I don't know about your country...but in this country postal workers are considered only a slight bit higher on the food chain than migrant workers...LOL
But, I dare say that before my Mom died, I could put a card in my mailbox for 39 cents on a Monday, and it would get to her mailbox in another city in Texas the next day, and THAT is a pretty good service to people.
Post office workers are well thought of here on the whole. It is always considered a good job to have whether you are at the actual post office or delivering the mail.
The only problem can be if you get a bad apple that gives the others a bad name we had one a few years back that nicked a lot of the mail.
On the whole though the neighbourhood postman or postie as a term of of endearment is a sort of cult figure in Britian.
There is even a TV cartoon based on him and the post office use this as publicity and pictures of it are seen at the post office and sorting offices.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/characterpages/postmanpat/