Depression Support Group
Depression is a real and debilitating condition that is often misunderstood by family and friends. Its meaning can range from a prolonged period of sadness to an actual mental illness with specific symptoms. Find and share experiences with others who are going through the same struggles.
I'm a mail carrier. We are used to dealing with all kinds of sh*t, believe me. The most recent, tho, is pretty weird and bad. The new head postmaster general is making changes to undermine our organization and our ability to get your mail to you in a timely way, not to mention putting the carriers in harms way. One way he is doing the latter is to change our start time to 8:30 a.m. This is an outrageouly late start time for us. Usually we start at around 7 to 7:30 a.m. because it takes time to get our mail, get out of the office, get the mail to you, etc. Most of the routes are very long. This is especially bad in summer because we can't "beat the heat" as well because we are starting later and in the winter it is bad because we are out there longer in the dark.
It's very depressing to have your boss forcing you into harm's way, making your job harder and making customer service worse. I gripe a lot about my job, it is hard and a lot of the managers suck but I do take pride in my job. Been doing it a long time. I do care if people get their mail and get it in a timely way. We deliver checks, birthday cards, meds, voter's ballots, tons and tons of packages, not to mention a friendly word to the lonely people out there who wait for their mail as the one of the highlights of their day. Lots of dogs love us or love to hate us too.
This makes me really sad. I don't think the postal service will ever fall completely, at least not in the near future because we are so tightly woven into the fabric of the American life. But it sucks to have to deal with this kind of crappy corruption. The mail carriers and clerks and mail handlers work really hard and we don't deserve to be treated like this. We do all kind of dangerous and hard things on a daily basis just to get our jobs done and we deserve respect. I think most Americal people understand what's going on but I wanted to write about this anyway.
This new postmaster general is really corrupt so if you get your mail late or it's delayed, it's most likely his fault. Yea, we make mistakes but I've never known a postal employee who was purposely trying to undermine service to the American people like this guy is. It's shameful.
There, I've said my peice. I probably won't be with this job much longer anyway but I needed to get this out there.
Thanks for listening to my rant.
I've been reading how the president and his views on mail in voting and politics are all tied into these new policies.
It's awful that politics are affecting USPS workers in this way.
Hopefully you will be away from there when the shit hits the fan. Good luck to you, and thanks for bringing this up for everyone to see.
My local postie has been riding his bicycle to deliver mail. When I have asked him why he is not riding a motor bike, he said the postal service is cutting down costs since people prefer to use emails rather sending letters. Ever since the COVID restrictions have started, people are using online orders instead of wandering to the shops, so parcel delivery service has quadrupled in my state.
Sorry I have digressed, I really admire mail carriers. They work really hard to deliver the mail through rain, hail or shine. This kind of work is to rigorous and demanding for me. Perhaps you can apply for a desk job in the postal service, or at least in the sorting room so you don't have to travel and expose yourself to COVID. Hoping that you are well, and have a great weekend! Marie :)
That's interesting that your carrier delivers on a bike, Marie. I've never seen that here in the US but I guess it varies from state to state. That would be really hard! I saw that in Europe once, a carrier riding up on his bike with the mail.
I do think this is a good time to get out. At my job they also aren't wearing masks or following social distancing like we are supposed to so that makes it hard, too. I just wish I was a little better off financially. Well, I can always come here and gripe about being totally broke I guess. hehe.
Thanks again for your support. We do like getting stuff at Christmas. Money or gift cards are great and it's nice to get some treats and real food too since we're usually hungry when we are out there... : ) some of the gifts I've gotten through the years: pretty wooden salad spoons, chocolates, gift cards, money, pot holders, gloves, fancy bottle of salad dressing, bath salts, . mostly chocolate and homemade trail mix though : )