Light Bulb Quest
As I mentioned in my last post, I’m in the middle of my 30-day trial period as a package car driver for UPS. Here’s how it all went down. Because UPS is a ‘union shop,’ everything is governed by the current collective bargaining agreement between the company and the Teamsters. The contract states that you […]
Earlier I mentioned a book, Designing Your Life, that I was using to help me move forward after losing my dream job. Some of you were eager for me to share more about it. So here is the first in what I hope to be an ongoing series of Book Club posts. I’d never heard […]
I have some exciting news! After nearly five months at UPS as a warehouse worker, I recently began training to become a package car driver. This is a big step up for me. It means moving from part-time early mornings to full-time days. I also earn a higher wage and get to wear the iconic […]
Although it feels like much longer, I’ve only been working at UPS for about five months. It’s been an interesting transition from my former career as an academic administrator, where I dealt with people and ideas from behind a desk in an office, rather than with physical objects in a warehouse. Many of the people […]
United Parcel Service is Big Business. With $74 billion in revenues and $4-plus billion in profits, it currently ranks 43rd on the Fortune 500 list of America’s largest corporations. UPS is also Big Labor. One source places its workforce of 377,640 employees worldwide as the 9th largest U.S.-based private employer. (The company website lists its […]
Whenever someone learns that I appeared on Jeopardy!, they always ask me two things: ‘How did you do that?’ and ‘What’s Alex Trebek really like?’ I always reply: ‘I tried out!’ and ‘He’s just the same as the way he appears on the show.’ He’s just the same as the way he appears on the […]
Have you ever had a job where you felt like you were in over your head from Day One? That any minute you’d be publicly humiliated as the fraud you so obviously are? You’re convinced that sooner or later – probably sooner – someone else is bound to notice your incompetence and expose you to […]
As a mid-career professional, searching for employment can be a slog. It involves the same routine tasks day in and day out. It’s nowhere near as interesting or rewarding as anything I’ve ever done to actually earn a paycheck. It’s not physically strenuous but it is emotionally draining. It can also be dispiriting. Each time […]
Ten days after I lost my job, I started a new one. After 15 years in higher education I found myself at Brown. Not the university. Brown, as in United Parcel Service, the global shipping company. For the past four-plus months my alarm has awakened me every Tuesday through Saturday at 2:30 am. That’s when […]
On March 13th, 2020, I was practicing a hula dance when the pandemic first hit home for me. Each spring, students at the university I’d worked at put on a lavish luau to celebrate the food and culture of the Hawaiian Islands. The program regularly featured faculty and staff from across the campus performing a […]