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Just Wow, At The Post Office This Morning
3
sometimes the holidays are stressful, especially for middle-aged women who are societally expected to take care of everyone's problems, so they let fly in other venues.
Kudos to the postal employees! We love you!
Kudos to the postal employees! We love you!
4
Everything you said is absolutely true.
It also wouldn't kill the post office to have a couple more of those automated stations in every post office.
It also wouldn't kill the post office to have a couple more of those automated stations in every post office.
5
Americans are just throbbing pieces of shit this time of year. I went to University Village and that was a fucking hell hole. I've never seen so many spoiled rich shitholes bitching at employees who barely make over $9.00 an hour in my life.
And that place has gone downhill since Barnes and Noble was kicked out...just sayin'
And that place has gone downhill since Barnes and Noble was kicked out...just sayin'
6
Having worked at UV for five years, you got no idea…
P.S. If you tell a rude person to shut the hell up, you are doing both that person and society as a whole a favor. Those people are bottom-feeding bullies picking on retail employees because they know the retail employee (or postal worker in this case) isn't allowed to fight back. It's cowardly, and they need to be called on it.
P.S. If you tell a rude person to shut the hell up, you are doing both that person and society as a whole a favor. Those people are bottom-feeding bullies picking on retail employees because they know the retail employee (or postal worker in this case) isn't allowed to fight back. It's cowardly, and they need to be called on it.
7
Nothing makes me more aware that I live in a bubble of reasonably competent people quite like seeing how many other folks need help at the "self-service" postal machine. Almost every time I have used one I have had to help the person in front of me. I work really hard to be kind, but holy jeezuz, is it frustrating.
8
I wish the post office where I waited in a long line to buy ONE STAMP had an automated postal kiosk. As it was, the postal worker who could read English and saw my sign 'I WILL BUY YOUR 45 CENT STAMP' took pity on me and let me pay with exact change, thus letting me escape what was probably a half-hour wait.
9
@1 Here ya go.
http://oi47.tinypic.com/nd0m05.jpg
Same PS, same "automated self-service" machine". Taken Sept 5 because I thought it was sad and ironic that a "self-service" machine required a complete walk-through. If you need a walk through, don't use the self-service machine. Like self-checkout at stores, they're there for efficiency. The delightful staff behind the counter is definitely more your speed; they too need help from time to time.
- Transfer staff that are terminally bewildered, chronically dismal, slow over to the DMV or DOL.
- Postal employees need to do less up-selling and cross-selling and more FAST SELLING. No I don't need insurance on my $.44 letter. I trust you.
- Paint your post office. No money? Ask your community for help. I'd donate time and paint if we could do something besides ... beige ...
- Make it feel a little less like a waiting room in a cold-war-era doctor's office. See if Starbucks will do a pilot concept store with you.
- And bring back the vending machines where I can buy a stamp in less than 5 minutes of waiting in line, for christ's sake!
http://oi47.tinypic.com/nd0m05.jpg
Same PS, same "automated self-service" machine". Taken Sept 5 because I thought it was sad and ironic that a "self-service" machine required a complete walk-through. If you need a walk through, don't use the self-service machine. Like self-checkout at stores, they're there for efficiency. The delightful staff behind the counter is definitely more your speed; they too need help from time to time.
- Transfer staff that are terminally bewildered, chronically dismal, slow over to the DMV or DOL.
- Postal employees need to do less up-selling and cross-selling and more FAST SELLING. No I don't need insurance on my $.44 letter. I trust you.
- Paint your post office. No money? Ask your community for help. I'd donate time and paint if we could do something besides ... beige ...
- Make it feel a little less like a waiting room in a cold-war-era doctor's office. See if Starbucks will do a pilot concept store with you.
- And bring back the vending machines where I can buy a stamp in less than 5 minutes of waiting in line, for christ's sake!
11
So many elements of this story reflect broader problems in the world.
1. The fact that a large number of people are incapable of using a self-service kiosk. This reflects poorly both on the incapable users and the folks who built the kiosk interface and failed to make it truly foolproof.
2. The fact that the post office has to assign a person to provide assistance to folks using the self-service kiosk. This, of course, invalidates the presumed benefit of having such a device.
3. The people who continue to attempt to use the self-service kiosk when they have proven incapable, yet will not admit their failure, move to the service line, and allow the people in queue behind them to conduct their business. Don't they recognize how rude they're being? Can't do it? Give up and talk to a clerk.
4. The whole post-modern oxymoron "self-service". If I'm doing it myself, then how is it service? This is all part of a business effort to save on costs by shifting the labor onto the customer.
5. The whole McDonald's-style effort to dumb work down to the point that absolutely no training is required and even the customer can do it. This means that new workers can be fully functional almost instantly, but it also means that there is no reason to keep experienced workers and that workers do not acquire skills, so there's no reason to pay them any more. This is how we get people who have had the same job for years and years and still make entry-level wages.
6. The people who berate customer service workers. Not only is this cruel (making a shitty job even shittier), but it makes no sense. It's not going to endear you to them and motivate them to serve you better. I will never understand why anyone would choose to antagonize the very people who they want to serve them.
7. An economic system that requires low wage workers to take shit from customers. Disrespectful treatment should not be part of anyone's job.
By the way, people can't work the self-service postal kiosk (or the self-check in at the airport, an ATM, the troubleshooter wizard on their computer, or any number of other self-service devices) primarily because they don't read the words on the screen. They are either too lazy or too impatient to actually read the screen so they respond to the question that they presume is on it rather than the question that is actually on it.
More...
1. The fact that a large number of people are incapable of using a self-service kiosk. This reflects poorly both on the incapable users and the folks who built the kiosk interface and failed to make it truly foolproof.
2. The fact that the post office has to assign a person to provide assistance to folks using the self-service kiosk. This, of course, invalidates the presumed benefit of having such a device.
3. The people who continue to attempt to use the self-service kiosk when they have proven incapable, yet will not admit their failure, move to the service line, and allow the people in queue behind them to conduct their business. Don't they recognize how rude they're being? Can't do it? Give up and talk to a clerk.
4. The whole post-modern oxymoron "self-service". If I'm doing it myself, then how is it service? This is all part of a business effort to save on costs by shifting the labor onto the customer.
5. The whole McDonald's-style effort to dumb work down to the point that absolutely no training is required and even the customer can do it. This means that new workers can be fully functional almost instantly, but it also means that there is no reason to keep experienced workers and that workers do not acquire skills, so there's no reason to pay them any more. This is how we get people who have had the same job for years and years and still make entry-level wages.
6. The people who berate customer service workers. Not only is this cruel (making a shitty job even shittier), but it makes no sense. It's not going to endear you to them and motivate them to serve you better. I will never understand why anyone would choose to antagonize the very people who they want to serve them.
7. An economic system that requires low wage workers to take shit from customers. Disrespectful treatment should not be part of anyone's job.
By the way, people can't work the self-service postal kiosk (or the self-check in at the airport, an ATM, the troubleshooter wizard on their computer, or any number of other self-service devices) primarily because they don't read the words on the screen. They are either too lazy or too impatient to actually read the screen so they respond to the question that they presume is on it rather than the question that is actually on it.
13
@9 YES! Thank you for mentioning that:
Bring back the vending machines! That was a style of self-service that really was foolproof. And it was quick!
Bring back the vending machines! That was a style of self-service that really was foolproof. And it was quick!
14
The fact that large numbers of people have trouble with the newer self-service machines but never had any trouble at all with the old-fashioned stamp vending machines tells me more about the competence of the designers of those respective machines than it does the members of the public who use them.
16
@7,
I'm loath to admit it, but whenever I see an elderly individual trying to use the self-serve kiosk, I make a beeline for the regular counter. I've been burned on that count more than once.
@13,
And you could use them to buy just one stamp.
I'm loath to admit it, but whenever I see an elderly individual trying to use the self-serve kiosk, I make a beeline for the regular counter. I've been burned on that count more than once.
@13,
And you could use them to buy just one stamp.
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