hey veterans, is it worth it staying at UPS?

unhappyday

New Member
I have only been working at UPS for about a month now and there is nothing wrong with moving boxes, it's actually fun.

After 1 year, we get dental and health benefits. I am 20 years old. Is it really worth it to stay?

With UPS's super rigid schedule, I feel like I lost my freedom having to wake up at 3am just to get to work and working 5 days a week.

It sucks because I have a youth group going to Madrid for 2 weeks in the summer and I can't go because of this job. If I stay here long term, I will be expecting only 2 weeks of vacation a year. Holy crap, that is hard to imagine... Do you guys think it's really worth it or not?
 

just chillin'

Rest in peace wooba
I have only been working at UPS for about a month now and there is nothing wrong with moving boxes, it's actually fun.

oh man! tell me that in 5 years 10 years 20 years. lol. honestly though, the direction the company is headed with "logistics" and advancements in technology i dont think there is going to be many opportunities for a fulltime career anywhere in package operations. on the other hand, for a partime job while your in college you cant get much better medical coverage and some decent tuition reimbursement. of course i dont know about anywhere else in the country but here you'd be waking up at 3 AM for the next 10 years waiting for a fulltime job.
 
U

uber

Guest
oh man! tell me that in 5 years 10 years 20 years. lol. honestly though, the direction the company is headed with "logistics" and advancements in technology i dont think there is going to be many opportunities for a fulltime career anywhere in package operations. on the other hand, for a partime job while your in college you cant get much better medical coverage and some decent tuition reimbursement. of course i dont know about anywhere else in the country but here you'd be waking up at 3 AM for the next 10 years waiting for a fulltime job.

Can you explain yourself a little further?
 

Moneythehardway

Well-Known Member
So when you initially applied, UPS didn't brief you on the shift & times that you would be required to work?

If so, at that point you should've made your decision.
 

UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)

Well-Known Member
Have you asked your supervisor about the trip? You may be surprised by his answer.

I would think the ideal part would be getting out of work and then having the rest of the day to do whatever you want. I know by the time I get home all I want to do is fall asleep in my recliner.
 

kmjs14

Well-Known Member
Have you asked your supervisor about the trip? You may be surprised by his answer.

I would think the ideal part would be getting out of work and then having the rest of the day to do whatever you want. I know by the time I get home all I want to do is fall asleep in my recliner.

You should ask about 2 weeks unpaid. Don't pass up an opportunity like that IF YOU CAN GET OFF of course.
 

CustomerConcern

Well-Known Member
at only 20 you have plenty of time to start a career anywhere, but dude getting into this company is hard enough. If you aint lovin it then move on while you still can. But I think you should look at the big picture as far as our benefits and retirement is among the best out there. PT sucks no doubt, but you will eventually move up an you should keep looking for other shifts or inside jobs that might suit you better.
 

dannyboy

From the promised LAND
On the surface, the answer is yes. The money you make over your career will total 3 million dollars or more if wages at least stay the same. Not to shabby for a "uneducated" job. The insurance is pretty good, and the retirement proposals are not bad either, if the unions can quit frittering away the moneys.

On the down side, and you touched on it with the trip, you will have to make a lot of sacrifices in your job choice. You will miss a lot of your family's growing up. Yes, you will have upwards of 6 weeks off when you are at UPS long enough, but working 10+++ hour days while starting after 9AM really sucks. I always understood that getting home way after dark was the norm during Christmas and winter time, but during the summer as well? WHY?

There will be ball games, recitals, plays, funerals, weddings and the list goes on and on. These you will have to miss. Not all, but many of the ones you really want to go to, will be impossible as "we are too short to let you off."

So as in many things in life, this is no different. Its about trade offs. A really good wage, but very little personal time.

Its a very personal decision, no one else can make it for you. Problem is though, situations can change. When you are single or just married to someone that also works long hours, its not too bad, But once kids come along, or health problems, it changes.

Good luck in your career path.

d
 

rod

Retired 22 years
If you can develop a thick skin, maintain a sense of humor, be willing to stand up for what you believe is right and find a VERY understanding spouse I would say go for the long haul.
 

Old International

Now driving a Sterling
Grow up and join the real world. This is a job, that if you even do halfway right, will be here for the rest of your life. You have done the hard part, you are on the inside looking out. Now suck it up, and stay for a while. Their will be other trips to help spread the word.
 

ORLY!?!

Master Loader
I have only been working at UPS for about a month now and there is nothing wrong with moving boxes, it's actually fun.

After 1 year, we get dental and health benefits. I am 20 years old. Is it really worth it to stay?

With UPS's super rigid schedule, I feel like I lost my freedom having to wake up at 3am just to get to work and working 5 days a week.

It sucks because I have a youth group going to Madrid for 2 weeks in the summer and I can't go because of this job. If I stay here long term, I will be expecting only 2 weeks of vacation a year. Holy crap, that is hard to imagine... Do you guys think it's really worth it or not?

Working 5 days and having 2 days off is what makes this job worth it for me.

In time you will get a week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, 4 weeks and on to 6 weeks off. But that will take time. You will also get optional days, and an optional week. As you get rasies and peak comes around, overtime will be huge. A friend of mine made something like 500$ just for under 30 hours of work.

If you want to go to Madrid for 2 weeks, talk to HR about having those 2 weeks off for it. But also talk to your full time soup and a manager about it too. HR seems to forget about those things quickly. I asked for a week off my first year to go on a cruise because my brother was getting married on the ship. I told HR about it my first week. Serveral months later I brought it up to my full time soup about it, and HR had ever told them about it. It was two weeks in advance, just to be safe on that subject. Next week, bring it up to your soup about it, dont forget or dely about it. They are pretty good on setting you up for those things.

Yeah, just wait till you start seeing the bull start flying. Here at UPS, soups and managers are so busy screwing each other over it trickles done on to all of us workers. Over all making our jobs harder to complete. That alone, for me, is my main beef with UPS. Paying people to make our jobs harder, yea that makes sence!
 

ORLY!?!

Master Loader
On the surface, the answer is yes. The money you make over your career will total 3 million dollars or more if wages at least stay the same. Not to shabby for a "uneducated" job. The insurance is pretty good, and the retirement proposals are not bad either, if the unions can quit frittering away the moneys.

On the down side, and you touched on it with the trip, you will have to make a lot of sacrifices in your job choice. You will miss a lot of your family's growing up. Yes, you will have upwards of 6 weeks off when you are at UPS long enough, but working 10+++ hour days while starting after 9AM really sucks. I always understood that getting home way after dark was the norm during Christmas and winter time, but during the summer as well? WHY?

There will be ball games, recitals, plays, funerals, weddings and the list goes on and on. These you will have to miss. Not all, but many of the ones you really want to go to, will be impossible as "we are too short to let you off."

So as in many things in life, this is no different. Its about trade offs. A really good wage, but very little personal time.

Its a very personal decision, no one else can make it for you. Problem is though, situations can change. When you are single or just married to someone that also works long hours, its not too bad, But once kids come along, or health problems, it changes.

Good luck in your career path.

d

Indeed, great words!

Its all about sacrifice! Sure, 20 hours a week is fine, and the pay for it is better then some fulltime 40 hour a week jobs. The chance to make a lot of money driving is a whole another spectrum of this job. Yea, you will be working a ton of hours and putting up with even worse soups, ride alongs, time checks so on and so on. A cover driver I know made something like 60k in less then half a year of driving. Now thats a killer job.

Another way of getting into this job is to just throw yourself into it. Enjoy it in every aspect and make people like you. It can only get better from here.
 

just chillin'

Rest in peace wooba
Can you explain yourself a little further?

sure can. this is my vision of UPS in the next ten to fifteen yrs. automated scanners and label machines will eliminate all or most of the manual scanning PAS jobs. address corrections will be done via computer way before the package reaches the building eliminating clerk jobs. trucks that monitor themselves as far as oil and water plus computer programs creating boxline setups for the next day and telling the driver what bay to park in will eliminate most car washer and shifter jobs. eliminating those type of jobs will halt any seniority movement of drivers which in turn eliminates openings for partimers to drive. current economy and housing market is slowing down guys retiring which further slows down seniority movement. now lets move on to air drivers. word is ups and fedex came to a handshake deal to change NDA commit time to 12 P.M. this will eliminate most if not all "combo" or partime air drivers which was a good step for a partimer to go fulltime or at least make some decent money. and last but certainly not least we have our new worst enemy. UPS MAIL SOLUTIONS. we pick package up from shipper> sort and transport package to destination area> deliver to local post office along with hundreds of others> post office delivers to residentual address. word is that's going to get huge and eliminate tons of retail deliveries. add all that up and all i see is ups profits going up while the workforce goes down. and that's big business. yes there will always be partime jobs available at UPS because of the enormous turnover rate. but fulltime careers? meh...no way.
 

curiousbrain

Well-Known Member
sure can. this is my vision of UPS in the next ten to fifteen yrs. automated scanners and label machines will eliminate all or most of the manual scanning PAS jobs. address corrections will be done via computer way before the package reaches the building eliminating clerk jobs. trucks that monitor themselves as far as oil and water plus computer programs creating boxline setups for the next day and telling the driver what bay to park in will eliminate most car washer and shifter jobs. eliminating those type of jobs will halt any seniority movement of drivers which in turn eliminates openings for partimers to drive. current economy and housing market is slowing down guys retiring which further slows down seniority movement. now lets move on to air drivers. word is ups and fedex came to a handshake deal to change NDA commit time to 12 P.M. this will eliminate most if not all "combo" or partime air drivers which was a good step for a partimer to go fulltime or at least make some decent money. and last but certainly not least we have our new worst enemy. UPS MAIL SOLUTIONS. we pick package up from shipper> sort and transport package to destination area> deliver to local post office along with hundreds of others> post office delivers to residentual address. word is that's going to get huge and eliminate tons of retail deliveries. add all that up and all i see is ups profits going up while the workforce goes down. and that's big business. yes there will always be partime jobs available at UPS because of the enormous turnover rate. but fulltime careers? meh...no way.

Loaders will still be needed beyond that point. I think they should start making driver wages as the workforce is cut. ;)

While I don't necessarily agree completely with paul's assessment, I would imagine there is some truth in there. As to your (HelloWorld) response, I've already thought of a rudimentary way to eliminate the loaders job (which includes my own). If the boxes/labels/something had a short-range RFID (or similar technology) chip in it that could provide information about the 'footprint' of the box (truck number, route number, zip code, name of sender/recipient, etc), it would then only be a matter of prototyping a system that could sort the boxes and get them into the right trucks.

As to the sorting of the boxes, the obvious possibility (to me, anyway) is a single conveyor with single file boxes on it, with a spiders web of chutes underneath the conveyor leading into the trucks. Getting them onto the right shelves might involve some human effort, but certainly less then it does now. While obvious, this is wildly ineffecient (to much physical materials) and a more efficient solution certainly exists.

Another somewhat less probable solution would be to have automated "pushers" attached to the center of the conveyor that would push the boxes into the right truck(s). Or, anything, really. Point being, if a doofus such as myself can think up vaguely probable solutions to eliminating a loaders job, I'm willing to bet there are others out there who can do much better at less cost.

On an unrelated note, does your name possibly come from the first program traditionally written when learning a programming language?
 
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rod

Retired 22 years
sure can. this is my vision of UPS in the next ten to fifteen yrs. automated scanners and label machines will eliminate all or most of the manual scanning PAS jobs. address corrections will be done via computer way before the package reaches the building eliminating clerk jobs. trucks that monitor themselves as far as oil and water plus computer programs creating boxline setups for the next day and telling the driver what bay to park in will eliminate most car washer and shifter jobs. eliminating those type of jobs will halt any seniority movement of drivers which in turn eliminates openings for partimers to drive. current economy and housing market is slowing down guys retiring which further slows down seniority movement. now lets move on to air drivers. word is ups and fedex came to a handshake deal to change NDA commit time to 12 P.M. this will eliminate most if not all "combo" or partime air drivers which was a good step for a partimer to go fulltime or at least make some decent money. and last but certainly not least we have our new worst enemy. UPS MAIL SOLUTIONS. we pick package up from shipper> sort and transport package to destination area> deliver to local post office along with hundreds of others> post office delivers to residentual address. word is that's going to get huge and eliminate tons of retail deliveries. add all that up and all i see is ups profits going up while the workforce goes down. and that's big business. yes there will always be partime jobs available at UPS because of the enormous turnover rate. but fulltime careers? meh...no way.


And you know whats going to happen as soon as they teach monkeys to drive
 

klein

Für Meno :)
One thing you guys forgot to mention is this :
If they are already subcontracting to the USPS, what actually stops them from subcontracting other deliveries in the future ?
I'm certain UPS is thinking of that, as I type this, and sooner or later they will have some kind of complicated strange language in a new contract, that will them allow it, too.

I'm also pretty certain, in todays jobmarket, they could find subcontracters, with the only cost of a driver's wage.
Meaning pay the owner/operator of a subcontractor $30 per hr, in which he'll supply the truck, fuel, maintanance, and the manpower.
Even if they choose to pay up to $50 an hr, that would be less then they pay a driver with full bennies and pension.

Fedex and Greyhound do it.
And as we all know, UPS don't care much about customer service these days, as long as the package is delivered.
 

siredline09

Well-Known Member
NO! I was hired in 2006, for an Air Driver Job, Thinking they would make me Full-time. I wasted 4yrs, when I could of been going to school, which i'm now. UPS laid off 50 air drivers on XMAS eve, without notice. http://teamsterslocal804.org/story/rat-attack-maspeth-building While working there, they would shave my hours and alot of my coworkers Hours, and also threaten us to work grounds, or we would only work 3.5 hours a day instead of 5 hours. June of 09 they demoted all the air drivers to preload but we kept our 22.45 an hour, then they moved us from that to picking up airs at night, then Back to Preload, then when peak came in 2010, they laid us off for a month then, they decided to call us back in Nov 10 to again lay us off permanently in Dec 24, 2010. It's not only us but clerks and other positions are getting eliminated.http://www.browncafe.com/forum/f6/major-clerk-layoffs-local-804-a-337264/
http://www.browncafe.com/forum/f39/...workers-christmas-eve-no-warning-link-337110/ http://www.browncafe.com/forum/f39/804-337090/
 

siredline09

Well-Known Member
Oh Yea , I forgot to tell you, UPS wants to pay us 11 bucks an hour now, instead of our 22.45 Hr, and guess what we all said to that.
NO! I was hired in 2006, for an Air Driver Job, Thinking they would make me Full-time. I wasted 4yrs, when I could of been going to school, which i'm now. UPS laid off 50 air drivers on XMAS eve, without notice. http://teamsterslocal804.org/story/rat-attack-maspeth-building While working there, they would shave my hours and alot of my coworkers Hours, and also threaten us to work grounds, or we would only work 3.5 hours a day instead of 5 hours. June of 09 they demoted all the air drivers to preload but we kept our 22.45 an hour, then they moved us from that to picking up airs at night, then Back to Preload, then when peak came in 2010, they laid us off for a month then, they decided to call us back in Nov 10 to again lay us off permanently in Dec 24, 2010. It's not only us but clerks and other positions are getting eliminated.
 
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