Upward and Onward (?!?!) in 2010

UPSF Peeon

Well-Known Member
It's good you've had the experience of hard work. If you work in the hub and you unload you'll wish your were back to driver's helper. 3 and 1/2 hours of grabbing a package, putting it on a belt, grabbing another package, etc. with a 10min break. At least you won't be in the rain or snow.

not tryin to sound like an ******* but you talk like 3 1/2 is a long time to work
 

over9five

Moderator
Staff member
Good luck in your new job, Frunobulax. Feel free to drop by any time, let us know how you're doing, and give us some free legal advice!
 

UPSGUY72

Well-Known Member
UPSGuy72,

you are correct that his initial HR contact will likely only lead to a P/T hourly position, but, if I read his post correctly, he is looking for fallback leg in the door. Not too sure about the legal dept. but most of the Staff Functions will look at UPS employees, who have gone through the promotion process, before they look outside. We actually prefer the UPS experience if there are qualified candidates. The legal dept has also expressed interest in one of my Supervisors who was considering a law degree.

Not saying his odds are great or that I would recommend it but he does have potential options outside a P/T hourly position once his foot is in the door.

The guy is 52 years old has a law degree he says and has to work PT at ups for $9.50 hr to help pay off his debt.

Somethings wrong with this picture.
 

scratch

Least Best Moderator
Staff member
I used to have a Center Manager that now works in the Corporate Legal Dept, so its not impossible to go in that direction. I remember when I was back in high school I thought about going after a law degree myself, but I chose another path.
 

UPSGUY72

Well-Known Member
I used to have a Center Manager that now works in the Corporate Legal Dept, so its not impossible to go in that direction. I remember when I was back in high school I thought about going after a law degree myself, but I chose another path.

I agree if your already in managment you have chance to get promoted into corporate. But just starting out at 52 as a loader or unloader you'll be dead before you even have a chance for anything else besides a PT SUP job
 

Raw

Raw Member
No parade; and no damper.

I think you have misread my post. Or, to be fair, perhaps I was unclear. I have no interest at the moment in working part-time except to make a few extra $$ to begin to defray some of the $120K or so I am down for 2009.

I understand the seniority rules; and I am aware of the 6:1 ratio. I'm not looking for a career path ending in driving. I wouldn't be even if I was 22. My aside about hedging bets, though, was meant seriously in this sense: having been hammered during this recession (and being old enough to remember those of 1973-74 and 1981-82), I do think it makes good sense to leave yourself as many possibilities as you can no matter your age, education, and experience.

Also, UPS has many types of jobs beyond PC operations. I'm simply glad I have this connection and am in good standing with a potential employer
I once had a xmas helper who was no spring chicken but did a good job with me that season. He needed employment after the season that fit around his habit of traveling on trips outside the country and also was benefited by knowing one of our dispatch mgmt. people, well anyway he has been working the UPS customer counter now for about 6 years! You have a foot in the door now for other UPS options! Good luck and a pleasure to read an intelligent post and great response Upstate NY, you have rep points coming! Happy New Year! I also believe the US economy will tank this year in historic fashion! :sad-little:
 

UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)

Well-Known Member
not tryin to sound like an ******* but you talk like 3 1/2 is a long time to work


3 1/2 hours of nearly continuous lifting is hard work.

I worked the preload for the air we delivered yesterday. I had 3 PCs to load. We had 750 pieces total. It was all I could do to keep up.

I guess you did end up sounding like an ******* after all.
 

bluehdmc

Well-Known Member
not tryin to sound like an ******* but you talk like 3 1/2 is a long time to work

When you're working in the hub it is :-).
Did you ever see the I love Lucy where she works in a cookie factory (or whatever it was) and tries to keep up with a conveyor?
That's what loading in the hub is similar to.
I'm assuming UPSF if for UPS Freight, I was never on a UPSF dock but had been to Roadway and ABF's, it's a different operation than package.
 

toonertoo

Most Awesome Dog
Staff member
There is dignity in an honest day's labor, no matter how menial it might be.

It is healthy to see how "the other half" lives and to walk in their shoes.

In addition to my 23 years at UPS I have worked at Taco Bell, Wendy's, Burger King, and at several gas stations. I have worked as a waiter and as a busboy in a high-end restraunt. I spent the summers of my childhood working in the fields, picking beans and potatoes and strawberries in 100 degree heat in order to earn money for school clothes.

I respect anyone who shows up on time, punches a clock, and does a job to the best of their ability.

We had a bunch of late volume that didnt make it in yesterday due to the snow, so when I stopped at Taco Bell for lunch I didnt have their paychecks, which I normally deliver to them every other Wednesday. There were several employees who were waiting there for me to show up with their checks, and when I told the manager that I didnt have them the looks on their faces broke my heart. These are minimum-wage earners who may very well have gone hungry last night because they were counting on those checks for grocery money.

I felt guilty sitting there eating my taco and watching them walk away empty-handed. It makes me grateful for what I have.
Great post, sober, I feel the same way. We made more if we worked a few hours yesterday, than most people make all week. Not that we didnt work just as hard, but they work hard too. In the end, yes we work like dogs, but we do get rewarded. Maybe we have more education, or maybe we got lucky. Maybe it is just fate. I have a love hate relationship with my job, but as long as I still can do it, I still will.
 

dilligaf

IN VINO VERITAS
Great post, sober, I feel the same way. We made more if we worked a few hours yesterday, than most people make all week. Not that we didnt work just as hard, but they work hard too. In the end, yes we work like dogs, but we do get rewarded. Maybe we have more education, or maybe we got lucky. Maybe it is just fate. I have a love hate relationship with my job, but as long as I still can do it, I still will.
Tooner, I got lucky. I don't have a higher education. All I have to show from schoolin' is a HS diploma. I was never interested in going to college and I didn't try to afford to go. The only college class I ever took was sign language. I walked into my job at the right time. I went full time in less than a year. Even though it was 5 years ago I still realise how lucky I was to do so. There are many many PT out there that have been working many more years than I and still can't go fulltime. It's even worse now. So I got lucky.

As far as having a love/hate relationship with my job. For a very long time I hated going to work but I could not NOT go to work. I work. That is my life. I was never handed anything to me on a silver platter. I have earned where I am. I have worked all my adult life and most of my teenage years as well. Newspaper rtes, babysitting and the like. I have waitressed and have never forgotten how it is to be stiffed on a tip. I try to do my best in remembering this to those that do not have what I have.

Now, I enjoy going to work. Alot of that has to do with having the sup that I have now. He has done alot to heal old hatreds of abusive sups who didn't belong where they were at. I am happy to work for him. Life gets better every day.
 

Catatonic

Nine Lives
I used to have a Center Manager that now works in the Corporate Legal Dept, so its not impossible to go in that direction. I remember when I was back in high school I thought about going after a law degree myself, but I chose another path.
I remember a guy I worked with back in the early 80's that was getting his Law degree on the side while a Full-time supervisor. He (***** ****l) wound up head of our Legal Dept and on the Management Committee.
 
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toonertoo

Most Awesome Dog
Staff member
I am with you dilli. I waitressed and bar tended plenty, and I raked in the dough. I have a GED, I quit school in 9th grade coz I so knew it all. Then I wised up when I couldnt get a job making more than minimum wage. I went to college on a grant, for the first yr, and have so paid back the govt. for that opportunity. then I got hired at UPS pt. 8 yrs, and to go full time I had to drive 75 mi each way, so after my kids graduated I moved closer. The pt was great for me, no way would I want to be a single parent with teen agers working as a driver. And I have always realized I was lucky, but in no way handed the opportunity. And as smug as it sounds, not everyone who thinks they would like to make the money we do, could do the job. I couldnt be an iron worker, even though I like what they make. Or a brain, or heart surgeon.
So for me also, I was in the right place at the right time. I love the job, I just hate what has happened to it, which is a whole nother thread.
 

dilligaf

IN VINO VERITAS
Tooner, it is not smug to say that not everyone can do this job. It is the truth. Not everyone can do this job. We had a guy here that walked out one day. He drove back to the ctr, left his nearly full truck in the parking lot, got in his car and drove away. We never saw him again. The reason I say this is because this guy was a big guy. Fit, worked out everyday. Big guy. Physically he could take whatever was thrown at him, but he couldn't take the stress. It takes the right temperment to do this job. And alot of willpower. And maybe a lack of a little common sense. :wink2:
 

bumped

Well-Known Member
When people bring up how much I make I tell them to get an application. UPS is almost always hiring part-time. They will have to go through the same progression as I did part time 4 hours or so a day. Then, they make it into being a driver going through progression for 2 years for me(now 3 years), and being laid off in February while calling in everyday for the nest 5 years to see if they're working. No one wants to go through the process, they just see the pay.
 

zap

New Member
You have no connections the only connection you have is to get PT loader or unloader job. Your HR person isn't going to get you a job any better than that. UPS has recruitesr for hiring people higher in coporate.
What about a PT Supervisor becoming a Driver under the 6 to 1 rule?
 

DS

Fenderbender
Tooner, it is not smug to say that not everyone can do this job. It is the truth. Not everyone can do this job. We had a guy here that walked out one day. He drove back to the ctr, left his nearly full truck in the parking lot, got in his car and drove away. We never saw him again. The reason I say this is because this guy was a big guy. Fit, worked out everyday. Big guy. Physically he could take whatever was thrown at him, but he couldn't take the stress. It takes the right temperment to do this job. And alot of willpower. And maybe a lack of a little common sense. :wink2:
Some days I feel like this.
[video=youtube;mA0nM8l8onE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA0nM8l8onE[/video]
 

22.3

Member
Tooner, it is not smug to say that not everyone can do this job. It is the truth. Not everyone can do this job. We had a guy here that walked out one day. He drove back to the ctr, left his nearly full truck in the parking lot, got in his car and drove away. We never saw him again. The reason I say this is because this guy was a big guy. Fit, worked out everyday. Big guy. Physically he could take whatever was thrown at him, but he couldn't take the stress. It takes the right temperment to do this job. And alot of willpower. And maybe a lack of a little common sense. :wink2:
i saw a man do that after 15 years with the company, i thought to myself what could make a man quit his job like that and give up this kind of money, he must be insane. now that i'm getting closer to 15 years i see why. i just keep telling myself i'm halfway there...12 more to go baby and i'm gone lol.
 
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