Lacking resources, flexibility, and competitive compensation
Pros
Working outdoors if you're a carrier
Cons
Perpetually understaffed. Takes two months of processing before you can start work. Unpredictable schedule that includes Saturdays and mandatory Amazon Sundays. No benefits until you're a regular, which is usually years away. The union health insurance that is supposed to be an alternative does not cover catastrophic illness, like heart stroke, cancer, are any major hospitalization. Among the most egregious issues is the evaluated time per route: Once deemed trained on a route ( meaning, you've done that route twice) you are only paid for the predetermined time allocated. You're moved around so much to cover for the attrition that you never reach that efficiency on any one route and end up working for free when it takes ten hours instead of 8. Equipment is broken and never enough for everyone. The vehicles are 30 years old with broken indicators, gear shift indicators, and everything else. This is why they are hiring more people who agree to use their own vehicles. And the schedule is entirely unpredictable....some weeks 50 hours a week while others are 18. USPS carriers work on ALL holidays but Christmas.
