Letter Carrier or R.N?

Paramedicated · Aug 6, 2004

I am going to change my signiture so folks will understand were I come from a little better.

I am a grumpy old hardass who sees everything in black and white. Sometimes i forget what it was to be young and still curious about the world.

I appologize if I am a bit to ...Harsh.

1BlessedRN · Aug 6, 2004

Hi all, Today I just received a letter from the U.S Postal Service to go for an interview next week. Currently I'am a pre-nursing student and had plans to make it into the L.P.N program and work and the in the future go back for my R.N. I really want to become a nurse but the I really need to make money for my family because my husband is the only one making an income for us. I feel like this is a one in a lifetime opportunity for me and dont want to regreted later if i decide not to take this job. I just wanted to know what you guys think I should do any advice would surely be appreciated. I'm sooo undecided :uhoh21:

FutureRN2006

Hello I worked with the US Postal Service as a part-time Rural Route Carrier for a year at $11.70 (which was good money for me before nursing) I only worked on Sat. as a sub for the guy who had a permanent position and he would take days off just to give me some hours. Most post office jobs you start you out part-time as a sub until someone retires, but there are several others also there before you waiting on permanent positions they go by seniority, most good post office are full and limited. Part-time you recieve no benefits, insurance, etc. I had to pick up several lbs. of parcels, boxes, and sort 100's of mail and put them in my vehicle and deliver them in a timely frame, come rain, sleet, or snow, they want that mailed delivered, my advice if your are hired in full-time as a clerk (inside job) or a city carrier (smaller route) top pay less stress take the job! otherwise stick with nursing it has stability and many areas of interest. Your log-in name speaks for itself, I hope this helps you:)

Ross1 · Aug 6, 2004

I think this is a very legitimate and appropriate question. I am entering nursing school at the age of 37 and have often asked myself the same question. I've aleady had a super high stress career as a medical social worker for 12.5 years and I'm now entering another high stress career. Sometimes a stable government job with great benefits, especially retirement benefits looks so appealing. But, currently I live in Upstate NY where the winters are brutal.....I'm talking weeks on end where the temperature can range from -18 to 0 F. That's cold! Wouldn't want to be delivering mail at that time!

azgirl · Aug 6, 2004

I got a job at the post office as a TE (transitional employee). That meant we were temps with no chance at all of getting employed. We worked all holidays and only as needed. One day I would be forced to stay 12 hours and two days later sent home after 45 mins. They were supposed to pay a minimum of two hours pay if we worked a short amount but they made everyone sign a paper waiving the two horus pay. If you didn't sign the paper you could guarantee being sent home early every day and being on the layoff list a couple of weeks later. We worked Christmas day for straight time while the "real" employees got the day off or triple pay.

This was at a remote encoding station but gave a real taste of how employees were treated at the post office.

The only things TE's got were 1 hour of vacation for every 20 hours worked and laid off once a year. You didn't know when but laid off for a week so they would not every have to pay you benefits. Some people were called back after the week and some not for months.

All in all though I had many great acquaintances from that job. More so than in my caregiving jobs.

cannoli · Aug 6, 2004

If you have to ask yourself if you should be nurse or a letter carrier, especialy if it is a money thing, GO please and Bring the mail.
Medicine is not something we do because it pays good. We do this Job because sick an injured people need us.
We may question "why" we put up with the trials and tribulations of our field. But we never lose site of the ultimate reason why we are here...it has nothing to do with cash.

The reason that I work in nursing (not medicine, I am not a doctor) is for the money, not that it pays that well but it provides an income. I don't work because sick and injured people "need" me.

That's not to say that I don't care about the patients, I do and I give the best care possible and meet their needs while I'm there but I work for the "cash".

memphispanda, RN · Aug 7, 2004

I have done both.

I was a "PTF" (part-time flexible) carrier in a very small town. It lasted 3 months. I absolutely hated it. That's been about 8 years ago. I did get benefits, and the pay was pretty good, but that didn't make up for all the crap that went along with the job. The hours were horrendous. I was supposedly part-time, but I was working a minimum of 60 hours/week. I had to be at work at 4:00am. My boss was a jerk. This is the only job I have had where I didn't work out my full two weeks notice.

Anyway, sure, give the letter carrier a try. You can always quit if you hate it and then go to school.

meownsmile, BSN, RN · Aug 7, 2004

OK,, im gonna give it to you from both sides. Myself a RN, my DH a mail carrier.

The debates go on at my house as to who walks the farthest, who has the more stressful conditions to work under, etc.. so....

I have been a RN for just under 3 years,, he has been at the P.O. for 15. He makes slightly more than i do, with step increases and union bargained COLA raises depending on how much is coming out of his check for health insurance(they have 4 or so options,and carriers pay their fair share of premiums), credit union etc. He has a union, I dont but thats not really hear nor there unless your hospital is a poor facility to work for. The P.O need the union to control some of the supervisors etc from totally taking advantage of the guys on the street. He deals with weather, dogs and domestic situations at times just because hes in the wrong place at the wrong time, but swears dealing with the non-union supervisors is worse. I deal with bad bugs(germs), sick patients, demanding doctors, and the occasional old lady who thinks we are nurse maids instead of nurses. We both deal with people daily, he loves his job and knows everyone on his route and knows who is supposed to be where and who isnt, he gets to be outside daily,, which is good unless its 30 below and a foot of snow on the ground, or 110 degrees. I on the other hand dont see much of the outside unless i take my break and leave the building. But i get AC in the summer and heat in the winter.

Being a mail carrier wont do that much for your waistline, but then nursing doesnt either. We have security to call when we have a unrulely patient or family member, the mail carriers have mace and the first telephone they can get their hands on.

OH and as far as the retirement,, the P.O is no longer a civil service job so todays carriers are not as lucky as their predicessors of 20 years ago. They are basically a government entity without the government benys. They have their retirement fund they pay into, draw SSI just like we will. It's a toss up, you have to make up your mind to your working conditions.

I went into nursing later in life, and have no regrets. I love my job too, it just cost me more to be an RN than it did for him to be a mail carrier.

Oh and i can relate to Memphispanda, DH was a PTF for about 3 years and altough we are considered fairly rural, he was sent to cover in several different towns big and small,a week here a month there, and was put on the street in some real nasty areas of some larger towns. But if you can hold out and grab the FT when it comes available it gets better.

Im editing again here,, after reading a little farther it looks like you need to ask some serious questions if you interview with the PO. Some of the people speaking of great retirement i think may be seeing people who worked there when it was civil service, they did have great retirements/benys. Its not that way anymore, that stopped in or around 1983. Ask some serious questions and talk to your own carrier about their benefits. Sorry for the length.

warrior woman · Aug 7, 2004

Letter carrier position probably has better and more secure benefits. Work the job that best fits your situation; emotionally, and financially. There will always be crap to deal with in any job, either in or out of nursing. The challenge is in how to deal with those issues when they come up. Good luck to you in whatever you decide.

mandykal, ADN, RN · Aug 7, 2004

FutureNurse2006 · Aug 13, 2004

I went for the interview and unfortunately wasn't considered for the carrier postion according to the interviewer. I think the interview didn't go well and this man was making past judgments on me and he would tell me that I dont look like the type that can handle this type of position and that maybe I would not be able to deal with the stress and quit and it would be in injustice for him and myself :confused: . I don't know why he would say those things to me when he doesn't know what I'am capable of doing. I felt like this man was being quite unfair with me for no reason. I spoke to my husband about it and he said he shouldnt be making comments like that so I called the person who is the head of human resources and explained what happened and said she will look at the situation over and will give me a call tommorrow. Well maybe it wasn't just meant for me to be a letter carrier for now and I will continue with my nursing plans and wait until school starts in 3 weeks... Bye all...... :uhoh21: :nurse:

meownsmile, BSN, RN · Aug 13, 2004

Sounds like a very discriminatory interview to me. You very well may have some recourse, they dont like that kind of thing in the P.O. You did the right thing by calling human resources and may very well get another interview someplace else because of it.

1BlessedRN · Aug 13, 2004

I went for the interview and unfortunately wasn't considered for the carrier postion according to the interviewer. I think the interview didn't go well and this man was making past judgments on me and he would tell me that I dont look like the type that can handle this type of position and that maybe I would not be able to deal with the stress and quit and it would be in injustice for him and myself . I don't know why he would say those things to me when he doesn't know what I'am capable of doing. I felt like this man was being quite unfair with me for no reason. I spoke to my husband about it and he said he shouldnt be making comments like that so I called the person who is the head of human resources and explained what happened and said she will look at the situation over and will give me a call tommorrow. Well maybe it wasn't just meant for me to be a letter carrier for now and I will continue with my nursing plans and wait until school starts in 3 weeks... Bye all...... :uhoh21:

I'm sorry this happen to you, and you are doing the right thing as in talking to the Human Resource Office, was the interviewer the Postmaster? If you are still in doubt read these posts #14, 18, 19 we all have worked in the Postal Service, not to say Nursing is all glorious..it has it's stress days, however in the end it's all worth it and very rewarding.

Welcome Aboard!!!:)