So, I fucked up pretty bad 5 months ago, and long story short, I lost my $38K/year job that I’ve had for over 3 years.
I am going back to school online to get my GI Bill again, but that’s less than half of what I was bringing home before.
I have an interview/tour for a UPS package handler tonight at 10:00, and I’m going to see if I can also get a second shift as a driver helper for the holidays.
I’ve read in other forum threads that they job can get pretty fast paced, especially during the upcoming holiday season.
It sounds like it could be fun and the hours could go by fast if there’s a lot of work to be done in a short amount of time.
The only shifts they have right now are 10:00pm - 3:00am and 3:00am - 8:00am. Either would work fine for us, unless my wife finds a job that has to start at 8:00am.
So has anyone worked there as a ‘package handler’? Anyone know what it’s like? Is it possible to work 2 part-time shifts? (I heard you have to work part time, and full time work is based on availability and seniority).
[quote]HolyMacaroni wrote:
was there a question in any of that?[/quote]
Edited to include question marks.
(though the thread title was always in question form)
The thread I read on another site was old, and there were a bunch of people arguing about what the job really was like. And of course, some said it was great, and some said it sucked without saying why.
You cannot work 2 part time shifts. It sucks, if you’re going to do something like this, just take your GI bill money left overs and get a CDL and go do some kind of day or night truck job, or, maybe work at fed ex which is a much better ran company.
UPS job basically pays nothing, is full of retard coworkers, has incompetent teamster loser managers, & basically disables you from working another job.
If you don’t wanna do the CDL thing just get a job in the campus computer lab of your skill or something.
Yeah, I loaded trucks there years ago. The 18 wheelers. A LOT of boxes can fit into those. And they weren’t climate controlled either. You were either sweating through your clothes or shivering too hard to really make the walls. (You’ll learn about that.)
At the time you couldn’t work two shifts a day there, but the shift was so short that you could go get another part- or full-time job somewhere else.
The turnover was so high that anyone with a modest degree of intelligence would get promoted fairly quickly. That was what I liked about the company: Everybody starts at the bottom and grinds their way up. I might go back to it when I get my blue ID.
Speaking of high turnover though, it’s going to suck, man. Especially with the holidays coming. But if you can stick with it for maybe a year or two you can have a pretty excellent carreer.
Lots of idiot coworkers. Definitely be wary about locking your vehicle and leaving nothing worth any value inside it. They used to have pretty decent health and school benefits…not sure if they have that anymore.
I’ve done the seasonal drivers helper. I didn’t like it cause I thought it was too boring. Even after only a week of doing the same route, time would slow down, even though we were insanely busy. But I never heard a driver complain about that so could just be me. They’re biggest complaints was how many stops they were getting and the trucks are so packed that they can’t get to/find anything.
It also probably varies with location. And you definitely work your way up in the company. Most people looking to become drivers, will work there for a while doing other jobs.
I worked there for several years in both California and Wisconsin. I worked the preload shift ~3am-8am. For the most part, I liked it. Starting out, the pay is next to nothing, but the benefit package is pretty nice. During the holiday season, you can occasionally work another shift if they need help on another shift. But it’s based on seniority, so if someone more senior to you wants the hours, they get them.
I loved loading the package cars. I worked there when you had to actually memorize all the streets and addresses on your loads. Now it’s all standard coded so anyone can work any load without ever learning a single street.
Before I left the company, I went into management. I became a part time supervisor, which came with a nice raise. I could actually live off of my “part-time” pay. But the pay was the only thing that was nice. Suddenly I was in charge of a bunch of retards. And these were unionized retards, which made it that much worse. When one employee told me to fuck off to my face and there was nothing I could do, I decided it was time to leave.
If I could do it over, I would have stayed an hourly employee in the union and would have never gone into management. Feel free to PM me if you want any more info.
I worked as a loader and quit after 2 months because school was starting. It is a really hard job. A few times we would go in at 7 a.m. and leave at 7 p.m. (it was around the holidays) and only had 3 15 min breaks. I lost around 12 lbs in that time. It might have been that we needed help and many times loaders had to jump from truck to truck to help others out but, it was just to much. Funny, thing is once I got out there were days I almost wanted to go back…almost.
[quote]james28 wrote:
I worked as a loader and quit after 2 months because school was starting. It is a really hard job. A few times we would go in at 7 a.m. and leave at 7 p.m. (it was around the holidays) and only had 3 15 min breaks. I lost around 12 lbs in that time. It might have been that we needed help and many times loaders had to jump from truck to truck to help others out but, it was just to much. Funny, thing is once I got out there were days I almost wanted to go back…almost.[/quote]
They only work you 4 hours boss, this sounds highly inaccurate.
Was there any chance you could still get proper nutrition while working there? I imagine everything would have to be in shake form so you could guzzle it down real fast.
From what I’ve been reading (namely the job description its self and the email from UPS) the shift is 3.5 hours to 5 hours depending on the work load.
I’ve been wanting to work in some extra cardio anyway, and as long as the work is consistent, days of the week wise, it is going to help me to stay on schedule with my routine. Which is something I’ve been lacking with my old job.
[quote]3IdSpetsnaz wrote:
james28 wrote:
I worked as a loader and quit after 2 months because school was starting. It is a really hard job. A few times we would go in at 7 a.m. and leave at 7 p.m. (it was around the holidays) and only had 3 15 min breaks. I lost around 12 lbs in that time. It might have been that we needed help and many times loaders had to jump from truck to truck to help others out but, it was just to much. Funny, thing is once I got out there were days I almost wanted to go back…almost.
They only work you 4 hours boss, this sounds highly inaccurate.[/quote]
4 hours? where do you live. This only happend twice but, it happened. Like I said this HUB was always looking for workers so they always needed help and this was around the holidays. I had the morning shift but, I went in a different times every day 8 a.m. on monday then one hour was added every day so thursdays I went in at 11 a.m. and came out around 5.
It could be that this HUB just sucked. They were sued a while back for not giving proper breaks. This happened after I quit but, I recieved a letter stating that I was entitled to some of the money.
Edit:My mistake I went in at 8 a.m. on mondays not 7 a.m as stated in my first post.
[quote]SWR wrote:
From what I’ve been reading (namely the job description its self and the email from UPS) the shift is 3.5 hours to 5 hours depending on the work load.
I’ve been wanting to work in some extra cardio anyway, and as long as the work is consistent, days of the week wise, it is going to help me to stay on schedule with my routine. Which is something I’ve been lacking with my old job.[/quote]
Well, it will be some cardio. And it may affect your strength gains initially. Make no mistake, it can be really hard, physical work. A 20-30 pound box doesn’t seem like much, but moving those same boxes at a pace of 700-1200 per hour will make your body hurt for a while.
Also remember, starting out, it really isn’t much money at all.
Yea, I need to get the money asap wherever I can right now. The hours are nice in that I can still go to school online and get another part-time job, or full time for a little while as long as I don’t burn out.
I had the tour of the place and seems like a few of the guys there I got along with and would be cool to work with (there were 30 of us).
About 6-8 people left after they explained what the job was, and gave the chance to “bow out gracefully”.
The actual interview with an HR person starts tonight.
Lots of people talking about how many people they’re seeing standing in lines for jobs at different places now.
If you think you’ll like it, go for it. Like I said, I liked it a lot. I worked there for many years.
As far as having time for other things, that’s true. But don’t underestimate how tired you may be at first. Also depending what shift you work, that in itself can be tough to deal with. I worked the 3am-8am shift and I was very happy to finally leave and sleep at night like a normal person. During the week, I never got a solid nights sleep. It was always a couple hours here, a few hours there.
