For most of my adult life, I’ve been fighting to hold onto a stable job. Not because I wasn’t willing, but because the jobs available didn’t fit my life — schedules that changed week to week. Hours that started before school dropoff and ended after pickup. No flexibility for the reality of raising kids on your own.
Then I found a local job that has finally given me what I needed — stability for myself and to raise a family.
I found it at a package delivery service company operating out of Harlem. They offer 4-hour shifts. That might sound like a small thing, but for me, it changed everything. I could get my kids to school in the morning, go to work, and be back when they needed me. For the first time, I was making real money — more than I had ever made — and I could actually keep the job.
I started as a delivery associate, getting packages to people’s doors and learning the operation from the ground up. I got to be part of an important system for my Harlem community. It was honest work, and I was proud of it. What I didn’t expect was what came next.
Within just a few months, the team approached me about moving into a hiring manager role. Someone saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself yet. That I had never seen in myself. That isn’t something I take lightly. Now I’m the one doing the hiring — looking for the same thing my managers saw in me: someone in our community who just needs someone to take a chance on them.
A lot of the people I hire are navigating situations not unlike mine — New Yorkers who need flexibility not because they aren’t committed, but because their lives require it. New Yorkers without a degree who need an accessible entry point into the workforce. New Yorkers who are looking for pathways to advancement right in their own neighborhoods. This job has been the first one that met me where I was and gave me somewhere to go – and my story is happening 1,000 times across the city.
I’m sharing this because what I’ve found in this job is exactly what people in neighborhoods like ours spend years looking for: a steady schedule. Real pay. A path forward. Right now, that’s worth protecting.
However, the City Council is considering legislation — Intro. 518 — that would change how companies like mine operate, including the relationships between large delivery companies and the independent operators who run programs like ours. I’m not a policy expert, but I know what this job has meant for me and my daughters and son. And I know that trouble for my company means trouble for the workers here — people who, like me, finally found something that works.
New York talks a lot about creating opportunities for communities that have been left behind. For me, this job is that opportunity. I hope the City Council thinks carefully about what’s actually at stake before changing something that is working for the people it was built to serve.
Dhanielle Gaudineer is a local delivery driver based in Harlem.