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FRIENDS, if you want to mail packages in time for christmas, the next couple days are your last chance. Here's some friendly tips:
The processing plants are WAY backed up. If you mailed something at the beginning of the month and it hasn't arrived, don't wait in line for an hour to ask us about it. 99% chance it's waiting in line for processing at the plant. Philadelphia and Kansas City are particularly bad.
Also Nashua and New York. (these are just the ones I'm personally seeing bad backups at! Likely others too).
If you NEED it to get there by a certain date, you're going to have to express it. It'll likely be pricey, but you get to skip the line and get your money back if it doesn't make it (don't wait until next week to express things because no moneyback guarantees that week!)
PLEASE have everything packed up before you get to the post office, and PLEASE write the destination name and address and your return address before you get there. Destination in the middle, return in the upper left. Same for letters! Don't put return address on the back!!
We're running out of stamp choices for the holiday stamps. The early birds already got all the worms. We don't have more in the back. Even if we DO, we don't have time to go back and get it sent up just for you.
Local priority mail (within the area served by your local plant, so typically the metro area you're closest to) is still making it in a couple of days at the moment. This could slow down over the next few days!
Anything further than truck range (~10 hour drive dist) is going to have to wait for a plane and that'll slow it down. Remember how the airlines are all down 70% of their business? Yeah, those are the planes your packages fly on. No planes = SLOW MAIL.
One of the reasons we're so cheap compared to private carriers is that we use passenger planes. This also means that international mail likely won't get there for Christmas. Today South Korea was giving a 22nd guarantee for express mail. Nowhere else I saw was.
The lines are going to be long. We're seeing unprecedented volume. Please be patient. Please be prepared. Please don't come right before we close, because after the doors shut we still have to sort everything and load it on trucks.
Please don't make passport application appointments right now, or mail out those online purchase returns you've had in your car since October. They'll still be in your car in January.
All of this very disorganized thread to say PLEASE don't make our jobs harder this season. We're doing our best to get your mail where it needs to go, with limited staff, limited infrastructure, and an exhausted workforce (we're three days into the week and I've put in 32 hours)
Be prepared with your boxes addressed and taped, be ready to spend money or compromise on xmas delivery, and be patient. And WEAR A MASK, keep your distance, and DON'T LICK YOUR FINGERS TO COUNT YOUR MONEY
OH a couple more: Don't use a box bigger than 17x17x17! It will be a huge pain in the ass for us, and will probably burst open on the way. 12x12x12 is the largest box I want to deal with! And tape it MORE THAN YOU THINK YOU NEED TO. Ideally like this for big boxes:
If it's fragile, remember that egg parachute thing from science class? wrap that shit up. Give its padding padding. You don't want ANY movement in the box. Because I can read a fragile sticker! The conveyer belt that sorts it and drops it? Can't.
Pack your box so it can survive a two foot drop. Because no matter how much you write on it, that's gonna happen. Might be on the belt, might be on a plane, might just be shifting the back of the truck. THIS SIDE UP markings are useless for the same reason. The belt can't read.
If you made it this far in this thread, your reward is this picture I took of our break room fridge today
(also we love snacks. you can't tip your window clerks in money [carriers are a different story {i mean, LEGALLY you can't tip them money either but everyone does}] but if you bring us gift cards to dunkin or a local pizza place or a box of cookies or fruit we'll love you always)
(or support this postal worker at https://ko-fi.com/ghostalservice or by buying my books at https://www.amazon.com/Valentine-Wheeler/e/B0762DWJ54/)
And be nice but efficient - it’s nice to hear you love the post office and support us but we’re very busy. Support our work by respecting our time. Here are the packages I processed over the window in two hours yesterday:
and here's some shots of the machines that do the parcels - note the giant container being tipped over and the very large box full of parcels. Also the guy with the stick. BUBBLEWRAP YOUR STUFF INSIDE THE BOX.
If you want a good nerdy official overview of all these machines i recommend this video:
Because someone asked: the reason you don't write your return address on the back is that when you do that, our fancy machine that figures out where the front is gets confused and sometimes picks the wrong side. Then you get it back!
(or the clerk or carrier notices before it's delivered and has to spend a minute crossing out the wrong barcodes and your return address)
Also check out the USPS store for some truly wonderful and bizarre things to buy after the christmas season is over:
https://store.usps.com/store/results/gifts/_/N-nnxamr#content
https://store.usps.com/store/results/gifts/_/N-nnxamr#content
OH one more. There's a 1-800 number that's recommended when you look your post office up. Don't call it right away - you'll be stuck on hold for a long time. Try your local PO instead first: https://tools.usps.com/find-location.htm If they don't pick up after a few tries (VERY BUSY) try the 1800.
And if you're looking for work, we're hiring - there's been a HUGE number of retirements this year. https://about.usps.com/careers/welcome.htm
If you're willing to work hard for a lot of hours - and weird hours - and want to make pretty good money and get muscles you never knew were possible, give it a try. Like the outside and having time to yourself, and don't want to work super early hours? Apply for carrier.
Willing to work any time of the day or night, but don't like rain, snow, dark of night etc? Come be a clerk. Either way, your first 6 months to three years are going to be really hard and you'll work wild hours every day of the week, but you'll be keeping the country moving!!
Don't like talking to customers? Try maintenance! That's where the custodians and mechanics are. The pay starts a little lower, but gets higher than the other crafts if you want to be a mechanic!!
All are good union jobs, and all have their pros and cons, but I've been here seven years and I honestly love my job most of the time. I've done a lot of different jobs (food service, office work, nonprofit, construction, etc) and this has been my favorite.
I FORGOT TRUCK DRIVERS. They're badass and have very large trucks. If you like driving and alone time and being the BIGGEST VEHICLE ON THE ROAD, that's where you fit :)
Update: the plants are so full that they’re playing musical chairs with the tractor trailers - our usual trucks all got sent away from their usual plant to another one 40 miles away. So if your packages get weird scans at weird small cities, don’t be alarmed!!
Also if they’re sitting saying “in transit” for days, they are waiting in line to be unloaded. The plants are literally filled completely (and that’s slowing down processing even more). There is a 53’ trailer at every bay of our plant waiting for unloading. AT EVERY SINGLE DOOR.
