The postal worker is still getting all touchy feeling with my parcels.

[The Backlash Cometh]

There must be six postal workers working in this post office, and she's the only one that does it. If the letter is anything but a flat business letter, she starts bending and squeezing the envelope. Yesterday she touched it silly until I finally explained to her that what she was feeling was a spiral binder and it wasn't necessary to insure. And she said, yes, but we have equipment which can be damaged by it. But, it's okay because I've listed it as a large envelope.

Every postal worker here is different. The latino/asian guy always smiles and has a pleasant thing to say all the time. The black woman seems very professional, but she's ready to give you a smile no matter how bad your joke is. The white guy...I avoid the white guy. I went in there years ago when there was a long line of people. It was about the time when people began to realize that George Bush had done something boneheaded. He was actually lobbying for George Bush. "You know," he said, "it's called (some term I wish I can remember) when you're sitting around a management desk and the boss comes up with an idea and nobody can tell him it's a bad idea because of peer pressure." Then the guy sees me and buttons up. The same guy, about three months ago, I sent $80.00 in cash to one of my kids in college. He asked the usual questions about confirmation and I made the terrible mistake of telling him, "Don't worry, she'll call me if she doesn't receive it." She didn't get it. Mea Culpa. it won't happen again.

Anyway, I've already asked this question before and I got a reasonible answer, but why is one postal worker more attentive to all the touching, than the others if it's policy?

[havocmom]

1. Because she is a nosy control freak using policy as cover?

fer starters ;)

We all know at least one of them somewhere in our lives. Yours just found a great job to indulge her peccadilloes and get paid for it.

[Orrex]

2. Because she sees herself as the first, last, and only line of defense against mail-borne terrorism

My local office doesn't have anyone like that, but it has one guy who's an absolute stickler for policy.

I know the routine, so when I hand him a parcel, I say "priority mail, please. Nothing hazardous, perishable, or fragile."

Invariably, he responds by asking "how would you like to send this?" I repeat "priority."

"Anything hazardous, perishable, or fragile?"


It's clear that he either doesn't listen or is so bound to routine that he can't bear to diverge from it. It's a minor annoyance, in part because his methods can really slow down a line of customers.

Never had anyone at the Post Office fondle my package, though. So to speak.

[Odin2005]

4. LOL, sounds like me, absolute stickler for rules.

He sounds like me, LOL. Maybe he has Asperger's Syndrome. :)

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. Fondle? She's so thorough she has to retape the holes!

Just kidding.

[Retrograde]

12. I think every post office has one of those

I mail a lot of books, media mail. The packages are marked "book" all over the front. I tell the clerk I am mailing a book. He or she always asks "Is there anything breakable?" It's a book - aren't you listening?

I try to use the automated machine when I can.

[sailor65]

3. Does including all the races

give you the impression your point is somehow more meaningful?

The silliness of the adjectives aside, all PO's do these cursory checks. Sorting equipment (Which my company has built some of) is sensitive to changes in profile and the operators will divert odder shapes through different sorting channels. The one you're complaining about is probably just the only one who does it in front of you.

[KittyWampus]

6. Not all the races. We don't know the color of the mail fondler.

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. I didn't say it but, yup, she is anglo-American.

The thing is, before 9/11, she was my favorite. She seemed to be on top of things. Always pleasant, always knew her business and always helpful with information that might save you a buck. After 9/11, there was a noticeable difference with all of them, however, the others never reached her level of fanaticism, and have since mellowed out. She remains on high alert.

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. I think I may be making a point.

First, that the postal service is very multi-racial which is why I like going there. Second, that there may be a different level of "proprietary entitlement" going on. There was an observation years ago in the field, where it was noticed that anglo american soldiers were more prone to shoot "civilians" on command. I put that in paranthesis because we know now that "civilians" are sometimes strapped with grenades and other things that go bang. But that ethnic soldiers, hesitated. Can you imagine why there was such a difference? Obviously, sometimes the order led to tragic results, sometimes it saved the lives of American soldiers, so I'm not going to over-analyze it, except to say, that it would be neat to have someone look over the shoulders of postal workers, just to see if they treat everybody the same way.

[pipi_k]

9. Never had my mail manhandled, but I've had to deal with

ditzy mail carriers and snotty mail clerks.

My regular mail lady just retired after serving us for nearly 14 years. I miss her already. I used to miss her when she was on vacation. She very rarely screwed up, if ever. The new mail lady is just a ditz. We could always tell when the regular lady was on vacation because we'd end up getting other people's mail and our own volume of mail dropped significantly, leaving me to wonder if other people were getting OUR mail. She's been told quite a few times when she messed up, and I started keeping a record of the screw ups with the intent of notifying the local postmaster but she seems to be trying harder.

The snotty mail clerk...two years ago I was mailing out cookbooks for a fundraising effort on another discussion board. A couple of times a week I would head down to the PO in another town close to mine because it's closer than my own PO. One Friday I get there a bit before lunchtime closing (1 PM) with my pile of packages. I hear the clerk say to someone else that she is done for the day at 1:00. OK so the clerk is busy putting postage on them and I'm waiting, and in the meantime a guy walks in and gets in line after me. That's when little miss pissypants post office clerk decides to chastise me by telling me that I really should get there EARLIER if I'm going to mail out these things.

Wha...????????? She had to wait till someone else was there to give me the business???

Why the fuck didn't she just lock the door when she saw me come in with the pile of envelopes so nobody else could come in?

I was shocked to say the least, and it wasn't until later that I thought, wow, I should have very sweetly (and with a touch of nastiness) asked her if I had gotten her in trouble by "making" her stay an extra five minutes.

My problem is that I never expect people to act like assholes so I'm unprepared with a snappy comeback.

sigh...


I should have written a letter to her supervisor probably.

[The Backlash Cometh]

14. My old time favorite mailman.

He was lanky and an older gent. I would see him from a distance but never really got close enough to talk to him. Then there was work on my driveway. We changed it into a horseshoe shape. Small, but functional. Then, months later, my neighbor copied me. So, I'm walking to the mail box at the same time that the mail man is reaching the box. He hands me the mail and gestures with his eyes to the neighbor's new driveway. I smile, bemused. Then he drops his head and playfully looks over his lanky glasses and says, "Why don't you change something else and see if he copies you."

What a mischievous look! I'll never forget it.

[Gwendolyn]

10. You're missing a lot of nuance in stereotyping by race only.

For instance, the annoying postal worker at your location is female. Everyone knows that women are more apt to be perfectionist, small picture people. This is why women are unsuited for management positions where risk-taking and decision-making skills are involved. They do much better in clerical, repetitive type of employment. That's probably why this particular postal worker is such a stickler for policy. As a woman, she can't think outside the box and so follows the rules blindly.

I spend two weeks out of the month in the Great White North, and so have occasion to use the postal service a lot myself. The postal workers are all cranky as hell. Either that, or they dispatch their duties with the least amount of human interaction as possible, and I've never seen one of them smile. They come in all colors, shapes and sizes, BUT... they all appear to be in their fifties. Taking this common denominator into account, it stands to reason that these postal emps are grumpy and unfriendly because they're OLD. Goes to show that the elderly should not be put into positions where they face the public, as it's obvious they're just a downer on everyone's day.

If I put your stereotyping together with my more nuanced one... I guess we can deduce that old white women are without a doubt the worst of the bunch and absolutely suck.

[apocalypsehow]

11. Ummmm... Okay. n/t.

[Javaman]

13. Because they ran out of Charmin toilet paper. nt