The PO takes “going postal” very seriously and is trying to change the image (and get rid of that phrase–not likely). This guy has anger management issues–to respond in such a way to a polite request (you were trying to help him!). I would call your post office and speak to a supervisor. AND I would say that you don’t want to cause a fuss, but you are also concerned that perhaps your mail will go missing (he’s bound to know he reported him. If he doesn’t know, how many people is he cussing out on his daily round?). The supervisor should be able to reassure you.
I went on a field trip with girl scouts (with Daughter) to the local postal distribution center. We were given an informative tour of the place (complete with enclosed catwalks where postal inspectors show up at random and watch people sort mail and monitor machines that sort mail. I’ve never seen such a monitored workplace. You can’t sneeze or scratch your ass in that place without everyone knowing it). Anyway, I got to talking to an employee there who told me about the above stuff re “going postal”.
[QUOTE=Czarcasm]
This is not The BBQ Pit, and you’ve been here long enough to know better.
[/QUOTE]
It was a joke!
Well, not only would I have gone ballistic, but I’d have been up to my post office in a screaming second. (Heh. Our post office is my back yard.)
So, in the interest of wondering just what the world has come to where it’s even a question that “fuck off” from an employee in any capacity is rude and worthy of report, I read this to my husband. His response?
:eek:
There are just some things you do not say and do. A time and place, man. FTR, I’m 35. No longer young, but not yet old. I’d have come unhinged.
So, get the hell off my lawn!
As long as your mail gets to you fine, no complaints. There is a short list of dudes you don’t want pissed off at you- the company clerk, your doctor’s nurse, local beat cop, and your mail carrier. :eek:
[QUOTE=Absolute]
It was a joke!
[/QUOTE]
I got it. What do you say to someone who thinks “fuck off” is OK to say to a customer other than to tell them to fuck off.
[QUOTE=Absolute]
Fuck off.
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Czarcasm]
This is not The BBQ Pit, and you’ve been here long enough to know better.
[/QUOTE]
Of course you, me and Absolute all know that sort of language belongs in the Pit.
But JHWT thinks you’re a ‘soft whiny brat’ if you’re offended by it, so saying it to him is like saying ‘Hi - how are you?’ :rolleyes:
I’d report him. Honestly, telling a customer that to their face while on the job? That’s a big no-no.
I’ve used “oh fuck off!” or something of the like with my friends while joking around or something, but it was tone and situation that makes it different, you know? I don’t think it’s a generation-gap issue, but a flat out rude issue in this case.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t be offended by being told to fuck off, I just think it’s not worth reporting. Unless he jerks off into your mailbox or lights your tax return on fire, I’d let this one go.
Well, I don’t know if I am biased*, but I would report the little fuck. Not only that, I would make sure the neighbors know of his cavalier attitude – they might have some of your mail already.
*Did I ever tell the story about when I caught the mailman hitting his crack pipe while sitting at our mailbox? No? Hmmm…remind me sometime, it was really quite funny.
[QUOTE=JHWT]
I’m not saying you shouldn’t be offended by being told to fuck off, I just think it’s not worth reporting. Unless he jerks off into your mailbox or lights your tax return on fire, I’d let this one go.
[/QUOTE]
Uh-oh. We have a mail slot, not a mailbox. If that guy jerks off into my slot, there’s gonna be a lotta trouble. 
I was a letter carrier for 7 years mumble-mumble decades ago, starting when I was in my early 20s. It did make my jaw drop to hear that your carrier had told you to fuck off. Definitely report the jerk.
The person who should be told to not be offended is the jerk that got all bent out of shape being told some mail had been misdelivered, not the person who politely did the telling, fer cripes sake.
[QUOTE=pinkfreud]
Uh-oh. We have a mail slot, not a mailbox. If that guy jerks off into my slot, there’s gonna be a lotta trouble.
[/QUOTE]
Speaking of which, when I was a carrier, there were a number of door slots where the dog of the house would grab and tear at the mail before I got it all the way through the slot, so you’re right about the potential for a lotta trouble!
[QUOTE=pinkfreud]
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.
[/QUOTE]
That is absolute bullshit. I work with teenagers every day and I don’t get that shit from them. In fact, a patron told me to go fuck myself once and he was banned from the library for at least a month - and he wasn’t even an employee! If the customers get tossed for speaking to people in that manner then the employees sure better!
[QUOTE=lobotomyboy63]
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.
[/QUOTE]
Well, when the 24 hour emergency plumber gets to your house at 3 AM to deal with your poop geyser and he tells you to fuck off, you’re going to say “yes, sir.” Otherwise, nope, can’t think of anybody. 
I’ve worked enough customer service-ish positions to know that you don’t even swear around the general public, much less AT them. I would report the hell out of him - there is no way that is acceptable. And what kind of postal carrier can’t figure out your number from extrapolating from your neighbours, if your number was truly invisible (which it doesn’t sound like it was)? It’s not like they number the houses randomly.
[QUOTE=featherlou]
I’ve worked enough customer service-ish positions to know that you don’t even swear around the general public, much less AT them.
[/QUOTE]
Seconded. That is the one of the most egregious customer “service” stories I’ve heard. Another reason to report him (did someone say this already?) is that the Postal Service would want to know, if just to warn him, not fire him. They are competing these days with UPS and FedEx – they want to know about customer service, and it’s obviously important to them, and they obviously stress it – the vast majority (actually all) of the mail carriers I’ve known have been very polite. (I never knew any of those guys who went in and shot up the post office --that was rude.) What he said to you is so far beyond acceptable it’s mind-boggling.
[QUOTE=pinkfreud]
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?
[/QUOTE]
Absolutely not.
-FrL-
Report him. You might also mention that he considers your house numbers to be non-standard. There is a policy about this, and he does not get to decide it.
Report him - that was completely unacceptable behaviour.
Let’s say the mail carrier then takes those mis-delivered letters to the propper address, and is greeted with a 6’4" 250-lb. biker with a face that looks like the corrections officers fed with a sling-shot; who then voices his complaints about the mail carrier’s laxity of dilligence. Would he too be told to “fuck off?”
The answer to that question is the same as to “is ‘fuck off’ acceptable these days?”