Travis - Please don't base your outlook on life on this message board. Neither should you base your view of your prospective future employer on "I've heard..." stories. The pool at big brown has been an enigma to all of us for years but you knew that when you applied here, didn't you?
I'm sure you're very nervous right now on what might happen in the future with your pool slot - I'd say keep doing what you're doing right now and things will probably work out after all. Remember the "slowdown" in hiring is a typical knee-jerk reaction many companies, not just UPS, have when there's a significant change in the economy or retirement legislation, in this case both.
However, when people start backing up the training department with all the extra training events, when the atmosphere here turns sour and folks get tired of picking up open time, when over 60 guys who miraculously got better to get back the left seat again start calling in sick again or go back on medical leave again , etc, they'll recognize that we might have to start hiring much sooner that that after all.
I'd imagine this early in the game no one, even R Barr, really knows when we'll need to be hiring again. Personally I think it'll be sooner rather than later.
Either way - good luck to you and to all the poolies - hang in there knowing that the guys who're already wearing the brown uniforms constantly keep pushing the company and the union to make sure the pool gets drained asap.
