Several items of mail were misdelivered to us today. They belonged to a house down the block. No big deal. I waited until I saw the mailman coming back around, and I went over and said (pleasantly) “These aren’t for us, they go to that house over there.” The mailman said “Well, what do you expect, you don’t have your house number where I can see it.” I said “The house number is right in the middle of the front door, see?” He did see, and I guess it annoyed him, so he said “Oh, fuck off.”
OK, I am an oldish person (sixty), and the mailman (apparently a substitute) is a youngish person (twentysomething). Am I, as a young relative told me, just out of touch with the way people talk these days? Is “fuck off” considered an acceptable response under the circumstances?
I am kinda inclined to report this, but then again, I worry that it’s like telling the kids to get the hell off my lawn.
I hate to sound like a puss on this, but unless it happens again, I’d let it go. You don’t want someone who provides you a service pissed at you- he could “accidentally” lose your tax refund, etc. And he could have been having a bad day- give him the benefit of the doubt.
But if you’re confident he’s just a sub and not your new regular guy, then that’s different.
I’d be inclined to report it pinkfreud, in your position. There is a very, very slim chance that he meant it in a kind of head-slapping, I can’t believe I missed that way, sort of like get the fuck out of here!. Odds are high, however, that he was just being an obnoxious shithouse who thinks he’s Charles Bukowski. An apology is very much in order, it’s not like you’d be getting on your high horse because you don’t like being told to ‘fuck off’ by a public worker - it’s completely unacceptable. You could either contact the mail authorities yourself, or get someone (a family member / friend) to do some plain speaking to the postman in question next time he shows up.
Report him. That is completely unacceptable. And if he “accidentally” screws with your mail, as Wee Bairn suggests may happen, he is committing a federal offense and could see jail time for it.
You should both write a letter to the Postmaster General, and also make a follow-up phone call a few days later to register a complaint.
There is absolutely no excuse for his behavior. Call his boss and do something about it. Please. Letting this go only causes a chain reaction and further progresses our planet’s fall into cynical oblivion.
I prefer the cynical world over a world where you lose your job for telling someone to fuck off. God, if it were just a guy or gal in the street who would you “tattle” too? A 60 year old can handle a meanie like a big boy or girl without exacting petty revenge. What a soft nation of whiny brats we are.
That’s just the point, isn’t it?
It’s not just some person in the street - it’s an employee of the Post Office. If it was no big deal, than reporting his behavior won’t get him in an trouble. On the other hand, if it IS a big deal, than he should have thought first, before he opened his mouth.
Maybe a few more people getting fired will result in a more civil society.
Been working as a substitute mail carrier in the Tulsa area, by any chance? :rolleyes:
MrWhatsit, as I’ve mentioned around here before, is a mail carrier, and is frankly horrified at the idea of dropping the F-bomb on a customer. Report the guy.
You are SO off the mark. What world do you live in that it’s okay to tell ANYONE to fuck off when you acting as an employee? And a “guy or gal on the street”? He is a federal employee. They are held to high standards, as well they should be. I hope you don’t work in the service sector.
If this were an isolated incident, and there are no other reports of this kind of thing, I doubt that he would be fired. But I used to be a government employee myself, and I do think that if there is more than one instance of a civil servant making rude, vulgar statements of this sort, his ass should be outta there. If you cannot behave in a courteous manner (particularly in a situation in which you are the one in the wrong, and the customer has been pleasant about it), you shouldn’t be working with the public. You should be stuck beside a mail-sorting machine or hand-canceling parcels or something.
I am still torn, though, because I’ve been told by a college-aged relative that “everybody says ‘fuck off’ to everybody these days, and it doesn’t mean a thing.” I haven’t heard much of this in public, but maybe I live a sheltered life. I do know that today’s kids say “shut up” in a jokey manner that would have gotten a kid grounded or whupped when I was a young’un. If this is truly just a generation-gap misunderstanding, I don’t want to cause this guy any trouble. The tone of voice sounded very snarky to me, but that, too, may be just the way kids talk.
Report it. I can’t think of many industries where they can tell the customer to fuck off. When YOU pay THEIR salary, I can’t think of any at all.
I don’t think he’s automatically going to get fired, unless he’s had several complaints against him already, in which case he may deserve it. And I don’t think he’s going to mess with your mail, since that’s a federal offense.
Okay, more detailed answer from MrWhatsit (paraphrased, obviously). He said, yeah, that’s totally inappropriate. It’s hard to say how that particular carrier’s supervisor will handle it, but hell yeah, it should be reported. That carrier has a bad attitude and shouldn’t be talking to customers that way.
MrWhatsit also mentioned that one of his own supervisors said once that what he hates more than anything is when a postal employee gives off the impression that he (or she) is about to “go postal”. They are really trying not to feed that particular stereotype. So yeah, like I said before, report the dude. This is not a generation gap issue, and it is definitely not just the way kids talk, and even if it were, when the kids are uniformed mail carriers, they need to dial it down and behave appropriately.
