Postal Service, part II

One of the pluses of working as a letter carrier, we were told more than once during classroom training, was that one would 'lose weight'. No one in my training seemed to need this rather toss-away information. However, it was not only said by the first trainer, a somewhat sleepy guy in his late 50s who probably wanted to be anywhere else than in that training room with us, but it was also said by some HR bigwig zoomed in from elsewhere in the country. HR guy mentioned how he had been in the best shape of his life when working as a carrier a number of years ago. He then patted his belly while making reference to the fact that his office job did not keep the pounds off. I wondered why middle-aged men kept putting such an emphasis on one's weight and fitness as a selling point of the job. I mean, I guess it is? The real perk would be that working as a postal carrier means you are a federal worker and with that comes decent medical benefits and a 401(k) plan. I was keen on joining the letter carrier union myself.  

Speaking of weight, the first thing the manager at my unit (the USPS uses militaristic language--I find it funny) said when we met was, 'You're pretty skinny. Do you actually think you can do this job?' Never mind that I'd already met a carrier on site who was in her 50s/60s trimmer than I was, so I don't know what his comment was really about. My response was: Well, I have a very physical job right now, but, of course, it's not the same as this job. And I think I'm capable and would certainly like to try. In my head I was thinking, why are you commenting on my body, you fucking twerp? Later that day, the Postmaster told me that she thought I had come from the white collar world and, you know, those people normally quit after three days! I simply repeated a version of what I'd told the manager and she seemed satisfied. Having them both question my abilities did put me off, but I rallied on. You could call it swatting away the red flags. Looking back, I can see why folk would quit after their 3-day training period, and the fact that the job is physical is not top on the list of reasons why.

Right after I was hired and before any training commenced, I spent an 8 hour shift literally following a senior mail carrier around on a fill-in route as the usual carrier was away on vacation. It was an easy route, to be honest. There were no hills, only short blocks and it was very near the ocean (which could be either good or bad, weather dependent). The person I shadowed was also very pleasant and we had great chats during our breaktimes. He told me at one point: You get paid to walk! What's better than that? I can now say that not being yelled at by management is better than that. More on that later...