WHAT IS THE BEST JOB IN THE U.S.?
Being a letter carrier.
IT MAKES NO DIFFERENCE if you do your job diligently or if you are derelict in your duties, you are above reproach.
On my street
The ONLY time my mail is delivered
- To the correct address
Before 6:30 p.m.
The regular carrier is surly, particularly to my elderly neighbor who is a naturalized U.S. citizen.
My neighbor complained to the local USPS office — to no avail.
I have complained on several occasions to the local USPS office, usually to no avail.
- I sometimes get a response from the USPS, but the “bottom line” is that nothing is accomplished; the mail still is mis-directed.
Yesterday, Wednesday, 18 March 2020, the letter carrier did not even show up!
This particular letter carrier is on a roll.
My neighbor was waiting for a small package, probably dog food. She is elderly and, except when walking her ankle bitter, she is “in residence.”
The letter carrier, rather than get out of her vehicle to deliver the package to the door, stuck a note in the woman’s mailbox stating ”Unable to deliver, no one at home.”
Do I believe my neighbor?
You bet.
This same carrier failed to deliver a certified letter, again, because she was too lazy to walk to my door (I was in) to have be sign for the missive. I ended up going to the post office the next day to sign for and collect my certified mail.
It’s a long hike from the street to the front door — maybe 30 feet maximum.
The letter carrier seems healthy enough.
‘Course, similar to a lot of people sporting handicap hang tags, maybe appearances are deceiving. (Looking at local grocery store parking lot handicap-only spaces and watching the drivers as they go to and from the store makes me wonder why they need the tag.)
How do I know?
I know the letter carrier failed to deliver mail to my street-side mail box because
- Informed Delivery showed me four (4) mail items that should have been delivered on the 18th
An outgoing letter was left in the box and the red flag still was raised.
Knowing complaining to the local USPS supervisor was a waste of time, I complained to the Inspector General’s office.
Turns out the complaint, via the USPS web, went to the Inspector Lieutenant’s office in Miami.
I promptly was informed that the Miami office forwarded my complaint to the local USPS office.
Worse, Miami effectively told me ”Don’t bother us again.”
Doubly protected
Letter carriers have more protection than a hazmat responder.
They have union protection from The National Association of Letter Carriers (NARC), part of the AFL-CIO. (https://www.nalc.org/)
The letter carriers, and other USPS employees, also are covered by Civil Service, even though many are anything BUT civil.
Given the number of times mail addressed to my house number has ended up in a neighbor’s mail box — sometimes a neighbor more than a mile away! — I wonder if the Civil Service exam requires the potential letter carrier to read arabic (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.) digits and house numbers composed of those digits.
Perhaps the only requirement to be a letter carrier is the ability to drive a right-hand drive vehicle. Admittedly, that IS tricky unless the person learned to drive in England or a few other British colonies (Canada excluded).
- Yes, some letter carriers walk their routes and they have my respect when the weather is anything but nice — here temperatures easily climb into the 90s, with equal relative humidity; sudden storms can put an inch or more of rainwater on the ground in minutes. Still, most deliver mail by vehicle.
To be fair
Some, probably most, letter carriers are good, conscientious people who take their work seriously.
I met the alternate carrier and she was polite, on time, and delivered the mail to the correct address.
We used to have a good carrier on this route, but Miss Take has seniority and took over the route.
We had a letter carrier in Clearwater FL, “Vic” by name, who not only delivered the mail to the right address, but he KNEW most of the families on his route. When my children were young, they used to run to meet him. (But then they, like their father, waved to the garbage men when they came by.)
The folks at the local USPS branch are fine; they try, but there is nothing they can do about the letter carrier who is supposed to work the route on which my house is included.
She has seniority and bid on the route when the previous letter carrier — a nice guy who was a model carrier — retired.
My neighbors and I went from good service by a personable man to unsatisfactory service from the current carrier.
To whom to complain?
To whom can I complain? Who can possibly take this woman to task for her inefficiencies and dereliction of duty?
The powers that be in the post office obviously are powerless to replace, or even reassign, this carrier.
If anyone wants a job from which they cannot be fired for anything less than murder, take the test to be a letter carrier.
You will have absolute job security.
And you can tell your customers and managers what you think of them with impunity.
PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.
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