Of course I realize this but here is the MAJOR difference. Most blue-collar workers start at 7 and punch out at 3:30. Eight hours plus 1/2 hour lunch. The rest of the world may have a lunch hour, but I will bet you any amount of money that if they can't fit it into their work schedule (e.g. finishing business deliveries before pick-ups) the company doesn't make them sit idle at the end of the night.
Can you picture this in the "real" world? It would never happen except at UPS. Can you imagine an office worker sitting at his desk from 1800-1900 because he didn't get his lunch hour in because he was too busy? Its ridiculous.
And before anyone wants to bring it up, I don't want to play the game of "i'm going to miss 10 stops if you don't get them off my truck: just so I can have a lunch hour. Because if I send that message, I'm just going to screw one of my fellow workers doing a house-call route and I dont want to do this.
What I want is to do the route and just put in the time I take for lunch. Why can't it just be that simple? For the love GOD, I ask this question: why can't it be that simple?????
Brownie you need to find a way to get over it.
At what point has what we want (as an individual) had to do with anything?
It is, and always will be, about the greater good for all.
That is the way it is in a union shop.
Where I am, we are afforded a half hour unpaid lunch, to be taken between the 3rd and 6th hour.
We also get 2 ten minute paid breaks.
Where you are, it's apparently an hour unpaid lunch.
Take it, at lunch time.
Rest, nourish your body.
That is why it was negotiated.
I hear these outcries all the time, claims that I need to get home to my family.
As admirable as that definitely is, you are a UPS driver.
Generations before you endured the hours we do.
The hours were never a well guarded secret.
This is a conscious choice we all made at some point, to pursuit this career.
We could do much worse.
Many people do.
Many people, white and blue collar, work longer hours.
Many work weekends, we never do.
We enjoy above average vacation time off.
Many work other shifts that aren't as conducive to family life.
Could you imagine working 2nd shift?
Go to feeders and try 3rd shift, not for me.
Many have to travel for their job, we come home every night.
I agree that running all day to get done, just to be forced to take an hour break, would be frustrating.
So don't do it.
Do yourself a favor and find your peace with what you cannot change.
Believe me, if you can manage to do this in all facets of the job, a huge weight will be lifted from your shoulders.
Work by the methods, utilize your lunch and breaks as designed, and you'll put yourself in position of far less stress.
For the extra time, you'll be handsomely compensated.
You don't have to swim against the current for your entire career.
Try swimmimg with it and liberate yourself.
Settle in for the long haul and try to realize that this job is a marathon, not a sprint.