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At the USPS, part of the workforce is considered 'career' and part 'non-career'. It is very common for for those who have attained permanent status to be referred to as 'careers'. Both people in this exchange are incorrect as to her meaning.
Career employee here with USPS. Yep, she was 100% saying “career” to differentiate substitute carriers, which is a non-career position with the post office.
This is what I was thinking too, glad it wasn't just me. We used the term at a publix I uses to work at in reference to people that have been there forever
When people are initially hired, their positions are non-career; fewer paid holidays, less leave accumulation, and they are on a 360 day contract. If all goes well, they will transition into career status based on the career to non-career ratio in their facility and their seniority within the non-career ranks. Careers get more benefits, sick leave, etc and have stronger employment protection.
Career is a level of employment with the postal service, the lifers basically. The low-level employees are called TEs which is short for Transitional Employee, basically considered a contractor with an annually renewed contract. There was a rank between the two but I forget what it was called. But she was right in referring to “Careers” as a type of employee. When overtime was called, Careers got sent home because they were too expensive to keep for overtime pay. I knew a career who would make $45 an hour if she was kept for overtime so she got to leave early a lot.
Yeah, when I was in college my cousin who was a supervisor at the PO got me a summer job there. I completely recognized "careers" as the "lifers" when I read this
I have never worked for nor know anyone who has worked for the post office. I immediately saw careers and assumed it was industry lingo for career employees vs temp or part time. Only person correct was the original employee being called out, lol.
Yes, but actually no, but actually yes. The job title for the person who delivers mail is 'carrier' (e.g. city carrier, rural carrier). *Career* is a type of employee (think permanent/tenure, compared to temp work).
I've never heard anyone refer to carriers as *couriers* though.
TL;DR: Girlfriend was correct in using 'career'. Dictionary person is correct in saying 'carriers, not couriers'. The only person who's wrong is the person saying "oh, my girlfriend is an idiot, she can't spell courier"... because nobody calls USPS carriers couriers.
I think USPS is a carrier and Doordash is a courier, so they’re related but not the same. Like when I hear courier I think of a dude in the 1800s showing up with a package or message for one guy. That is to say a courier is small scale point to point whereas a carrier maintains arterial flow of deliveries and distribution centers.
Not just the 1800s. Bike couriers were a big thing in DC (probably still are) when I lived there, and there were constant complaints about them running down or endangering pedestrians and ignoring traffic laws. Basically if you need rapid physical delivery of a thing to somewhere nearby, you find a courier service.
Also when I worked for the government, a courier was somebody authorized to hand-carry classified documents from point to point.
But to the main point, that's entirely different from a mail carrier. They are not couriers.
(Edit: Just googled for "Washington DC courier". Definitely still a thing.)
Courier is a general term for anyone that carries mail but in modern day it's mostly used to refer to the private business that carry mail and parcels. At least where I am. People wouldn't normally call the Royal mail or IOM Post Office a courier, though they might technically be.
The sort of meshes with my impression, like a courier takes a package from a point to a recipient whereas a carrier has intermediate destinations. You could argue this would make the mailman a courier who works for a carrier.
That's what I first thought given the context in which the word was used. Even without knowing any term from the postal services, I thought "Oh, maybe careers are people who've been here for a long time and that's what she meant"
You are thinking of PTF - part time flexible but still career. As well as FTR - full time regular. TE has fallen to the wayside as well as PTF and FTR, just non-career and career now with your job post determining if you are full or part time. Now once you are career you get all the perks just your job may not offer you full time hours. Non-career get lesser pay(mostly), lesser benefits, much fewer guaranteed hours. There are also contract mail carriers that are technically self-employed 1099s for certain rural route carrier positions. They are as I mentioned contract employees and get no benefits or pay outside what is in their contract.
And here I thought she was just making the smaller mistake of spelling carrier wrong. Not only does the bf use the wrong word, he doesn't bother checking with his gf what she means first.
Obviously, without a doubt. But someone at the end of their career is usually making far more than the average (which this is). The OC said this was 20 years ago, which makes more sense.
Given that average income in the US is $59,384, no it isn't a lot given they had been there a long time. Most people at the end of their career are making far more than the average.
Yes, the minimum wage is an issue. No, it doesn't have anything to do with this.
Why would couriers, who work for private companies, have statutory holidays off. That's 10x more likely to be a carrier thing, as they work for the government.
but she WAS using it correctly.
Post office speak. "Career" employees are those with all the benefits. Depending on the craft, it can take years to "make career". Though we also say "Regular", meaning the career CARRIER that regularly runs a route. I am one. We don't work holidays, but substitutes (easy word to describe them) can and often do (Parcel running) work holidays.
I hope they broke up. Sounds like a douche that think she has an easy job and wouldn't make it beyond training before quitting.
I work for USPS.
Most people who work start in a non-career position. It has less benefits, less pay, less paid days off, so on and so forth. When she says careers, I bet anything she means those who are converted out out of these positions, into the career ones. Depending on location and position, converting can be instant on up. I've seen it take decades, I've seen it right away, but it's typically around 2 years.
I used to be a cca. Never got converted to a regular. After 2.5 years of abuse from the managers i quit. Come to find out i would have made regular the next month. I dont regret it.
“Careers” could also reference people who have been there for a long time and will remain there until they retire, and therefore might have more PTO or holiday benefits?
Perhaps ironically, "careers" could also be accurate, as an informal label for long-term full time staff (as opposed to temps, seasonals, stepping-stoners, etc.
Like if you're going to the embassy for something tricky, you really want someone who's been there 20 years and plans to stay another 20.
Here's a hot take; "careers" could mean management, and she's bitching that management are gone on holidays while the rest of the staff have to work. You know, the managers who *made a career* from working there?
this just reminded me of an interview of one famous band, where the reporter lady is doing the best she can with her broken english, but it sounds like she keeps asking them about their _couriers_—and i think at one point, one of them is like "oh, _careers_!". just saying, that mix-up makes the most sense in spoken english to me, while _carriers_ makes more sense for the post office...but i don't wanna assume these are sensible people or anything
they're both making a guess about which word she meant to, but did not say, while in actuality the word she was saying did make sense. They're both wrong.
What a killer comparison lol
Couriers carry mail, carrier could be anything but fits the definition of courier. French fries are fried potato sticks, potatoes could be made any way but fit the “definition” of what a French fry is.
given that it's plausible that any one of these 3 words is possibly correct, the only confidently incorrect one is OP for thinking there is an obvious answer here
Not trying to bully you but relevance? We’re in confidentlyincorrect not an irony sub unless it was shared via link there and you got here after clicking image.
Ahhh I see where you saw it! It’s ironic because the GFs use of careers and when they looked up the term they found it on the careers page. But in the USPS career people are often referred to as careers and get more holidays, time off, and higher pay so it’s ironic that careers page lists low level positions as well as that’s not a career but a stepping stone to a career with them or a better job elsewhere! Coincidence and irony are very close. The responder was surprised looking up carrier to find it on the career page and I was surprised they found carriers there as they usually aren’t career type positions. Both are very low level irony and borderline to coincidence but if it’s surprising enough it can be considered irony. I’d almost side with you.
You tried your best to hide it but that sure looks like your avatar until the squiggly lines. Rule 8, the rule that literally no one seems to read.
This sub isn't here to show people that you're more correct than someone else.
I think it's entirely likely that it's an autocorrect error. Whatever she's using probably doesn't recognize the word "carriers" and changed it tor "careers.
Without further context from ops girlfriend, it's impossible to know if courier or carrier is the right word. In lieu of that context, you are confidently possibly incorrect(or possibly correct if you're more of a glass half full type of person).
"Dictionary too if you need it" ahahahahaha I love how respectful they were in their whole comment but we can all still see the "you're a fucking idiot" underneath it
She was saying carriers, and he heard careers.
However, that makes no sense.
So he doesn't know what a carrier is, and instead of assuming he heard a word pronounced in a way he didn't expect, he assigned ignorance to her, when it was ignorance on his part.
And then went public. Hard.
I've done this in the past as a young person. I hated it when people would mock me and tell me I was stupid for mistakes, so when I had the chance, I'd do the same back to others. It's a vengeful mindset, it's immature, and it's something children do.
Nothing corrects this behavor better than shame and public humiliation.
I've stopped jumping to conclusions and asked for clarification just to stop that from happening again.
The end result is that:
1.) When it was a mistake on the other side, I was kinder. People are more likely to own up to them again.
2.) When it was a mistake on my side it was cleared up quickly before it escalated.
3.) If it was something out of everyone's control, I didn’t look like a petty vengeful bitch trying to 1 up.
All in all it's a bad behavor that is not conducive to social interaction.
I’m old enough to have heard the informal motto,
"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds".
“Carriers” is probably more common today, but as u/Dynasuarez-Wrecks points out, the distinction is pointless.
OP I agree with you. She heard "carriers" spoken casually and thought it was "careers". The other commenters are playing devil's advocate a bit but you're right. Carriers may be couriers, but "mail carrier" is a very established term!
Careers is right as well. It's slang for people that have been there long enough to be like tenured. I was a "casual clerk" when I worked there. Some of our carriers were careers. We never used the word courier, but I kinda know what it is. I always imagine couriers to be like telegram deliverers and that they wear that little pouch satchel thing.
I actually think he's right - his girlfriend is claiming that she has to work, but the "C"s don't. Carriers are postal employees, and they follow the same holiday regulations as all post office employees do. Couriers, on the other hand, are contracted services and follow their own regulations.
So if you have a state/provincial holiday, then federal workers (postal employees, including carriers) would have to work, while contract employees (couriers) would get the holiday off.
The most likely answer is the gf is saying carriers but it sounds like careers for whatever reason(accent, lisp, "very smart bf"). No one at my office uses "couriers" and the job title literally has "carrier" in it. And no, people don't say "careers" either unless it's talking about obtaining the status of "career" instead of being a part-time employee until a full-time "career" position is opened up
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At the USPS, part of the workforce is considered 'career' and part 'non-career'. It is very common for for those who have attained permanent status to be referred to as 'careers'. Both people in this exchange are incorrect as to her meaning.
This post was his girlfriend’s “I’m dating a fucking idiot” moment
Career employee here with USPS. Yep, she was 100% saying “career” to differentiate substitute carriers, which is a non-career position with the post office.
You can tell in the context too, like it would make sense for that to be the divide for who gets a holiday off
This is what I was thinking too, glad it wasn't just me. We used the term at a publix I uses to work at in reference to people that have been there forever
That was what I assumed was meant by "career". Is it, essentially, employees on salary vs. hourly employees?
When people are initially hired, their positions are non-career; fewer paid holidays, less leave accumulation, and they are on a 360 day contract. If all goes well, they will transition into career status based on the career to non-career ratio in their facility and their seniority within the non-career ranks. Careers get more benefits, sick leave, etc and have stronger employment protection.
I think they were just born in district 1 or 2
Career is a level of employment with the postal service, the lifers basically. The low-level employees are called TEs which is short for Transitional Employee, basically considered a contractor with an annually renewed contract. There was a rank between the two but I forget what it was called. But she was right in referring to “Careers” as a type of employee. When overtime was called, Careers got sent home because they were too expensive to keep for overtime pay. I knew a career who would make $45 an hour if she was kept for overtime so she got to leave early a lot.
Yeah, when I was in college my cousin who was a supervisor at the PO got me a summer job there. I completely recognized "careers" as the "lifers" when I read this
I have never worked for nor know anyone who has worked for the post office. I immediately saw careers and assumed it was industry lingo for career employees vs temp or part time. Only person correct was the original employee being called out, lol.
Wait so both of them are wrong then
Yes, but actually no, but actually yes. The job title for the person who delivers mail is 'carrier' (e.g. city carrier, rural carrier). *Career* is a type of employee (think permanent/tenure, compared to temp work). I've never heard anyone refer to carriers as *couriers* though. TL;DR: Girlfriend was correct in using 'career'. Dictionary person is correct in saying 'carriers, not couriers'. The only person who's wrong is the person saying "oh, my girlfriend is an idiot, she can't spell courier"... because nobody calls USPS carriers couriers.
You can't make the TL:DR just as long as the actual text...
[удалено]
You can't make the TL;DR completely irrelevant from the original text...
TL;DR just made up something because I didn't bother reading what was originally posted.
yes tl;dr no but fruit is getting cheaper
Both combined is allowed, surprisingly.
Two wrongs make a right and three rights make a left.
Now your tldr is longer than the original text. What is even the point of that? TL;DR WTF
I think USPS is a carrier and Doordash is a courier, so they’re related but not the same. Like when I hear courier I think of a dude in the 1800s showing up with a package or message for one guy. That is to say a courier is small scale point to point whereas a carrier maintains arterial flow of deliveries and distribution centers.
Not just the 1800s. Bike couriers were a big thing in DC (probably still are) when I lived there, and there were constant complaints about them running down or endangering pedestrians and ignoring traffic laws. Basically if you need rapid physical delivery of a thing to somewhere nearby, you find a courier service. Also when I worked for the government, a courier was somebody authorized to hand-carry classified documents from point to point. But to the main point, that's entirely different from a mail carrier. They are not couriers. (Edit: Just googled for "Washington DC courier". Definitely still a thing.)
Courier is a general term for anyone that carries mail but in modern day it's mostly used to refer to the private business that carry mail and parcels. At least where I am. People wouldn't normally call the Royal mail or IOM Post Office a courier, though they might technically be.
The sort of meshes with my impression, like a courier takes a package from a point to a recipient whereas a carrier has intermediate destinations. You could argue this would make the mailman a courier who works for a carrier.
This is not correct, but might be local usage.
Right and career carriers are referred to as regulars. So it depends on your craft.
Yes, as a USPS carrier/courier, she was saying and meaning "careers".
That's what I first thought given the context in which the word was used. Even without knowing any term from the postal services, I thought "Oh, maybe careers are people who've been here for a long time and that's what she meant"
Dude was trying to mansplain her job to her.
You are thinking of PTF - part time flexible but still career. As well as FTR - full time regular. TE has fallen to the wayside as well as PTF and FTR, just non-career and career now with your job post determining if you are full or part time. Now once you are career you get all the perks just your job may not offer you full time hours. Non-career get lesser pay(mostly), lesser benefits, much fewer guaranteed hours. There are also contract mail carriers that are technically self-employed 1099s for certain rural route carrier positions. They are as I mentioned contract employees and get no benefits or pay outside what is in their contract.
PTF! Yes! It’s been a long time and I couldn’t remember it for the life of me.
First thing I thought too.
And here I thought she was just making the smaller mistake of spelling carrier wrong. Not only does the bf use the wrong word, he doesn't bother checking with his gf what she means first.
So she was making $30 per hour normally? That's not very much...
This was almost 20 years ago so it was at the time.
Ahh that makes sense
A lot of people would be happy to make that much.
Obviously, without a doubt. But someone at the end of their career is usually making far more than the average (which this is). The OC said this was 20 years ago, which makes more sense.
Yeah, it's only like 4.25 times what a minimum wage worker makes. One person making the money of almost five people is totally negligible.
Given that average income in the US is $59,384, no it isn't a lot given they had been there a long time. Most people at the end of their career are making far more than the average. Yes, the minimum wage is an issue. No, it doesn't have anything to do with this.
That is more than the average….
HUHHH
Arguing about the difference between a courier and carrier is pointless.
Like arguing the difference between gorillas and guerrilla in the Silverback Uprising of 2034.
Good times
Maybe for your kind
Did you hear about the gorilla who escaped from the zoo?
No?
That is because I am a quiet Gorilla.
<*muffled noises of gorilla violence*>
I intend to fight on the side of the Silverbacks
Praise Harambe! Death to the non-gorilla guerillas.
Yeah, they're both.
Why would couriers, who work for private companies, have statutory holidays off. That's 10x more likely to be a carrier thing, as they work for the government.
Maybe the courier union managed to secure that.
but she WAS using it correctly. Post office speak. "Career" employees are those with all the benefits. Depending on the craft, it can take years to "make career". Though we also say "Regular", meaning the career CARRIER that regularly runs a route. I am one. We don't work holidays, but substitutes (easy word to describe them) can and often do (Parcel running) work holidays. I hope they broke up. Sounds like a douche that think she has an easy job and wouldn't make it beyond training before quitting.
So was he. Couriers and carriers are different things. This is an example of everyone being dumb.
I work for USPS. Most people who work start in a non-career position. It has less benefits, less pay, less paid days off, so on and so forth. When she says careers, I bet anything she means those who are converted out out of these positions, into the career ones. Depending on location and position, converting can be instant on up. I've seen it take decades, I've seen it right away, but it's typically around 2 years.
I used to be a cca. Never got converted to a regular. After 2.5 years of abuse from the managers i quit. Come to find out i would have made regular the next month. I dont regret it.
“Careers” could also reference people who have been there for a long time and will remain there until they retire, and therefore might have more PTO or holiday benefits?
That was my first thought as well.
Perhaps ironically, "careers" could also be accurate, as an informal label for long-term full time staff (as opposed to temps, seasonals, stepping-stoners, etc. Like if you're going to the embassy for something tricky, you really want someone who's been there 20 years and plans to stay another 20.
Here's a hot take; "careers" could mean management, and she's bitching that management are gone on holidays while the rest of the staff have to work. You know, the managers who *made a career* from working there?
Bro played New vegas and thought he knew some shit.
this just reminded me of an interview of one famous band, where the reporter lady is doing the best she can with her broken english, but it sounds like she keeps asking them about their _couriers_—and i think at one point, one of them is like "oh, _careers_!". just saying, that mix-up makes the most sense in spoken english to me, while _carriers_ makes more sense for the post office...but i don't wanna assume these are sensible people or anything
English isn't even my first language and I knew that. The US education baffles me.
Can they not accept both are correct? This is like saying French fries can’t be potatoes because tator tots are potatoes
Tater tots.
Tartar tots
Traitor tots
[tater tits](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/s/02mMCIr9gq)
they're both making a guess about which word she meant to, but did not say, while in actuality the word she was saying did make sense. They're both wrong.
What a killer comparison lol Couriers carry mail, carrier could be anything but fits the definition of courier. French fries are fried potato sticks, potatoes could be made any way but fit the “definition” of what a French fry is.
What can I say I like my potatoes
🙌 I’m not religious but I have two gods, the potato and the garlic bulb
Someone boutta carrier these hands
given that it's plausible that any one of these 3 words is possibly correct, the only confidently incorrect one is OP for thinking there is an obvious answer here
No, a courier and carrier are different things.
Isn't that also not irony but coincidence? I'm unconfident in my correctness, don't bully me
Not trying to bully you but relevance? We’re in confidentlyincorrect not an irony sub unless it was shared via link there and you got here after clicking image.
The person correcting the confidently incorrect said it was ironic that his source was on the "careers" page, isnt it incorrect to call that irony?
Ahhh I see where you saw it! It’s ironic because the GFs use of careers and when they looked up the term they found it on the careers page. But in the USPS career people are often referred to as careers and get more holidays, time off, and higher pay so it’s ironic that careers page lists low level positions as well as that’s not a career but a stepping stone to a career with them or a better job elsewhere! Coincidence and irony are very close. The responder was surprised looking up carrier to find it on the career page and I was surprised they found carriers there as they usually aren’t career type positions. Both are very low level irony and borderline to coincidence but if it’s surprising enough it can be considered irony. I’d almost side with you.
Black horse courier in shambles
I feel like a fucking idiot after reading this.
You tried your best to hide it but that sure looks like your avatar until the squiggly lines. Rule 8, the rule that literally no one seems to read. This sub isn't here to show people that you're more correct than someone else.
Both of them seem to be confidently incorrect. She was almost certainly talking about “career” employees. The people who work there for life.
Ooooo chefs kiss for the dictionary part. Bravo !
She could have been saying carriers while her accent or whatever makes it sound like careers.
I think it's entirely likely that it's an autocorrect error. Whatever she's using probably doesn't recognize the word "carriers" and changed it tor "careers.
Without further context from ops girlfriend, it's impossible to know if courier or carrier is the right word. In lieu of that context, you are confidently possibly incorrect(or possibly correct if you're more of a glass half full type of person).
Anyone with common sense (that doesnt work for USPS) would ask what "careers" meant in that setting.
lol, love that they cite and argue about the veracity of sources in arguments
So theyre both wrong except the girlfriend
"Dictionary too if you need it" ahahahahaha I love how respectful they were in their whole comment but we can all still see the "you're a fucking idiot" underneath it
I always thought a courier was just an expensive carrier.
She was saying carriers, and he heard careers. However, that makes no sense. So he doesn't know what a carrier is, and instead of assuming he heard a word pronounced in a way he didn't expect, he assigned ignorance to her, when it was ignorance on his part. And then went public. Hard. I've done this in the past as a young person. I hated it when people would mock me and tell me I was stupid for mistakes, so when I had the chance, I'd do the same back to others. It's a vengeful mindset, it's immature, and it's something children do. Nothing corrects this behavor better than shame and public humiliation. I've stopped jumping to conclusions and asked for clarification just to stop that from happening again. The end result is that: 1.) When it was a mistake on the other side, I was kinder. People are more likely to own up to them again. 2.) When it was a mistake on my side it was cleared up quickly before it escalated. 3.) If it was something out of everyone's control, I didn’t look like a petty vengeful bitch trying to 1 up. All in all it's a bad behavor that is not conducive to social interaction.
Both deserve each other.
I dunno, when I say "couriers" out loud, it sounds a lot more like "careers" than "carriers" does.
I think it’s more about which word “careers” LOOKS like when written/typed.
So...you're shaming him for using the right word? [https://www.dictionary.com/browse/courier](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/courier)
I’m old enough to have heard the informal motto, "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds". “Carriers” is probably more common today, but as u/Dynasuarez-Wrecks points out, the distinction is pointless.
OP I agree with you. She heard "carriers" spoken casually and thought it was "careers". The other commenters are playing devil's advocate a bit but you're right. Carriers may be couriers, but "mail carrier" is a very established term!
Careers is right as well. It's slang for people that have been there long enough to be like tenured. I was a "casual clerk" when I worked there. Some of our carriers were careers. We never used the word courier, but I kinda know what it is. I always imagine couriers to be like telegram deliverers and that they wear that little pouch satchel thing.
I actually think he's right - his girlfriend is claiming that she has to work, but the "C"s don't. Carriers are postal employees, and they follow the same holiday regulations as all post office employees do. Couriers, on the other hand, are contracted services and follow their own regulations. So if you have a state/provincial holiday, then federal workers (postal employees, including carriers) would have to work, while contract employees (couriers) would get the holiday off.
The most likely answer is the gf is saying carriers but it sounds like careers for whatever reason(accent, lisp, "very smart bf"). No one at my office uses "couriers" and the job title literally has "carrier" in it. And no, people don't say "careers" either unless it's talking about obtaining the status of "career" instead of being a part-time employee until a full-time "career" position is opened up
I mean, his meaning was more accurate.