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Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman tomorrow

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Re: Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman tomorrow

#81

Post by turtlebits »

ryandrake wrote: post #73

Happy story, but I'm also supremely jealous. The thought of retiring after only 35 years of work! That's the outstanding accomplishment here. Either he has a great pension (remember those?) or has been a terrific, disciplined saver over those years. My Boomer parents all had generous pensions and they also retired pretty early. Us younger folks are stuck with crappy 401(k)s that place our futures in the hands of Wall…

35 years of working for the Postal Service. He graduated in 1975, so thats 44 years, assuming he got a job after high school.

Re: Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman tomorrow

#82

Post by TeMPOraL »

macspoofing wrote: post #63
maxxxxx wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Sometimes I feel like I am wasting my life solving business problems I don’t really care about and nobody close to me understands even remotely.

There was a local reporter who went undercover to do an expose on the temp-agency market and worked a few days on the factory line at a food supplier. Her verdict: It wasn't very fun. Grass is always greener. People also tend to want their jobs to provide meaning to their lives. That is a luxury. For most people, a job is something you do to enable the rest of your life.

> People also tend to want their jobs to provide meaning to their lives. That is a luxury. For most people, a job is something you do to enable the rest of your life.

This desire is a coping mechanism. Because the latter view, that the job is just to pay for your life, makes you discover that it also robs you out of all of it. Even the 9-5 job is way more than 50% of your wake time, after accounting for commute and energy drain.

Re: Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman tomorrow

#83

Post by krumpet »

mcflibbles wrote: post #49

I worked as a postman for a bit. I'd wake up at 0430, make a short commute, then sort letters into street/house number order for something like 3 hours. After the first few days this became mindnumbingly dull. It was obvious 90% of what I was about to deliver would go straight in the bin so all this drudgery wad largely pointless. For a while I worked in a pretty rough area (by UK standards, admittedly nowhere in the…

To help foster more local connections, I've started inviting everyone I know (plus everyone they know) to Saturday morning kickball. It has been a great way to bring different groups of people together and create/strengthen bonds in our community. Plus, it starts the day with being outdoors which I think is good for the soul.

Re: Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman tomorrow

#84

Post by benj111 »

mcflibbles wrote: post #75
benj111 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I don't really have anything to say for myself" Kids. It's amazing how many times people will stop to say hello when a small child says hello to them. We got invited into someone's garden last weekend to feed their chickens. Admittedly we live in a more rural area. Might not work so well on the mean streets of London.

There's no doubt lots of people are closely connected to their local community through kids friends, their kids schools, their kids sports teams, etc. But having kids only as a means to talk to people would be a bit drastic!

Well I did also have kids so I wouldn't look so dodgy hanging around by the play equipment in the park, so it wasn't just as a means to speak to people ;)

Re: Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman tomorrow

#85

Post by jaabe »

nemo1618 wrote: post #4

Stories like this make you question whether it's worth being paid all this money to spend your life staring at a screen in a climate-controlled cube solving abstract problems that provide approximately zero benefit to your family, friends, and neighbors.

It wasn’t for me, so I went into public service and the management/business focused side of digitalisation.

The pay isn’t great, but we do get opportunities to work with cutting edge tech because every change doesn’t need to be billed by the hour.

Re: Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman tomorrow

#86

Post by TeMPOraL »

badpun wrote: post #13
DisruptiveDave wrote: post #3

This is fucking beautiful. At the same time it makes me a little sad to work at a desk, hidden from all the people my work impacts. In a city and time where neighbors keep their heads down when they pass each other and all the mailpersons wear headphones.

The people our work impacts (at least directly) are often „disrupted” (made redundant) by the new tech. It’s a good thing they don’t know us by name.

English being my second language, I picked up vocabulary from random places. The word "disrupt" will forever be associated for me with "disruptor", a weapon for "disrupting" the matter of ships and people, used by murderous Klingons and backstabbing Romulans.

Re: Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman tomorrow

#87

Post by lazyjones »

lm28469 wrote: post #51
lazyjones wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did you end up choosing to do this? Some of us took this path because we didn't get along with people.

Most people don't really chose consciously. We just follow what we're told until it seems too late to deviate from the course. I personally ended up in IT because "why not it pays well and I like computers", I wasn't the same person when I chose that path and now I'm actively trying to figure a reasonable way out. > There are only a few who control themselves and their affairs by a guiding purpose; the rest do not pr…

> I personally ended up in IT because "why not it pays well and I like computers",

I liked computers too, ever since my (divorced) dad showed me one. But why did I find them so interesting? Probably because I mostly played / occupied myself alone as a child, I read books while other children preferred "stupid" outdoor activities. We don't do what we're told, we follow whatever suits our personalities, at least if we have a choice.

> There are only a few who control themselves and their affairs by a guiding purpose;

This is more about goals in life, no?

Re: Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman tomorrow

#88

Post by MagicPropmaker »

There's something to be said with our Government personally reaching out to every resident and citizen, even if to just deliver a letter (yes, I know the USPS isn't quite the "Government" any more, but it's close). It makes us feel connected and part of something.

Re: Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman tomorrow

#90

Post by lrem »

mcflibbles wrote: post #75
benj111 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I don't really have anything to say for myself" Kids. It's amazing how many times people will stop to say hello when a small child says hello to them. We got invited into someone's garden last weekend to feed their chickens. Admittedly we live in a more rural area. Might not work so well on the mean streets of London.

There's no doubt lots of people are closely connected to their local community through kids friends, their kids schools, their kids sports teams, etc. But having kids only as a means to talk to people would be a bit drastic!

Kids are definitely the ultimate cure for loneliness. A couple years in and you're likely to beg for some loneliness ;)
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