Mailing letters with the address of the sender
A new mail carrier's first holiday season with blood, sweat and tears
I did a thing.
I started a part-time job as a mail carrier last month. The most hyper-local job I could think of. This is a pivot that even *I* could not see coming. This was also the first job I landed based off of a (closed) Facebook Group post. It just seemed to me like a unique challenge that I might enjoy in my empty-nesting years.
One of the mail carriers for my local post office has an existing 16-stop route, and my job is to be a relief carrier who delivers to half (8 stops) of them on the days I work.
You may ask, “Eight stops, that’s it?” Well, our village is rural, so USPS mail pieces to all of the houses are delivered to mailboxes known as CBUs (cluster box units, pictured). So one stop may serve anywhere from 30 to a few hundred households.
During the two-week (8-day) training, I sorted and delivered with my route partner, who trained me.
Mail and package volume is notoriously high on Mondays leading up to the holidays because even on the day we don’t deliver (Sunday), mail pieces arrive at the post office, and more arrives early Monday. When I got home after working over 8 hours straight (with no real break) as a “trainee,” I was BEAT; all I could do was to retreat to the couch and space out. It was such a shock to the system to be on my feet all day. (The last time my work required me to be mostly on my feet was three years ago. Outside of that, I have mostly been a work-from-home desk worker.)
Monday during the second week of training was Cyber Monday and brought even more mail and packages. It was a 10+ hour day that ended after the sunset. At our last stop, my route partner had to turn on car headlights so we could read the address label.
BLOOD: the occupational hazards mail carriers face
Paper cuts: I got multiple from handling mail on Day 1. I wear gloves for protection now.
Wrist/arm pain: Unlocking & locking mailbox units as well as taking parcel locker keys out of lockers involves repetitive movements that are kind of hard on my wrists, especially because some of the locks can be stiff.
Random cuts and bruises: There are many pinch points that you have to watch out. Mailbox units have a lot of sharp corners and need to be closed with force (utilizing a foot, a knee, etc) sometimes. I’ve managed to hit the “funny bone” of my elbow against a mailbox door more than once, and THAT HURTS!
SWEAT: Delivering on My Own in the Last 4 Weeks
December came, and it was time for me to go deliver mail on my own, driving my own vehicle with magnetic “USPS Rural Carrier” signs on. My route carrier needed all the help she could have during December, so I agreed to work 6 days a week (off only on Sunday and holiday - Christmas Day).
<Getting the hang of the job & facing increment weather>
On the second day on my own, I returned to the PO after hitting all my stops and learned that a customer had just came to pick up a package that I left a “sorry, we missed you” notice in their receptacle for. I quickly brought the package to the PO clerk, who went out to grab the customer that had left but was still in the parking lot. The customer went home with the package, which made the postmaster happy. So happy that he gave me a high-five and said to me, “You are kicking BUTT!”
The next day’s challenge was the first inclement weather (the season’s first snow). I was well prepared: It’s amazing how all my outdoor gear (jackets, waterproof winter boots, neck gaiter, etc.) that I’ve acquired over the last five years came in so perfectly handy for this job! That day, I wore my microspikes for the first time this season. Even the Honda CR-V that we bought four years ago is just the kind of a car for this job. (Rural carriers use their own vehicle.) The snow kept falling until next morning, turning many places muddy, but my car handled it just fine.
On Day 4, I noticed some carpal-tunnel pain in the left wrist and arm. There’s so much hand dexterity required to do all my tasks, and using rubber bands to make fat mail bundles (then undo them at the mail stops) was clearly stressing my arms. Can my body handle working this job 6 days a week this month? I wondered.
The first week to deliver on my own ended on a high note. A fellow mail carrier marveled at the fact that I came to start this job in the middle of the peak season & “kicking ass.” Aw.
On the 2nd Monday in December, my route partner and I delivered approximately 470 packages/parcels, which was a record, according to my partner who had been doing this for over 11 years.
TEARS (of frustration & joy)
Following day (2nd Tuesday of Dec.), I was about to finish before 2pm due to lighter volume. But I missed scanning one package, and another one needed a manual entry of the long package ID at the recipient’s house because the label was damaged and un-scannable. These required an extra trip to resolve and added another hour before I could go home. Reality of a mail carrying job was setting in.
A week before Christmas, my route partner had an early AM appointment. Still, the volume was muted & the day wasn’t particularly long (I finished around 2:30pm). After I got home, I was alerted that I had forgotten to lock two mailbox units at one of my stops…! The worst feeling ever. The most stupid mistake. I printed out the “checklist” that I had on my phone and put it where I could see easily in my car (I made this checklist during my training weeks and saved it on my phone, but I admit, I wasn’t routinely referencing it the last several work days.)
I woke up and got to work with an anxious, heavy heart the following day. My route partner and I were to discuss what happened on the previous day with the postmaster.
The 15-minute-or-so discussion was the best outcome I could think of. That was a discussion led by a very caring and professional supervisor. They even let me talk about why I thought happened and what support and help I needed to prevent any more mistakes like that from happening. They clearly saw that it was worth having this conversation because they saw me as a hard and honest worker who could be even greater once kinks are ironed out. They emphasized that I was still new. It was all coming from the place of love.
I finished my route shortly after 3 that day, with all packages accounted for. The postmaster’s text came in while I was on my way home. I let the car app read it out loud for me:
“Hang in there, you are doing good but I am confident you are going to do amazingly great soon.”
I cried.
<The days before Christmas>
The apex of the holiday peak season was Monday before Christmas. That’s the day we got the all-time record number of packages (over 600 pieces just on our route). It was a 10+ hour day for me and many other carriers. It was a challenge to try slowing down to avoid mis-delivery when bombarded with this much volume, but we got through it.
The package volume plummeted way more than expected on Tuesday before Christmas, which was puzzling. So we all said to each other, “let’s take our time and make sure there are no mistakes.” In the parking lot I started loading up my car as usual. Then I heard a loud BANG! A customer’s car that was in the other end of the post office parking lot slammed into the building, puncturing a hole in the wall and breaking the glass window…! It was a freak accident — a potential gas-pedal malfunction or an operator error. I am genuinely thankful that no one got hurt.
On Christmas Eve, everyone at the post office got a new (unofficial) and location-specific USPS long-sleeve T-shirt. We all put on the shirts and did a group picture. I felt a sense of pride, as if I were a part of a sports team. (At our PO, there’s a peculiar daily ritual: when one of the post office clerks finish scanning the last accepted package for the day, all the mail carriers respond with a cheerful whoop and holler. I enjoy the camaraderie.)
<Surviving the holidays>
Come to think of it, I’ve never had a job where EVERYONE in the area is my customer before. I can feel that I’m part of very unique fixture when people driving by honk at me (usually two honks - I’d imagine these are friendly, “thank you” honks).
This job is reminding me that many jobs that seem somewhat simple to outsiders involve complex tasks. When other workers make mistakes, it’s easy for the uninitiated to say “You only had one job” and get frustrated or laugh at them. I’m sure many of you have gotten a letter or a package that was delivered to you by mistake, and that could be because of street names being similar, house numbers are the same or close to each other, or the handwriting was hard to read. There could be many factors behind delivery mistakes. The carrier may be trying to focus on the job, but various weather elements may be making it difficult.
I now realize *I* need to be patient and give other service workers grace when something goes wrong.
They are simply humans doing the best they can.
While I understand why people are more under stress and snap when packages don’t arrive in time for Christmas, I feel that it’s unfortunate this one artificial deadline that is Christmas makes it hard for many people to relax. To be honest, I felt irritated that people were buying so much STUFF online this holiday season.
The mail and package volume plummeted starting on December 26, letting me know the Christmas rush was now behind us. The same delivery route feels VERY different now — overall much quieter and more chill, which helped me better focus on the task at hand. More than a few coworkers congratulated me on surviving the peak season this week, and I’m thankful for these comrades that I shared the tough weeks with and my route partner who trained me well ever so patiently. I’m looking forward to a lighter, four-days-a-week schedule starting in January.
Lastly, I do have an important PSA:
If a mail carrier is at your stop, actively delivering mail with the mailbox units unlocked, PLEASE, I mean please, do NOT consider this as an open invitation to “just grab mail” from your mail slot without having to use your key. We’re not suspecting that you are trying to steal someone’s mail; we just have to keep everyone’s mail secure! It puts us carriers in an awkward position to have to stop what they are doing, go over and ask politely to wait or ask if they have the mailbox key. (You’ll be surprised to hear how often this happens to me/us. At least for me, this is one of the most stressful situations I encounter on the job.)
Thank you for your attention on this matter.
In closing, I’m just gonna leave these postal “funnies.” Happy New Year everyone!
P.S. I am a crazy Death Cab for Cutie (& The Postal Service) lady. I often find inspirations for my writing in their songs and pull my blog post titles from their lyrics whenever I can! This post’s title is pulled from Sleeping In.
This is so cool!
During the pandemic, a bartender friend of mine took a full-time gig with USPS. I walked his route with him once. There are a few jobs I always thought I'd like - top of the list, airline pilot and mail carrier.