theholtsite

I went through two weeks of training for the USPS. One week was just training for the company like safety, the other week was RCA training (specific to my job). I also spent a few hours learning to drive the LLV, or mailtrucks, which are right-hand drivers. I started training with a carrier on Tuesday and that’s when I became disillusioned and overwhelmed.

I worked over 9-10 hours (no breaks) both days on one of the biggest routes at the worst time of year. We had two bins full of packages each day. Yesterday Lee (my carrier trainer) took a separate trip just for the packages while I worked for hours “casing” mail. I delivered 1/3 of the route the first day and 1/2 on the second. The latter took me until about 5:00, which was after dark, and Lee had to follow me around because I had no idea where to go. There is still much of the route that I don’t know, and I was told I would be expected to deliver the entire route this Saturday. Both days I came home exhausted. I looked at the guy sweeping the floors with envy – I would much rather have his job.

Today I didn’t go in. So far, I hate this job. Lee is a pretty good trainer – an older Vietnam war veteran with 17 years experience in the USPS and 20 years in the USAF. But he was trying to train me while getting his own route done – nearly impossible in the first place at this time of year. He had just come back from burying his nephew. My boss put pressure on him not to have me work over eight hours so I didn’t get overtime. On top of that he had to try and train me – the office procedures as well as the route itself. The first day took him until 6 or so, and the second until around 5:30 (I came in at 7:00). I don’t know what management was thinking, but maybe it was something like, “Let’s see how fast we can get the new guy to quit.”