US Postal Service Reviews

Pros

Best reasons are high pay for realitively easy work, on your own once you're in the field delivering mail, and then getting to work when other don't want to.

Cons

As an RCA you are the lowest of the low on the totem poll. You are constantly mistreated and rarely do you receive any recognition for a job well done. If you do receive recognition for a job well done it comes moments before you are given extra work that a less than stellar coworker failed to complete. As an RCA you also have no choice as to whether or not to work when the weather is terrible, it's a holiday, or there is a large amount of work. Regulars frequently abuse the sick call policy and the supervisors are left helpless to do anything about it. What they can do is threaten the RCAs. A lot of these jobs will be coming open soon as people within the company start looking for more work before the shutdowns and labor cutbacks. Know that you will have to buy your own gas and repair your own vehicle of which both will amount great charges. Think twice before subjecting yourself to this job. The opportunity for advancement is ZERO. Once someone retires the supervisors drag out the promotion of someone into the full time spot for as long as they can. The supervisor class and training postmaters and site supervisors go to must treat them how to downgrade people and keep them subbornidate with little self esteem about an ability to do their own job.

Advice to Senior Management

Cut your overpaid supervisor staff in half. You do not need 4 different supervisors at one facility housing city carriers and rural carriers. Treat employees with respect. It's not their fault you left your union spot working for the post office to become a supervisor and now hate both sides of the job. Remember the little guys like RCAs that toil away and come in at a moments notice to work for you. Often times in undesirable working conditions or on holidays. They're aren't with their families either so be nice!

Pros

Very good salary and benefits for career people. Oustanding craft employees that take way way too much abusement from management.

Cons

The reason for the good salary and benefits is because you have to put up with sssssoooooo much mismanagement, disrespect, and back stabbing. If you can't handle extreme stress and being degraded as a person, DON'T WORK FOR USPS!

Advice to Senior Management

There are many ways out of this mess you have gotten us into other than closing POs and degrading customer service, i. e. STOP taking DPS to the street to minimize street time and save gas money in the millions, get rid of the dead weight employees that are "injured", and last but not least stop micromangeing and let your front line supervisors do their job that they hired to do They have the responsibility to do the job but not the authority without approval from higher management You have an outstanding work force that is VERY frustrated with the lack of kudos for a job well done and the mentality of "well, you get a paycheck be happy with that!" Stop making managers out of craft employees that can't do their job!

Pros

gender equality is very important and there is always fairness in the government. Some people may not agree, but this has not been my experience

Cons

salary is a big issue. For the amount of work and responsibility, that I carry, I feel I could make more in private industry.

Advice to Senior Management

Things obviously are difficult for our company now. Perhaps some outside influence would be a good idea, rather than always promoting from the outside.

Pros

The pay, benefits, hours, fun of meeting people on the route

Cons

management complaining of low volume or overtime hours during christmas holidays

Advice to Senior Management

communicate better, know your job better, understand your employee's jobs better

Pros

Good benefits and great opportunity to advance, I always felt I had a second familiy and they where there to help me, from the new hires, all the way to the seniors

Cons

start at bottem and work up

Advice to Senior Management

listen to the workers, really listen, be supportive, always remember that who you have working for you today, may be your manager tommarrow.

Pros

To be fair, the Post Office will test your abilities and fortitude when it comes to working in this kind of business. I like thinking about the many times I delivered mail the day after a federal holiday, which is an o.k. perk to have federal holidays off to some degree, on a Tuesday with box holders and in a rainstorm! The crazy part: I still came back the very next day for more. In a way, you will learn about yourself and what you can do.

      The salary is o.k. if you can get the hours to back it up. $18.50/hr can be the equivalent of minimal wage if you're only guaranteed one day a week, even if you're also compensated for fuel from EMA. It's also great to deliver mail in a postal vehicle instead of your own car. Although, I should point out that not all locations at USPS have LLVs, which is the case of this station in Odessa.

     If you are a hard and dedicated worker, you will have the respect of some of the older veteran regular carriers. Not only will they back you up when you can and WILL be in a bind, but will offer excellent tips on how to perform your duties effectively.

Cons

Where do you begin? The biggest problem with being a substitute carrier is that your always on-call. You can forget about trying to make plans far in advance. Your office will call you in at the last possible minute for you to run a route, but to add for a little levity it always seems to happen when you commit to something. By the way, management almost never calls you to let you know that the schedule has changed and what route that you're on. You have to call them find out at the beginning, the middle, AND at the end of every week to cover yourself to avoid an "Investigative Interview", also known as an interrogation.

      There's almost no way to get a second job to support yourself without either burning out or the second job conflicting with the Post Office. Management has no sympathy on this matter. They want you working for them well into the evening and into your second job. If your job presents a problem to them, they will make you choose to either work for USPS or resign, regardless of how long you worked for them and your dedication to the job.

       As mentioned before, not all offices have vehicles that you can use. Which means you will be required to use your personal vehicle to deliver the mail. You will tear up your vehicle delivering mail. You will spend more money regardless of what compensation you get from USPS on maintenance, insurance, and fuel for your car delivering mail. Plus, the only time you start getting benefits is when you make it to career level, which would be regular carriers and above. No life or health insurance for you.

       And then there's the concern about management. Probably, the poorest and soulless collection of snollygosters, popinjays, and ninnyhammers I have ever had the displeasure of serving under. I have seen them spend more time at my station standing around talking about their vacations and their social life, than actually doing there job. Rather than call in additional help from another office, an RCA would appreciate that, they would prefer to over burden all the substitutes by splitting routes.

       Rules constantly change here in the Odessa Post Office depending on the time of the month. You'll find yourself already in breech of another rule that was added to your office within 24 hours after you left for the day without even trying. It does not matter how long you worked at the post office, management will treat you like you've been working there for a couple of weeks and berate you as such.

       No such thing as praise for your hard work in this office. Plenty of criticism to spread around and none of which are constructive. It seems the only time management is interested in talking to you is if you've done something wrong, which I guess is a good heads up especially when you see a union representative waiting to take a statement as your called to the carpet.

Advice to Senior Management

I think you (management) should experience what it's like to struggle to meet unrealistic expectations while grappling to make ends meet. Just because we're substitute carriers, doesn't mean we're second-class citizens. The fact that we (RCAs) can run any route for the first time without training and in some cases run the route better than regular carriers makes us an asset to this organization. Someone wise told me the other day that you can do more with honey than you would with vinegar. But, this is advise you would never accept. You would have to have an open ear, an open mind, and an open heart to listen. But, to be management in this office, you have to give up all of these and your soul.

Pros

Great pay, with good benefits.

Cons

They are very inflexible with rules and regulations. If you have to call in sick because you are at the emergency room it is still considered an "unscheduled absence" and will count against you. You are given 8 or so sick days per year, but if you actually use more than 2 or 3, you will be called into the office and writted up for excessive absences. At the facility where I worked, you had to provide doctor's visit documentation for any sick days used.

Pros

You interact with customers and you will get cordnation and delivery experience once you pass the battery exam. You get to see the sites and the view depending on which office you are assigned to.

Cons

Depending on which office you are assigned to, you maybe working for a postmaster who is unethical and unprofessional. The supervisor I work for tend to make rediculus guildlines, and has openly embarrassed carriers in front of customers. Some supervisor are quick to defend customers even when a carrier was not at fault when a situation arises.

Advice to Senior Management

Appoint a supervisor who is not loose on emotions and looking to bully and belittle real hard working carriers.

Pros

Job security, good pay and benefits

Cons

Runs on crisis management, Strong good old boy system

Advice to Senior Management

More flexibllity needed. The employees actually know hw to do the work and know the short cuts to getting it done faster.

Pros

Those in higher management positions were friendly during the little contact that I had with them. They seemed extremely detached from things going on in lower positions.

Cons

Misleading description of job, requirements, maximum lifting. Offering little pay and no benefits for very demanding physical work. Attempted to force overtime when job description/interview said that it would always be optional.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't use the current job market as a way to take advantage of desperate people.