" wrote in
:

On Friday, September 25, 2015 at 10:54:47 AM UTC-5, John McCoy wrote:
Swingman wrote in
:


Found out the other day, talking to a new mail carrier, that this
is how the USPS is awarding carrier jobs in the area.

Current employee's actually bid on available routes.

Nothing odd there, that's how union jobs are usually handled.
Airlines, railroads, post office, they all work that way.

John

Man... I am so out of touch with the rest of the world sometimes. I
have been self employed for over thirty years now and it never has
occurred to me (except in a cigar smoke and whiskey induced pleasant
dream) of being able to pick and choose my work or how hard I would
like to work that week or month. I cannot in my wildest dreams imagine
being very well paid and then getting to decide what I wanted to do
and how hard I wanted to work.

OK, I think you're misunderstanding how this works. There's
a set number of jobs (postal routes, whatever), that matches
the number of workers. Guys bid on which one they want. The
bidder with highest seniority wins. Typically, the new guy
ends up with the least desirable job - worst hours, least
overtime, grouchiest customers or whatever. Then they work
that job every day until something changes (a new route is
added, or something), then everyone bids again.

I can use my buddy at the railroad as an example. Last time
they rearranged jobs and everyone had to rebid, he had two
he bid on (he's in the middle of the seniority rank, so no
point bidding on the best jobs). One was a day job that
usually worked 8 hours, the other went on at 3am but usually
got a couple hours overtime each day. A lot of guys wouldn't
bid the 3am job, even tho it paid better, because of the
hours. My buddy actually likes working nights, so he was
pleased to win that job.

John