That One Time I Worked As a Leaflet Distributor

Originally written on 23/06/2019 and 27/06/2019 and heavily adapted for this blog post.

Below is an account of my experience. It is split into 3 sections; Before, After and Reflection for simplicity. From the title, this may not seem like a riveting and engaging story but maybe you should give it a chance. In the words of Lipton Ice Tea, don’t knock it till you try it.

Before

Let me set the scene. I am casually sitting on a wall behind Brockley Station, loitering around to pass time while I wait for a new opportunity to begin. I’m going to start a job as a “leaflet distributor” today. That’s the technical term for those knobs who post junk mail through your letterbox.

I know this doesn’t seem like the most ideal career for a new graduate, but I need a way to generate cash flow while I look for a long term job and kick-start my career! I have previously applied for a plethora of positions but I haven’t found the one for me. There have been beauties that I have scouted on the job market, but it seems they didn’t like me back. Ah, unrequited love is quite common the job hunting world. Lots of rejection too. At least I know I gave it a shot!

I don’t know what will happen today, we’ll see if this is a good choice for me. At the moment, I have quite a few thoughts racing through my mind, examples include:

“Is this dodgy? I mean I did find this position on Facebook”

“What if I get tired? Can I stop and have a break?”

“Is it possible to post leaflets wrong?”

And that was an all too familiar look into my psyche. Some people would just be concerned about how hard the job is physically. Me? I’m concerned about that, plus my personal safety because I’m meeting a complete stranger from the internet about a job.

Regular person: I start a new job today, I hope it goes well.

Me: Hopefully I won’t be snatched away and have my organs put on sale on the black market, or worse – get shouted at by my manager.

Hopefully it all goes well.

After

4 days have passed since my first shift. Well, long story short, I decided not to carry on with the job and here’s why.

It was extremely tiring.

I know I’m not the fittest of them all (definitely the fairest though) but this was something else entirely. I don’t think it registered with me how exhausting walking could be in a position like this, and I knew I was going to be slow so I didn’t stop for a break once. To be honest that might have caused me to work slower in the long run. It certainly didn’t help with all the flats I had to walk up in a row. It was like climbing 12 floors in one go. I was told it takes a bit of time to adjust to the level of activity, but I think it would have been a longer process for me due to my sedentary inclination. Plus, I felt dizzy a couple of times and that’s not a good sign at all. Apparently, breakfast and lunch were not enough to sustain my life-force through such a strenuous activity.

It was boring and repetitive.

I had the option to listen to music, but I thought I needed to concentrate. I didn’t want to screw up my first assignment because I was jamming to Victorian Halls – one of my favourite bands. I know handing out leaflets may sound like an simple job, but it’s difficult to keep track of the houses that were done without doubling back on yourself. It’s also hard to stay motivated when you have so many houses to get through, including flats if you could access them. But because I was adamant on being present in the moment, I ended up being incredibly bored throughout the shift.

It was an embarrassing experience.

I was concerned about the reactions of residents if I gave them unsolicited mail or “junk”, so I posted the leaflets and left the houses as fast as I could. I didn’t even try posting through boxes that said “no junk mail” because I didn’t want to be met with an angry resident. I had to talk to people who were obviously outside their own houses and ask if they wanted a leaflet during the first hour of the shift. I was a bit shy and had to handle rejection on a few occasions, but people were generally nice about it. Another thing was entering flats. I had to ring the intercom until someone answered and when they did, I would say something along the lines of:

“Hello, I was wondering if I could leave some leaflets for the flats.”

Most people let me in, which surprised me. One person even said:

“Yeah, but not for my flat.” – Random flat owner

It was hilarious for them to refuse the leaflet themselves but give consent for everybody else in their block!

Dogs are incredibly aggressive!

When people put up those “Beware of Dog, Do Not Place Hands in Letterbox!” signs, they are not messing around! These dogs would hear the letterbox open and bark like mad. They then proceeded to ram themselves into the front door. I always wonder if they are being or have been abused. Throwing yourself at a door because you feel threatened by something rattling doesn’t sound normal, although those dogs could just be acting on their animal instinct. It was still scary and worrying to experience first-hand.

Another thing is the letterboxes themselves: consider this an honourable mention. They can snap back on you and catch your fingers. Just know that you don’t need an aggressive dog to get injured while mailing leaflets. I should know, I cut my finger. It should heal just fine but I’m concerned about the mental scars I have from this experience. I definitely don’t want to deal with crazy dogs, snappy letterboxes and 4 floor walk-up flats ever again.

Overall, this experience was quite harrowing. I always thought being a post-person was an awesome job, but now I know, it’s not for me.

Reflection

I have noticed a few things about myself over the past couple of months. My writing style for this blog is drastically different to the way this account was originally written. I had to breakdown and reconstruct the piece, along with changing the tone of some parts.

It was an odd experience to look back on a old piece and see how much I have developed as of late. Being able to reflect on my writing style and previous behaviours allowed me to see where I want to be, in terms of my aspirations regarding employment and myself. I am willing to learn from and reflect on my experiences with added maturity. Apparently, a lot can change in two months. I think I can attribute some of this evolution to the 3-week employability workshop I attended in July, but more on that later.

Yes, leaflet distribution wasn’t for me, but something else unexpected could be the start of my first career post-university. We’ll see what the future holds. For now, I’m going to continue to leap at every reasonable opportunity I get and head in with a positive mindset. If what they say is true, I should get out what I put in. Positive yields positive and negative yields negative.

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to follow me on social media for updates about my website, the links are in the navigation bar above. I also have a mailing list – subscribe and get notified for each time I upload a new post. I hope you have a great day!