Having a boss that makes your favorite cake on your birthday, making your own schedule based around your classes and saving gas money while getting to work with fellow Union students sounds like a pretty sweet deal.
Emma Hopkins, senior nursing major, has worked in the Union University post office since the spring semester of her freshman year and believes there are benefits to experiencing work through an on-campus job as opposed to working off campus.
“My boss understands that I have a schedule, tests to study for and clinicals,” Hopkins said. “I don’t think working off campus would’ve given me a boss that gets it like mine does.”
Along with an understanding boss, mail room employees have a voice in setting their working hours. Hopkins said students can collaborate and set each of their schedules around their class times.
Collaborating with other students on the same campus is a unique opportunity that is not always available through off campus jobs, Hopkins said.
“I like getting to work with and hang out with other people at Union that I might not otherwise get to know. It’s fun, and I get to meet students that are involved in things that I’m not,” Hopkins said.
Hopkins said working on campus saves her gas money. Instead of hopping in her car to drive to work, she has the convenience of just walking across campus.
However, like any other position, even jobs at Union come with their fair share of obstacles.
“People don’t always understand how much work we’re doing behind the scenes,” she said. “They don’t realize that getting their packages to them is actually a systematic process. We can’t just grab it and give it to them.”
Through sorting the mail, scanning packages and getting newly ordered textbooks to anxious students, employees are kept busy to maintain the flow of the campus post office.
“It is just as much work as any other job, and I like knowing that I’m working for the school that I love,” Hopkins said.
