From Austin TX — 02/15/2010
    At one time ups used to be a decent place to work. I have been there 13 years and even with a college degree have still not been able to get a promotion. Part of it is because I have refused to suck up (a requirement). One constant is the ridiculously conservative policies. Men can not have beards. There are no casual dress days ever. Women can’t wear open toe or open heel shoes. Very few personal items are allowed on your desk aside from a calendar, a picture (frame required), and stapler or something. No screensavers or wallpaper are allowed. At first, I though maybe it was just my office, but after talking to other employees at other buildings, I found out it was that strict everywhere. For an hourly employee, pay is below average ( $35,000). Things really started to get worse in the last few years. Due to budget “cutbacks”, they have discontinued the 401k matching program. At the same time, it was also announced they our health insurance benefits would focus on a more “shared responsibility” meaning that I pay almost three times what I used and have less things covered. An ongoing prescription for my kid used to cost $5 per refill, now costs $35!

     The most frustrating thing is how we constantly have meetings saying how much profit we have per quarter, per year, etc. (Around 1 billion annually) Then they turn around and tell us benefits are being cut, we’ve laid people off, etc. UPS recently spent around 7 million dollars to lobby congress in hopes of passing a bill that would possibly cause Fedex to unionize. And who knows how much UPS spends for all the NASCAR stuff. They always tell us UPS’s people are it’s most valuable asset. Well how about taking some of that 1 billion profit and instead of paying congressman and the NASCAR spending and give it back to the people who keep the company profitable?