# Lazy buggers at the Post Office **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 4, 2006, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-buggers-at-the-post-office/382833 "2006-12-04T17:46:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2006, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-buggers-at-the-post-office/382833/81 "2006-12-09T09:26:13Z")
**Spectre** PO Counter staff do not have to assist in the sorting etc. of the mail. There job is simply to toss packages/letters into the correct bags for collection by a PO van driver, see post 54. Sometimes, well quite often, stuff is in the wrong bags and the staff at the sorting office have to re-bag it. FYI there are any number of sized bags, Larger ones for parcels, medium for small packets, and small for letters/postcards. These bags are also colour coded which is supposed to make the job easier but it doesn’t. After being dragged around the sorting office floor for a while they are the same shade of dirty. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2006, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-buggers-at-the-post-office/382833/82 "2006-12-09T15:51:57Z")
[QUOTE=lissener] We also spit in your soup, so karmic balance abides. [/QUOTE] You should be well acquainted with karma. You’re a living example of how it works, wage slave. ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2006, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-buggers-at-the-post-office/382833/83 "2006-12-09T21:28:03Z")
[QUOTE=Absolute] I thought of this three weeks later, when the package arrived at it’s destination - after being routed to France by mistake, back to the US, and then to Italy. [/QUOTE] In a former life, I had a major customer in Vienna, Austria. We took to addressing things: “Vienna, Austria, Europe, Northern Hemisphere” and yet about 1 in 50 would still get routed to Australia. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2006, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-buggers-at-the-post-office/382833/84 "2006-12-10T00:50:16Z")
[QUOTE=Kevbo] In a former life, I had a major customer in Vienna, Austria. We took to addressing things: “Vienna, Austria, Europe, Northern Hemisphere” and yet about 1 in 50 would still get routed to Australia. [/QUOTE] As an Australian postal worker, part of my job is sending all this crap back to Austria. We get tons of it, and I’m sure the Austrians do too. It’s interesting though: the misdirected mail invariably comes from two places (well 90% of it does): Germany and America. Now, Germany I can understand, because “Austria” written in English is closer to “Australia” than it is to “Österreich”, but as for the USA, I have no idea. It’s especially stupid when the rest of the address is something like: Klaus Schmidt 4/79 KönigsStraße Vien 17 Crikey! ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2006, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-buggers-at-the-post-office/382833/85 "2006-12-10T00:51:24Z")
Wien, even. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2006, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-buggers-at-the-post-office/382833/86 "2006-12-10T09:23:24Z")
Just a suggestion **TheLoadedDog** but if you changed the name of Australia to **Chuzzwassa** that would stop all this confusion. Oh wait…that’s a frog innit 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2006, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-buggers-at-the-post-office/382833/87 "2006-12-10T09:28:26Z")
Heh! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![eenerms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cdc98d/32.png) [@eenerms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eenerms)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2006, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-buggers-at-the-post-office/382833/88 "2006-12-10T11:22:02Z")
I just read a blurb about how quite a few Post Offices in the UK are going to be closing because of high costs and competition from email etc. No cite sorry. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2006, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-buggers-at-the-post-office/382833/89 "2006-12-10T11:24:51Z")
[QUOTE=eenerms] I just read a blurb about how quite a few Post Offices in the UK are going to be closing because of high costs and competition from email etc. No cite sorry. [/QUOTE] The Royal Mail has lost its standard letter monopoly. That must count for some of that. ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2006, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-buggers-at-the-post-office/382833/90 "2006-12-10T19:57:08Z")
[QUOTE=TheLoadedDog] The Royal Mail has lost its standard letter monopoly. That must count for some of that. [/QUOTE] More pertinently to the actual post office branches, if The Economist is to be believed it costs £1 to pay someone’s beenfits via the post office and 1 penny to dump it into their bank account and save them the bother of queuing up to collect it. That’s going to kill off a vast number of the smaller branches, which ironically are probably the ones doing the most good. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2006, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-buggers-at-the-post-office/382833/91 "2006-12-10T20:11:44Z")
What happened, sadly, in Australia is that although Australia Post proudly touts its record in keeping post offices open and compares itself favourably to the banks in the number of branches it has, it doesn’t mention that in the 90’s it sold off all it’s lovely old grand post office buildings, and now you’ll find that in the average Australian town or suburb, the big old two story brick post office building in a convenient and central location is now a physiotherapist’s or something, and the post office itself is a mean little shopfront with aluminium siding tucked away in a hard to find and inconvenient side street. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2006, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-buggers-at-the-post-office/382833/92 "2006-12-11T07:48:22Z")
The problem is solved! As Will Smith says in MiB2, all postal employees are aliens 😃 ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2006, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-buggers-at-the-post-office/382833/93 "2006-12-11T10:13:39Z")
[QUOTE=TheLoadedDog] … the post office itself is a mean little shopfront with aluminium siding tucked away in a hard to find and inconvenient side street. [/QUOTE] Most of the post offices around here are actually _more_ conveniently located than before, now being situated in shopping malls etc. What I hate about them is that they are now jam packed with retail crap totally unrelated to mail. It’s fine that they sell Christmas cards and pens, calendars and so on. But all the toys? And money belts for travelling overseas? You can’t move in my local PO for bins and tables full of junk. And who was the moron who destroyed the GPO? I hadn’t been into that building for some time but instead of the stately, wonderful GPO of old, it’s now a crappy little shopfront PO like the rest of them. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2006, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-buggers-at-the-post-office/382833/94 "2006-12-11T12:23:59Z")
[QUOTE=jabiru] Most of the post offices around here are actually _more_ conveniently located than before, now being situated in shopping malls etc. What I hate about them is that they are now jam packed with retail crap totally unrelated to mail. It’s fine that they sell Christmas cards and pens, calendars and so on. But all the toys? And money belts for travelling overseas? You can’t move in my local PO for bins and tables full of junk. And who was the moron who destroyed the GPO? I hadn’t been into that building for some time but instead of the stately, wonderful GPO of old, it’s now a crappy little shopfront PO like the rest of them. [/QUOTE] Nah, I agree with **Loaded**. It used to be that PO’s (especially in the older inner city areas) were located at major intersections so you always knew where to find them. Not so any more: they’re more likely to be away from the main shopping drag now (cheaper leases I guess) and unless you are familiar with the area, virtually impossible to find. But I do agree with you about the GPO. Here in Melbourne it has been ‘converted’ into a mall of sorts with up market boutiques and other stores. The exterior has remained the same (thank Christ) but the inside has been essentially gutted, and it’s previous magnificent grandeur lost in a sea of glass and chrome. Sometimes progress just stuffs everything up. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2006, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-buggers-at-the-post-office/382833/95 "2006-12-11T13:30:52Z")
Our main PO sells flowers…wtf? ---
**Author:** ![Tio\_Gringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5e925/32.png) [@Tio\_Gringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tio_Gringo)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2006, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-buggers-at-the-post-office/382833/96 "2006-12-12T16:08:57Z")
I am a 14 year employee of the Postal Service, so I have been around the block many, many times. It is true that the vast majority of window clerks I have encountered both as an employee and as a customer are rude, lazy, and surly…and I have a theory on why they are. Postal work is mind-numbingly, soul-crushingly boring and repetitious. On an average night you come in to find 50,000 (or more) letters to be sorted and dispatched by the end of your shift. Repeat the next night…and the next…_ad nauseum_. Add to that the fact that postal management has a reputation of…er, not playing well with others. They can range anywhere from, at best, inept, to, at worst, downright abusive. There are also virtually no bonuses, merit pay, or other incentives to do one’s job efficiently or accurately. On the flip side, there are rarely, if ever, consequences for laziness or incompetence. Finally, when a job opens up, all interested employees bid on it during a periodic bid cycle. The job is then awarded strictly on a seniority basis. Window clerk jobs are one of the few clerk jobs in the PO where the hours roughly approximate “real people” hours (most clerk jobs are on the night shift). This and the fact that most window clerk jobs are at substations (ie not at a GPO) make these jobs _very_ desirable within the PO. Consequently, window clerk bids normally go to clerks with _at least_ 20 years of service (in the ghetto) and up to 30-35 years (in the nicer ‘burbs). So, in essence, my theory is that the average surly window clerk is a product of 20-plus years of being a cog in the postal machine. I am by no means trying to excuse their behavior; rather I am trying to open a window into the PO so you understand how they got that way. A cautionary tale, if you will. ---
**Author:** ![Tio\_Gringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5e925/32.png) [@Tio\_Gringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tio_Gringo)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2006, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-buggers-at-the-post-office/382833/97 "2006-12-12T16:37:06Z")
Oh, and since that was my very first pit posting ever (I don’t hang around here much): Mother-fucking, goat-felching window clerks. Total fucktards. Fuck. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2006, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-buggers-at-the-post-office/382833/98 "2006-12-12T16:44:25Z")
[QUOTE=chowder] Coupled with this fisco there is a bloke behind me coughing and spluttering all the sodding time. Snot, mucus the whole bag of tricks…fucking hell! Never covered his mouth or nose, just spread his frigging microbes all over the gaff and occasionally dragged a filthy rag out of his pocket to wipe his conk, examine the contents and then fold it _neatly_ and put it in his top pocket. [/QUOTE] Can you imagine how well his stamps are going to stick to the letters? ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2006, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-buggers-at-the-post-office/382833/99 "2006-12-12T17:05:28Z")
[QUOTE=lieu] Can you imagine how well his stamps are going to stick to the letters? [/QUOTE] If it’s all the same to you I’d rather not :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Ensign\_Edison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ab992/32.png) [@Ensign\_Edison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ensign_Edison)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2006, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-buggers-at-the-post-office/382833/100 "2006-12-12T17:13:03Z")
I see Gary is yet another Doper who doesn’t understand what the Pit is all about. Excellent ranting, lissener. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-buggers-at-the-post-office/382833.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lazy-buggers-at-the-post-office/382833.md?page=6)