I work for USPS (rural carrier). Since last March/April after everything locked down and the shelves were stripped of just about everything, we have been slammed. We went from 2 pallets of Amazon and sometimes these were only 4' high to 6 pallets and a Gaylord a day for our 7 route office most of which were at the point that they just fit through the door into the office.
During the Holidays I expect to have my Jeep packed to the rafters several times a week but it got to the point where we ALWAYS had to leave notices for people to come pick up packages. Our sub worked every single day and even our clerks and Postmaster were running packages and still things piled up. It became a rarity to leave the office with anything visible out my mirrors other than the one on the drivers side. This has only eased off some in the past week or so but its still not down to the normal post holiday lull.
I took Tuesday - Friday off and did a mini staycation. At 61 next month I was worn out, I slid and mashed a finger, a heavy package slid and hit my shoulder and it was not recovering with the constant use, and my Jeep had some issues to be repaired. I thought YEAH the carrier that was out with covid had come back, we were even training a second sub. Well Saturday I walk in and grin because Tod one of our old Postmasters was there, then I notice the girl that runs our "retail office" and Rachael our sub is sorting mail to the routes. I asked what was up having been out of the office. Well one sub got to not feeling well Friday and they did another temp check and he had a fever, also though she felt OK the other clerk had an elivated temp also, the Postmaster wasn't running a temp and he and Misty's rapid test came back neg Johnathan's was possitive for covid so since they all are in the small office together through the day they are all quarantined at least for the next 2 weeks. Overnight the office had been sanitized and since Tod will have to run both offices (close to a hours drive between the two) Rachael a sub carrier will be handling some of the Postmasters dutys and window hours will be minimal. Good thing I grabbed those few days off because I don't know if today maybe my last non Sunday day off for a few weeks.
Oh and by the way, though some of my own packages have arrived very late. At least they are arriving I have 2 open cases with FedEx where they said that packages were delivered but were not. They claim Sunday delivery but in my rural area FedEx doesn't run on Sunday and I am home on Sundays.
