Pros
-For the work, it's great pay. -Plenty of opportunities to rack up overtime. -Most employees are wonderful to work with. -My supervisor was mostly fair and generous with me. -Don't have to think too much. -You get to walk around outside on the best days of the year.
Cons
-No benefits as a TE, and you're at-will. -Office politics can be incredibly petty and uncomfortably intrusive. -Work loads varied; some weeks were 60+ hours while others were 25. -The work takes a significant toll on the body. It's manual labor after all. -There are no Neumans; you're going to work in the cold, rain, snow, sleet, heat and everything else. -The work of a carrier is also mind-numbingly banal. People go crazy in the Post Office for a reason. -Generally bad and capricious supervision. You have to luck out here. If they don't like you then you won't be around very long. -Senior management's only competencies are in displaying its incompetence and lack of foresight. Their inability to properly manage the company is well-documented in the news headlines these days. -Some supervisors who are closer to the ground understand how the offices work, but local postmasters can be both incredibly dense and remarkably condescending. This of course leads to resentment on the part of carriers and supervisors, which very quickly turns itself into low employee morale. -Fiscally the USPS is a shipwreck. It will not exist in anything like its current state in 5-10 years. -Union job.
