COOKED
Optical character recognition and delivery-barcode sorters already read and route the vast majority of mail, and remote encoding centers that once keyed unreadable addresses have been nearly wiped out — the remaining work is feeding, sweeping, clearing jams, and culling non-machinable pieces inside a controlled plant, which is the easiest kind of environment for materials-handling robotics to attack. There is no license, no sign-off, and almost no discretion: the machine defines the procedure. What protects this job today is the APWU contract and USPS's network consolidation pace, not the difficulty of the tasks.
Core tasks are already automatable. The Delivery Barcode Sorter and AFCS already do the reading, facing, cancelling and sequencing — what a clerk contributes is loading trays onto the feeder, sweeping full bins into hampers, pulling jams and separating flats from letters, which is why this sits at 5 rather than 10: the sorting decision itself was automated decades ago and only the material handling around it survives.
Some physical or field component. You are on your feet a full tour lifting 40-pound trays and USPS sacks, throwing to hampers, and reaching into machine throats to clear a jam — but it is one climate-controlled plant floor with fixed machine positions and standard MTE containers, not a variable outdoor site, so it lands mid-scale at 10 instead of the high teens where field work sits.
No licence, no signature requirement. No license, no certification, no exam — you are hired into a bargained craft position and trained on the machine; nothing you touch requires your personal sign-off, and mis-sorts are absorbed by the network's rewind, not charged to a named individual, which is why this is a 1 and not a 5.
Anonymous artifact production. The customer never learns who processed their mail; letters leave the plant anonymously and any relationship the Postal Service has is with the carrier or the window clerk, so the only reason this is 2 rather than 0 is the working rapport with your tour supervisor and crew, which does not travel with you.
Executes defined procedures on defined inputs. Your calls are bounded by the sort plan, the scheme, and standard work instructions — deciding a piece is non-machinable, flagging a suspicious parcel to the inspector, or stopping the belt for a jam is real but pre-defined judgment, which is why 3 rather than 8: nothing you decide is ambiguous or consequential enough to be second-guessed later.
Dishwashers EXPOSED
Food Preparation Workers EXPOSED
Has AI actually changed your work?