Pros
Co-workers. They are always willing to help you no matter what. Freedom Benefits are top notch if you can even get them. pay is okay $15+ starting
Cons
A typical day at work consists of management telling you what time you come in the following day. This is of course if you are barely getting your foot in the door. You get hired as a CCA, you basically help deliver the mail. You go to orientation, you learn nothing. You then go to "academy" which you learn meanings and how to sort mail, but that is not enough time (2 days). You then go to get trained (2days) of driver training. The day you go to your station you get placed with another carrier to learn the basics. The following day you carry some of that route, then the third day you are on your own. Management is horrendous they only care about numbers and focused on not having upper management bark at them. Some times are not doable. You are told to return to the station at 6 no later. why? because they refuse to pay the overtime. from 9am-6pm. Your lunches are 30 minutes which is automatically deducted off your time so you might as well be doing good on your route and take your lunch if not then you will have to snack during delivering on your route. Weather makes this job terrible. practically all of the mail gets wet and fingering the mail gets terrible in the rain. If you slip and fall and sprain your ankle? Management will not care. Majority of management has never carried mail. The mail will get delivered no matter what. There is no excuse if you have sick folks, or a family emergency they will not give you the day off to attend a funeral. You can defecate on your pants they still would want you to deliver this mail without you getting a chance to clean yourself up and go back to do so. Co workers make the place much better you only see them for an hour or two a day though. Everyone at a station will be glad to help you out or give you their cell # because management will not send you help if you are behind on your time. Co-workers will give you extra pair of pants or shirt or hat if they have a spare because going to the Union Hall is only Monday - Friday 8am-5pm. You will not have any time to make it there to get donated clothes. You are set to work 360 days after that you are given 5 days of "vacation" and then you start to work again. You are on 90 day probation, or 120 days. Once you worked those days you get a debit card with $400 to use for uniform and gear. You will walk 12 miles a day. You will encounter anything, dogs, bees, snakes in mailboxes. No matter how fast you work if you finish early there is no going home early you get a help slip of 1hr 30mins to keep going until 6pm. So if your route is 6hrs long or 7 1/2 hrs long and you finish early they will add additional hour or 30mins to that route and you end up screwing yourself over. Deliver are your own pace. It doesn't matter how hard of a worker you are or how fast because everything seniority so unless someone from that station is retiring and you are up next to bid on his route then you will finally FINALLY land permanent and get benefits. If you are lucky that can be within your 90 days otherwise it can take 1 or 3 years to even get benefits. If you do not deliver an Express mail that you are having to deliver that day by noon then that $20 that customer paid will be refunded back to them by you from your pocket. Hardest part of the job honestly was walking 12 miles daily, but it gets easier as your body gets used to it. DOGS!!! I cannot stress this enough DOGS! Delivering in RAIN and HOT HUMID WEATHER.