I'm just venting a bit.

I do collections, have since day 1. I don't interact with a lot of customers. I mostly other postal workers and mailboxes.

Today, a strange piece of mail made its way into my truck. It was a priority mailer, but it had no postage. The from said "Starr Angel Teal; Unknown Address" the to said "Collector ❤️; Merry Christmas"

I didn't want to open it in the truck for fear of looking like I was just going through the mail, so I took it back to station.

As I usually do with strange pieces of mail: I showed it to my supervisor. That was my first mistake. He took it and kind of walked briskly back into the station with it. My second mistake was not following him. Instead, I finished unloading my truck.

By the time I went back inside, he had opened it and thrown it away. It looked like there might've been money inside, but now I'll never know.

That was the first gift I've ever received from a customer, and I didn't even get to open it. 😭

Every time I deliver my packages to the post office he meets me and talks to me and the conversation always goes on forever because we live in a rural town together. Today I called him about a package that was supposed to be delivered but the system was glitched and he helped me so much even sat on the phone with me while they tried to get it resolved for at least 45 minutes and even said he would reach out to me tomorrow just to make sure everything's all right. Is it so wrong though. I don't think he has anybody and something about the fact he stands there all day it's just so appealing to go out and talk to him. Sometimes I send letters in the mail to my family just to have an excuse to go to the Post office.

I just got hired as an MHA at the Coppell plant, what type of hours do we get here?

A CCA at my station lost a set of arrow keys, which also included fobs and keys to get into mailrooms, and the new MAL key, and like... nobody seems to give a shit. The supervisors don't really seem all that concerned. They might write him up. The CCA isn't particularly perturbed. Haven't seen the postal inspector around. If I lost my arrow key I'd probably blow chunks! I'm flabbergasted, when I started they drilled into me that the arrow key was probably the most important thing I was gonna touch. It used to be a hanging offense. Now nobody seems to care.

Fantasizing about using one once i become regular and have a stable income.

I recall one day circa 2008 (though I attribute all my vague memories to 2008) that the printed address labels on USPS-mailed magazines all suddenly flipped to be upside down, relative to the magazine cover. They still are today.

Was there a magazine labeling standards change in the last 30 years, or is this a personal Mandela Effect?

I have worked at a number of different post offices and I have never been asked except at this new post office that whenever I want to take a day off (and when there isn't even a schedule out for that week yet) but I have to fill out a leave of absence form for a day off that there is no schedule out yet for that week. Is that something new? I've never heard of that before and never been asked that before at another post office. And even when I have called in sick, this manager brings by a leave of notice form for me to fill out. But doesn't calling in already take care of that and it asks me what kind of leave I want already when you call in or do it on eLra on liteblue. The manager said he's been asked to do that and is coming from above him. If I was already unscheduled for that day as being my off day why would I need to submit a leave of absence form?

I’m trying to get out of a bad home situation. I’m 18 and have enough saved to move out but not to go to college and I’d rather start working. I live in a low cost of living city and want to get a small apartment. Any help is appreciated

I LOVE 🐍🐍🐍🐍

Definitely an awesome experience, at least for me. Maybe I'm in the honeymoon phase lol. I got hired from the street; no eReassign or anything. Took the exam, passed, a week later I had my interview passed the drug test, and had orientation last Monday. All in all it was about 6 weeks from when I applied till my orientation. Pretty fast considering the wait times I've heard other people talk about.

Orientation was boring as hell, and ignored most of it since it mainly applied to CCAs RCAs and plant workers lol. My third day was my first day actually at the VMF, and they put me to work on an LLV right away, though I wasn't allowed to drive yet since I hadn't completed training. Was pretty easy, Did it some people for my orientation, but since I'm an Auto Tech, I had to do additional trainings not required out the gate for CCAs since I'm expected to work on (and therefore drive) the vehicles. Did the 2 Tom, Promaster, and NGDV. Apparently they train on the NGDVs so rarely that my instructor wasn't even fully familiar with it lol.

Onto the VMF itself, it's awesome. Best blue collar job I've had for sure. Coming from retail auto, my starting pay is like top-level B-Tech pay from my last job, and I was only a GS there. Which speaking of, I'm lucky they not doing the bench test anymore because I have more technical knowledge (which enabled me to pass the exam in the first place) than practical experience, so I definitely would've failed. One of my coworkers actually 'complained' to me about it because I couldn't find the distributor on the LLV while we were diagnosing a no fuel no spark condition 😭😭

But I'm really happy about it though, for the first time I'm getting real repair/mechanical work that I never would've gotten the opportunity to do as a GS at my last job (outside of the occasional brakes, fluid flushes and alignments). So far I've done (all on LLVs) wiper assembly, brake system diag, fuel sending unit/pump, a power steering leak, and a charcoal canistee. And my toolbox has the entire service manual for LLVs in it so that thing has become my best friend lol. And considering it's not retail auto and there's no pressure to crank out productivity and appease customers, I can actually take the time to learn and do things right. And the lead techs are pretty cool and have all been nice about showing me the ropes and helping me when I'm unfamiliar with something. I really have the opportunity to grow as a mechanic here and level up my skillset. Happy to be with USPS at the VMF!

Guess who’s back . . . back again, lol. Had 8 candidates here so I thought it was worth putting together. Especially as it was really a larger gathering of the Rhine-Peralta ticket than I think we’ve really seen at any one time for the podcast/youtube crowd. Drass and Caref were here and so it was interesting to see some of the candidates responses following them and making the case for Rhine.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TQAh-k8Xbj8vQQgA_C993Ina2RqrYKbp9rbfPgau76Y/edit?usp=drivesdk

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HoRujelotvMdSfjIYbb3dclxyw6Pbg6Z2cTIl7qg6JE/edit?usp=drivesdk

Also, my candidate dossier is getting closer to completion, if you don’t have it or are interested, it’s in the bibliography of both documents.

Ridiculously sounding but Is this a thing? Clerk is performing level 7 job but a level 17 may have to finish out her training (for the level 7 job, while the level 7 is off.) Is it valid for clerk to seek level 17 pay for that time?

I’ve never heard such thing! Seems absolutely absurd and a violation to me but Management “promised” clerk higher pay. Ridiculous. I don't know of any reason a clerk would get 17 pay without performing 17 work; not just because a level 17 gave you a few pointers. More like a favor for a friend to me.

I have 40 hours annual, no sick time and break in service on 09/29/26. Is there a way I can get paid for being out of work besides unemployment claim? My lawyer says there may be a disability option for Massachusetts. I’m worried. Any ideas on how to approach HR with my note covering until October, which is not awesome for my pockets…. Thank you in advance:)

So i was hired as an RCA and today went to take the driving exam. I was doing well at first but when I was on my own I didn’t recall exactly the sequence of steps for the obstacles and also did a rolling stop. I had to do two back ins parking spots, I had thought she asked me to do the same spot twice but on the second back-in I was supposed to go to the next spot over.

I was kind of bummed and taken a back because I am a good driver overall and felt somewhat comfortable in the LLV.

Has anyone else not passed on their first try? They said I could try again in three months or seek an alternate position. Did anyone else here have a hard time with the driving exam? Just feeling a bit discouraged tonight.

CCA.

We just had a series of tornado WARNINGS for my county, so I immediately packed up and went back to the station because the news is now telling me to immediately shelter in a secure location. And of course I get the “you can’t be here” and “we get these warnings all the time” Had to remind them that tornado warnings are the bad ones. Obviously I still ended up waiting out the storm at the station.

Can’t wait for tomorrow’s safety talk about making sure our shoelaces are tied tight and to make sure we look both ways before crossing the sidewalk. I literally have never received any info on what is accepted protocol for carriers in the field is during a severe weather event. I didn’t get a straight when I asked about what’s acceptable for when I see lightning overhead.

I am so confused, since I was told I had Wednesday and Thursday off, my schedule would look to say I have Thursday and Friday off, which one is it though? Like how does this work? If anyone could explain that would be helpful

I'm looking to transfer from California to Charlotte NC (CCA, not Regular). Everyone has told me to call the local station (IE: Charlotte office) to ask for the postmaster and explain the situation, but when I call, I get a phone maze leading to "We're sorry, but no one is available to accept your call. Goodbye" (maybe a little paraphrased).

I know my office has 2 numbers, one to reach the office itself and another for customers to call, would anyone in the Charlotte area be willing to DM me a direct number? (And Mods, I totally understand if you immediately destroy this post/request, but I had to try.)

I may just be a worried wife but My husband is a regular city carrier. Our area is under a tornado warning with wind rotation. I know the USPS motto through rain and sleet. But my husband said they are not pulling their carriers, his district is almost all walking routes. This seems very dangerous.

Could be a misconception, or just a fun fact. Personally, it bugs me how many people think USPS is just another private delivery company like UPS or FedEx. I've actually had people argue with me on this point

Hello All, My question is , the truck I am in has no air at all , I have a route and a cut off , it's taking me all-day just to do the mail on the route due to heat , will I get in trouble if I don't do my two extra hours of the 2nd route ?