Michael Sorenson is the Postmater of Alvarado, MN.He donned his old carrier uniform just to pose with his grandson, Cooper, who is all of two years old.
This is a great photo, but leads to a question. Would you recommend the Postal Service as a career to your children and grandchildren? Why or why not? Drop a comment here.
17 comments:
absolutely. talk about job security, couldn't be better, there's always work to do. decent benefits too.
Yes, I did recommend it to my son but he didn't want to do it.
Overall, the Postal Service has been good to me. In my orientation they talked about pride and history. I've carried those with me for over 40 years. I'm still proud to be a Postal Service employee.
Also, the pay is fair for the work, knowledge, and ethics required. The health benefits have gradually declined over the years but they are still pretty good. As a single parent, job stability and a good retirement plan sealed the deal for me.
I wouldn't recommend it until the hiring freeze is over. PMR's are working full-time for little pay and no benefits. I would want better for my children.
DUO has begun in my area. I love my work starting at PMR up through TE Clerk, PTF Clerk, PTF carrier, 204 B, delivery unit supervisor and working my way up to PM. I can't imagine ever doing anything else but no, at this time I would't recommend it to my children. I think that eventually the Postal Service, if it survives, will be manned by part time employees, working 50+ hours a week with no benefits. We're already seeing a decline in customer service because carriers are in a different town or route every day and don't know their customer base, PMR's with inadequate training are being used as OIC's and Postmasters are being given so many additional tasks and have had their clerk positions stripped. We're paying out a fortune in FDOT because there aren't enough carriers and PM's are going in early, working their lunch hour, staying late and working with no pay on Saturdays because there aren't enough clerks to go around. The proposition was made to our POOM to hire one TE to cover the carrier's day off for 5 offices in our area that are all down at least one carrier on compliment (each carrier could be assigned a different color day rather than all having Saturday off) and it was turned down even though the largest delivery unit in our area was allowed to hire 2 new TE's because they are bleeding overtime due to poor management. People are getting frustrated, carriers are getting hurt from being too tired and PM's are feeling a great deal of sadness at seeing their employees being overworked and having to gather information that will be used to possibly put their office on the chopping block.
Due to DUO and the negative news spread by the media the employees in my area are not the proud employees they once were. USPS is in a downward spiral to becoming "just another delivery service". We're on the brink of cutting services, raising prices and offering less. In spite of the internal messaging and expectations of high performance, these moves to make us a "leaner and meaner" organization is giving us a weakness. And if the competition's marketing department is paying attention (and I'm sure they are) they'll be all over this (e.g., no more "free" Saturday deliveries) and will pick up where we left off. We need to think unlike everyone else, because we ARE unlike everyone else. And that is the one thing that our leaders are forgetting. I used to be proud to raise that flag up every day in front of my office. Not so much any more.
At one time yes I would have been more that happy to recommend a USPS job for family, friends and anyone else who asked me. Now I'd have to say no. I am a PMR working as an OIC getting little pay and no benefits. Just throw us a bone and at least give us holiday pay. We get nothing in return and yet are expected to maintain an office and uphold the postal code. It's a shame that people working at Wal-Mart get better treatment.
As proud as I am to be a career postal employee and as thankful as I am for what it has meant to my family, I would not recommend a postal career to my children at this time. The Postal Service is too unstable right now with DUO, the hiring freeze, and possible post office closings; it worries me as far as MY career is concerned, let alone encouraging someone else to get into the "business"! I often question some of the decisions HQ makes...I think they need to observe what actually goes on out here in the "unprofitable" offices!!
NOPE !!! Sad to say I wouldn't recommend the Postal Service to anyone. It "used to be" a great place to work but not now. I'm afraid that it is in a death spiral which it will not pull out of. I don't think the future will be good for us. Our pay has not kept up with the private sector either.
Why should the Post Office be forced to close any offices, profitable or not, that are in out-laying areas, providing delivery and service to many Americans, when the BUREAUOCRATS sit in their cozy little offices in DC and SPEND, SPEND, SPEND....breaking the ENTIRE CONUNTRY! Perhaps it's THEIR OFFICES that NEED CLOSING!
Five years ago I would have, and did recommend it to my son. If he asked me about it now, I would tell him no. Sad as it may sound, I am hoping and praying that I make it to retirement. My MPOO told a group of PM's that if you have less then 7 years to go until retirement...you MIGHT make it to retirement. If you need more then 7 years...you may not make it. If you are still here 5 years from now...you will more then likely not be doing business they way you are now. With the USPS working so hard to drive the business out of our offices and into the "local grocery stores" (AS the PMG stated) I don't feel that same since of pride I had when I started 13 years ago. He is focusing on closing the small rural offices, which make up less then 1% of the USPS national budget, instead of cutting non-productive programs. If someone would just do some hard CBA's on some of these programs....you would see all the waste in the system. Stop the mystery shopper program, the zero bundle drop contracts, the endless costly audits to find $0.50 errors, the endless number crunching that really means nothings, ect....
Just like grandpa, the child should have an easy life napping on the job!
Absolutely not! DUO has destroyed customer service in my PO and the way it was done (prior to the official program) made it clear my MPOO did not respect me or the job I was doing. Now we read every day about "employee engagement" and I just laugh. A great way to disengage your employees is to let them know how little they mean to the organization. I can barely drag myself in to a job that I used to love and be proud to do. I'm sad all the time and can only hope to make it two more years to retirement. Upper management is cutting the heart out of the Postal Service, without the accompanying financial savings, and I believe it is the end of the USPS.
I come from a multi generational family of postal employess, and I certainly would not recommend the postal service to my daughters. While I feel blessed to have as good of paying job for having no college education, the future for this organization is bleek at best. With 27 years in and at least another 13 left, I can only pray that we will be in some form or another in business. Over the years I have noticed that we are pretty much a service for the poor.
People who don't have checking account and computers to pay bills and send messages to people. For that I think there will always be a Postal Service, just not the same one as when I started working here.
I would not recommend a career with the USPS to my children. We continue to lose money yearly and mail volume keeps dropping. I don't believe that mail volume will miraculously increase and sustain the postal service. I enjoy my job in the postal service that has security, I worry about what will happen when a new contract is finally agreed on between the APWU and the postal service. I am hoping my children can do better somewhere else.
I,like many others, would not encourage my children to seek employment with the Postal Service.
It seems many of the Managers in high places need to buy a vowel becuase they really do not have a clue.
Yet the demise of the Postal Service does not solely lie on their shoulders. Volume is the main contributor and now after eons of having an almost inexhaustable source of income these people are being forced to do their jobs. Some are not really sure what needs to be done...at least that is how it appears.
Have you heard about the level 18 and lower offices going to a "Clerk in Charge" on the processing side? Then it was asked "What about the 5 Supervisors plus the Postmaster for roughly 80 carriers. After all the Carriers are in the building for 3 to 4 hours a day which leaves the 5 Supervisors and a Postmaster a lot of free time. So what are they going to do about them"? I was told....nothing.
They said they were going to eliminate the Plant Manager's job because this is part of cutting costs. So what they did was take the Postmaster's job and raise it 2 levels and then lower the Plant Managers pay 2 levels. I really do not see how that was very effective when it comes to cutting Operational Expenses.
It are the decisions like that by Upper Management that influence me to tell my children not look at the Post Office as a career.
Even though Im thankful for my job and it was a smart move years ago, my kids are too smart for the Post Office. They are getting a good education so they don't wind up working for a business who does not appreciate them.
The USPS as we know it is sinking fast and upper level management is going down with the ship and taking everyone and everything with them...
way to go to the "know it alls"...
Does the PMG read these posts?? Just wondering......might give him some true insight if he did.
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