I voted yes, just because so many people have problems with UPS/ FedEx delivering to home addresses when they are not around. You either have to go and pick it up at their facility or miss the first 2 deliveries anyway, or risk them leaving it on your porch and a curious neighbor picking it up themselves. If you can just be sure it’s delivered while you’re at work, no harm, no foul.
Lots of people here get Amazon and other personal shipments here, including me. We have someone in the office who brings the mail around once an hour, so it’s not a huge burden on him (there are about 40 people who work here). If it’s not convenient for him to bring it (he’s got too much stuff, packages are oversized, whatever), he’ll email you or call you to come get it from the mail room. It seems to be a complete non-issue in my office.
It’s not a problem in my office, but I didn’t realize that by having something shipped to me at my work address in Canada from the US meant that our customs broker was involved because it had the company name on it and I had to reimburse the company. Cost me an extra $20. The last time I had something shipped, the package had just my name and the street address without the company name and did not get flagged by our customs broker.
I try to let our shipping department know. They’re nice about it and it doesn’t seem to be a problem.
FWIW - as the person who prepares out going courier packages in our office, I have also sent packages for my co-workers. They reimburse the company for the courier fees. No big deal, doesn’t take long and keeps everyone happy.
I get stuff just left on my door step from UPS all the time. Yesterday it was a $200 cymbal and stand and I’m sure the UPS guy could see us looking at him through the window, but he just left it.
That being said, your situation may be different for one reason or the other and I don’t think it’s a bad thing to have an occasional package sent to work. I also send things out from our mailroom once in awhile. Of course, it’s a college mailroom that functions, for all intents and purposes, as a post office.
I’ve only worked in small office environments, so it’s cool - no mailroom or inconvenience to other people. I actually think we’re a little bit like Sims. Someone gets a package and if they open it, we all flock over and examine it. Ooooh, Threadless shipment!
The weird part is that my coworker’s girlfriend gets stuff shipped here. I’ve had to sign for things and it takes me a second to remember that’s his girlfriend’s name.
Also, weirdest thing I’ve seen someone receive at work: a Kendo mask.
JFTR, my place of employment would probably not raise an eyebrow were I to receive a mailed parcel at work, but making a habit of having UPS and FedEx dropping things off would likely be a problem.
Just check with whoever runs the mail room/ loading dock and you’ll have your answer.
I work in a hospital and one day when I was passing by the dock I saw a stock car frame pushed off to one side. Pretty sure it wasn’t for any work related project.
Not kosher here. They don’t pay the mailstaff to sort and deliver our personal packages.
Obviously it depends entirely on where you work.
At my work this is a big no-no.
I can understand having a package sent to the office, but Netflix envelopes come in the mail and fit in any mailbox. So why wouldn’t you have the discs shipped to your home?
My company has no problem with people having personal packages delivered to work. They encourage anything that will help you spend more time at work. There’s a dry-cleaning service, a cafeteria (so you don’t have to leave the property to get lunch), a mail room that can give you postage (so you don’t have to go to the post office yourself), and a host of other conveniences all geared to making it easy for you to stay at work rather than run out to do errands.
I always get my deliveries sent to the office. I’ve got two coming today in fact, one from the UK and one from the US. It’s much preferable to having them delivered to my home address, because if they’re large, the postman won’t leave them, and I have to go off later and pick them up at my local post office.
The receptionists at work don’t care. The package arrives, they call me and I go and get it from them.
I’ve worked in both large and small offices and having personal packages delivered was never a problem in any scenario no matter what the contents. Hell, I once had an antique gun delivered to the office, not that anyone knew that was what was in it.
My feeling is, we all worked very hard at every job I’ve held, often working into the evening without any additional pay because we are all salary. If that means you poke around on the Straightdope during slow periods or have a package delivered to the office instead of risking it getting stolen from your front step, then more power to you.
It’s not a problem here.
I work in a very small office – less than 20 people – and there’s no official person to answer the door or get the mail. Whoever’s closest when the doorbell rings does it. That’s just as likely to be me as someone else anyway.
The first few companies I worked with didn’t care. I even had a pair of skis delivered to work at my last job.
My current company has a strict policy against having personal packages delivered to the office.
-D/a
I live in a neighborhood that has a lot of foot and vehicle traffic. My front porch is quite close to the road. If I’m not home to sign for something it gets left in plain view of the street with no attempt by the delivery person to make it less obvious. For that reason I have stuff delivered to work or to my mom’s house. Mom’s house is a half hour each way + chat time, so work is easier. I sign for most everything at work except USPS which goes to the front desk. Most times no one is even aware I’ve received anything. I’ve had everything from guitar parts to kayaks (twice) delivered at work with never a word said to me. I do notice that not many other people have personal stuff delivered at work. If I have something shipped that I wouldn’t want known at work for whatever reason, it goes to Mom’s.
One downside I see is if something for me got signed for by someone else and then disappeared…it could get awkward. In that situation I’d be tempted to just let it go (if it wasn’t too expensive) rather than raise a stink.
Ditto. I don’t really understand why there would be a problem with it. I’ve had 9-foot gardening fencing delivered to my office, which is probably the outside of what I’d be comfortable with, but I don’t get why, say, Amazon packages would be taboo. People for whom it’s forbidden, or who say you’d have an issue with it – what’s wrong with it?
This is straight-up hilarious. 
I see this as akin to making personal phone calls at work. Do it but don’t overdo it. An occasional package delivery or an occasional personal phone call at work should not be a big deal. Of course, some companies don’t allow either. I’ve never had any problems getting stuff delivered to my work place.
I’m not really sure what the policy is where I work. I’ve only had two packages delivered directly to me since I’ve been working there; both were repair parts for projects, so they were work-related. Both packages arrived on my desk after they were opened though.
I asked before I did it, but never worked anywhere that had a problem with it. As a single person, if it needs a signature, I need it to go where I am.