Pros
In this job I got to drive to many parts of Montgomery County, the District of Columbia, and even Prince George's County to read electric meters for PEPCO. I got to see many parts of the Washington area that I never would have seen otherwise. It didn't happen often, but occasionally I would get a route that could be finished sooner than eight hours and when I got back to the office, I would still get paid for eight hours.
Cons
You also have to drive to those same places to read meters in LOUSY weather. Not only did rain make your job uncomfortable, but it also made it harder to use field glasses which was essential for your job. The job required you to read meters in back yards, and when nobody was home and the back yards are locked, your job got harder. (This is where the field glasses came in.) In the heyday of Accu-Read there were times we would be working six day weeks REGULARLY for most of the year and we would have to beg management for occasional two-day weekends. Nobody knew that we would get nostalgic for that the last two years! PEPCO added smart meters to the route, and at first they were just harder to read---but eventually those meters came on-line and they were taken off our routes, which started getting shorter, and shorter, and shorter. Eventually, the inevitable happened---we were laid off because with all the new smart meters PEPCO didn't need contract meter readers anymore.