Less of a job, more of a lifestyle.
Pros
It’s really neat to be the postman. Walking and being outside cured my seasonal depression, I’m in great shape, people (customers) are nice to me, and it’s extremely doable work.
Cons
You don’t have a consistent schedule nor workload as a PTF, so you get yanked around a lot. PTF’s have to run Amazon packages on Sundays and holidays, so the days off that mail workers are guaranteed by being federal employees aren’t guaranteed for a PTF. Being faster doesn’t mean you finish sooner; you will be squeezed to work for every minute of your waking life until mail for the entire city is gone, for low pay, and the only reward for delivering all of the mail you have with you is more mail. I’ve barely seen my friends and family in the year since I started, because management is allowed to work you 12 hours a shift if they want to, and they will. When I only have to work 9 hours in a day, I leave thinking “wow, what a short and easy day.” It feels like there’s something systemically wrong with upper management because a lot of managers/supervisors that I’ve met have displayed bizarrely dehumanizing/abusive behavior to carriers and lower level staff, and it’s widespread enough that it feels trained, vs like a few bad apples…? How many bad apples can there be, or is something intentionally ruining the bushel? There’s a lot that I enjoy about being a mail man and I want to like the job, but it’s kind of messed up.
