot of creative harassment techniques to push me out. It didn't matter that I worked my but off to prove myself because I was proud to be a letter carrier. The union didn't help because I was new to the city and they didn't want to stick their neck out for a new comer. The corporation put out tons of propaganda about how they are concerned with their employees well being. I have recently been dealing with top management in Ottawa and they couldn't care less. I finally left my job and it is a shame. They are really working hard at getting people to quit or retire early, cheaper for them that way.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep doing what you are doing, have fun with your bonuses and, and I hope you sleep well.
Good night

Pros

Becuse it is such a large corporatoin, there are opporunities for developement in many areas. I have taken courses, paid by Canada Post to improve my skills and abilities. I have had the opportunity over the years to participate in several developmental assignments and work with many organizational and quality improvement teams. With the present contract there is also job security, and a great benefits plan. There are unions and associations that work to protect employees, and health and safety is a primary concern to the corporation. As long as we maintain our profitablitlty, we are looking good into the future.

Cons

The computers cannot function with the programs that need to be run, and therefore, it is difficult to get your work done, in the scheduled time frame. It is painful to complete this form as the computers run so slowly. There are times when postions go to less qualified but better postioned individuals based on personal factors, but that happens everywhere. As for letter carrier work, the job is physically taxing, and more difficult than it appears. Customers who call seem to be unaware that as a corporation, we contribute to the government coffers each year, and do not drain the taxpayers.

Advice to Senior Management

Update our systems. Listen to the front line workers.

Pros

We deliver to everyone and everywhere and we accept mail for everywhere and everyone. Mail is universal. We were here before the internet and we will survive with the internet.:-) The receipt, transfer and delivery of mail requires trust and competence. Serving the public good is the reason for the post office.

Cons

Constant restructuring of routes, complicated bidding processes for yearly shift bids, yearly bargaining for holiday schedules, triannual contract negotiations and petty politics.

Advice to Senior Management

Simplify the products so that our customers will be able to understand the service. Provide better training and orientation to new employees.

Pros

Paid for work done rather than hours present, allowing fast workers to finish early.
Minimal intervention from supervisors - prepare route then on your own for 4 hours of walking.
In Alberta 7-8 months of the yr are great beautiful weather, sun is shining and everthing is good with the world. On a good day ( light mail, good weather, good route) you can feel like you have the best job in the world.

Cons

For 4-5 months of the year the job can be hell - 5 hr forced march's through knee-thigh-waist deep snow in -10 -20 -30C or worse weather, falling slipping and jarring become weekly if not more often ocurences, if you get injured during the course of your duties you are made to feel like a pariah, more often than not made to work night shifts in a sorting plant, a process designed to get you back to your normal duties as quickly as possible - often before you have recovered fully - resulting in long term injuries that never fully heal. Especially anoying is the attitude of management that all injuries are avoidable, when this is patently false - some injuries are of course avoidable - adobt best practices, pay due care attention etc but when you are working to a time limit in awful conditons accidents happen.
Currently a very big downside is the proposed restructuring of Canada most operations - no current postal worker knows what lies in their immediate future (ie 2-3 yrs) every job is likely to change or end. This is an amazingly stressful situation as an employee to find yourself in, a situation that is only likely to get worse as time progresses. We all know this is happening but there is no communication from management - no leadership.
If you make an honest mistake - you are given a meeting where you are informed that your job is on the line. Very close to bullying.
The very worse thing about the job is that nobody will ever believe how hard your job can be.
You tell them that 80% of new recruits quit because the job is difficult and they respond with 'but you walk for a living' very frustrating - the public as a whole have a very minimal level of respect for letter carriers.

Advice to Senior Management

Employees are not the enemy, assume that the vast majority of us want to get the job done to the best of our abilities. Lead us - what does the future hold? treat us like adults and perhaps we'll respond in kind.

Pros

Being outdoors and getting exercise. Most co-workers are easy to get along with. The pay is decent and once you are eligible for benefits and a pension, it makes for a good career. If you like overtime, there's always some available somewhere. You are paid a bonus for delivering flyers.

Cons

In poor weather, the job is more difficult. Some co-workers are old curmudgeons who need to retire. If you happen to be on a poorly designed route, you may end up frustrated and working much longer than you might prefer (ie overtime). There is no compensation (officially) for the preparation of flyers.

Advice to Senior Management

Have a system in place so that relief carriers can easily report problems with a certain route. Most people don't bother telling their supervisors because they don't think anything will be done about it.

Pros

Pension, benefits, great on sunny days - if you're outside

Cons

Repitition, mind draining and no actual teamwork - upper management is not in touch with the how the work is done

Advice to Senior Management

Come down to the workfloor and work with the employees (say for a month) to see what the work is like and how it is actually done

Pros

Exercise, being outside, independently completing tasks and connecting with neighborhoods and communities.

Cons

Extreme weather shifts. What's consistent with unions, they work with and against. It's not an mind expanding job, nor is it expected to be.

Advice to Senior Management

Engage all staff in contributing to an empowering work space or environment. Include all levels in sourcing the key elements to providing efficient proud service to the public.