It looks like getting a raise can quickly affect the public’s sympathy towards you. That’s what one UPS driver recently found when he tried to inform his viewers of the company’s policy about wearing shorts in the summer.
On July 17, TikTok creator “Hey! That’s My UPS Guy!” (@heythatsmyupsguy) posted a video explaining that before drivers are allowed to wear shorts on the job they must first purchase socks with the UPS logo on them. Despite the fact that many of the company’s vehicles have yet to be upgraded to have AC.
@heythatsmyupsguy We must purchase and wear the UPS socks if we want to wear shorts. A previous contract concession before we were ALLOWED to wear shorts! This is why UPS drivers can be petty. lol
♬ original sound – Hey! That’s My UPS Guy!
The video now has close to 700,000 views as of the time this article was published. However, many of those viewers are not showing much sympathy for the driver’s plight. Instead, many responded with contempt due to the fact that the Teamsters Union recently achieved an unprecedented contract with UPS that resulted in drivers being paid around $42 an hour.
The agreement between the union and the company was reached only days after UPS Guy posted his video.
“Bro you make $42 an hr. Cry me a River…..” one user commented.
“So how much is the socks if you making 40 sum an hour and can’t get socks I mean?” another viewer wrote.
“At $170k I think you can afford a set of 12 pairs every couple months,” a user stated.
However, some viewers weren’t quite as salty.
One stated “People definitely missed the point of this,” to which the UPS driver responded, “I know, right? I’m sure some of these comments are from those at the top 1%.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to UPS via email.
While drivers employed by the company will be making more money over the next few years the claims that they will make $170,000 annually is exaggerated. The Daily Dot recently reported on a viral video by another UPS driver that explained that after accounting for insurance and pension payments the figure is closer to $92K a year.
The driver appears to be taking the sour grapes in the comments with a grain of salt but he is paying the price for revealing a hack — cutting off the tops of the socks so that they can be worn over non-official pairs while still showing the logo.
“I’ve been getting dirty looks the last 2 weeks,” he wrote in the comments.
Update 5:51pm CT, Aug. 30: When reached for comment, the UPS driver said he brushed the negative comments his video received off.
“The negative comments don’t bother me. “You develop thick skin here. Some get grumpy and bitter, I just joke and laugh about it,” he said, adding that he “didn’t intend for this post to sound like I’m complaining about anything.”
“I thought it was going to be just a funny video poking fun at the executives, management, union, and us drivers,” he shared. “TikTok rewards videos that trigger responses, so I worked the formula. It worked better than expected.”
