Off The Record

Here’s Why Postmen Always Wear Shorts, Even In Cold Temperatures

Published on October 28, 2024

As October draws to a close and November approaches, I regret to inform you that the shorts weather is officially finished.

It’s time to wear jeans that reach your ankles unless you’re a postie, of course, and you don’t want your knobby knees to bang together while you freeze in the cooler months.

These true letter delivery terminators will be going from door to door in shorts—the essential legs that allow them to move over the nation and deliver letters exposed to the weather—rain, shine, snow, or hail.

While some of them may be seen wearing trousers, many posties continue to wear shorts well into the months after everyone else has taken theirs off.

Why postmen and postwomen wear shorts to work their routes every day may seem a little perplexing to the rest of us.

Thankfully, several curious British people had this same topic on their minds and posted it on Reddit, where both current and former postmen and postwomen provided replies.

One particularly popular response said, “It really is just because it gets hot doing the job.”

“One round I cover I wear trousers just because of the wind (made the mistake once and had windburn all up my legs), but it’s that particular village that 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.”

The shorts were chosen because, according to another postie, they “hate sweating” and “walking around all day used to make me sweat my balls off.”

Another postie stated that “skin is waterproof” and “walking all day is hot work,” however they did add that they might put on waterproofs in extremely severe weather conditions.

Wearing shorts helps keep the body cooler since, according to the postie hivemind, walking about all day with everyone else’s posts is a certain way to end up marinated in your own sweat by the end of the shift.

It’s easy to think that soaking rain-soaked pants would take longer to dry than just wrapping your legs in a towel.

Postmen/women of the uk, why do you wear shorts all year round no matter the weather?
byu/amenizm89 inAskUK

Postman Pat didn’t have to spend hours walking about Greendale delivering to hundreds or even thousands of addresses every day, but you never really saw him in shorts.

“Posties would even make it interesting among themselves by setting challenges for who could last the longest in winter wearing shorts,” according to another former Royal Mail employee.

Every week, they continued, everyone would put a pound into the pot, and the winner would be able to donate it to the charity of their choice.

Wearing shorts appears to make sense, as no one wants to go around till they’re sweating more than they’re supposed to.