The UPS Go Down

I must say it's nice to be in the final stretch of days left working for United Parcel Service. For most, news of my quitting at UPS isn't new, but if you didn't know before, you know now.

In other words, don't blame me for holiday packages that show up late or never show up at all. That would have only been valid if you lived in Marysville anyway, since my main task since the beginning of September was to load three trucks that went there every day.

Anyone considering a job at UPS (not just a seasonal job, like a driver helper) should just know what he or she is getting into -- it's dirty, it's loud and, if you're like me, it requires you getting up at a grossly early time in the morning. The pay is pretty good and they offer tuition assistance, but I never got that because, apparently, I missed their deadline by starting about four days late. So yeah, there went about $1,000 I planned on getting.

Then there's the actual job part of it -- lots of lifting and lots of different positions. If you like to have one thing to do all the time, it's probably not going to be a job for you. Take, for instance, this morning, when the following took place:

...Was told on Friday to be in at 3 a.m. Monday. At 3:05 a.m. Monday, was told the schedule said I needed to be in at 4:40 a.m. Not about to just go home without getting any pay at all after waking up so early, I said I would stick around to do some things for an hour or so.
...Loaded and stacked boxes for six different trucks before being sent to a completely new box line with new supervisors and all people I've never seen before.
...Helped a loader there until being sent to work by myself because someone else took an Option Day, which essentially is a vacation day -- why they didn't know he would be off before the day even started, I'm not sure.
...Asked the new supervisor if he planned to have me there the entire shift, considering I got in at 3 a.m. -- this was news to him, so he told me to just leave and go home.
...Talked with my regular supervisor about whether he needed anything else -- he gave me another assignment to take care of two other trucks until another guy got back from somewhere else... then the supervisor came back 10 minutes later and told me to just leave.

Long story short, this was the most ridiculous day I had out of all of them at UPS. And now I just hope none of the last three days is as odd as today was. At any rate, there aren't many more chances for craziness to happen.

I plan on working as a substitute teacher for the time being. It all goes back to what I told myself before leaving Wisconsin, giving up on my undergraduate degree to earn a new one in Education...

Don't worry about money -- it'll take care of itself.
Don't do something unless it is moving you toward the end goal.
Don't let other people discourage you from making a tough decision.

Time to turn another new page... and to get some regular nights of sleep again.