Brits are swapping their summer wardrobe for cosier clothing as the cold weather rolls in with one notable exception: our posties.
Despite a mild October, November’s icy chill would have prompted most of us to bid farewell to shorts. However, postal workers march to a different drum; regardless of the weather, they’re renowned for their unwavering dedication to delivering our mail in shorts, the Mirror reports.
Intrigued by this bizarre choice, curious Brits turned to Reddit for answers, and the consensus from posties was clear. One postman claims the main reason is down to practicality: “It really is just because it gets hot doing the job”.
Another postman chimed in: “One round I cover, I wear trousers just because of the wind. I made the mistake once and had windburn all up my legs, but that particular village happens to be the highest point of the town and is a massive wind tunnel. All other rounds I’m in shorts pretty much all year.”
Given that a postal worker’s daily duties involve extensive walking, it’s no surprise that shorts are the preferred attire for maintaining body temperature.
The Reddit discussion revealed that excessive sweating is a common gripe among the Royal Mail team, with one postie simply stating he ‘hates sweating’.
However, in severe conditions, some delivery workers admitted to wearing waterproof trousers – although one postie cheekily responded with ‘skin is waterproof’. A former Royal Mail employee also unveiled a competition amongst the posties, where they would challenge each other to see who would be the first to give in to the winter cold and switch to trousers.
This postman added that everyone would chip in £1 to a pot each week, and the winner, whoever endured the longest in shorts, would donate the winnings to a charity of their choice.
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