Katie Johnson: Going postal this Christmas season
Published 12:19 pm Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Is it just me or has the four-month Christmas season driven people to insanity?
I stopped at the post office four days before Christmas to ship my gifts and cards. I am not going home this holiday; therefore, my family will be receiving their presents via mail.
Admittedly, shipping anything the Monday before Christmas is pushing it, especially when sending to Washington, Florida, Colorado, Minnesota, South Dakota and other far-away states. The shipping price will be higher if you want your items to arrive on time, and there will undoubtedly be a waiting line at the post office.
Just as predicted, I arrived at the post office shortly before noon to a long line out the door after waiting for a parking space. No surprise there.
The three clerks worked as quickly and professionally as possible as customers indicated their shipping preferences. Most customers were friendly and patient, chatting with people they recognized in line and rolling their eyes and chuckling at their own procrastination, which is why they had the long wait.
So as the line wound closer to the counter, we could unintentionally catch wind of some of the conversations, and one woman – upon discovering they did not have her preferred stamp of choice in stock – gave the clerk a hard time and stood at the counter to place the offending stamps on about a dozen envelopes before shoving them at the clerk and muttering under her breath.
When an envelope arrives in your mailbox, how often do you notice what the picture or design on the stamp is? Will your Christmas be less merry because some cards did not come mailed in a snowman-stamped envelope?
The other customers commented on the woman’s rudeness as she declined the clerk’s offer of Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and other specialty stamps. She finally settled for the Virgin Mary stamps, loudly complaining under her breath about the unavailability of her favored Christmas stamp.
Again, it’s four days before Christmas. Do not expect to arrive at a post office a handful of days before a major holiday and get exactly what you want. A notice on the door even indicated using Express Mail may not ensure your package will arrive by Dec. 25.
But the stamp lady was not the exception that day. A couple other customers arrived in line and loudly complained – so that everyone at the counter could hear, including the clerks – that the lines were ridiculous and the post office understaffed. Obviously, both of those issues were out of the employees’ control. The clerks were nothing but polite and upbeat to every customer I saw. I was in and out in less than 20 minutes.
In case you aren’t familiar with the situation our postal workers are dealing with, here is a brief summary: The U.S. Postal Service had already laid off 25,000 employees by May this year, in addition to hiking the postal rate 2 cents. These measures are not even expected to offset the decrease in mail volume, a result of people turning to the Internet for financial transactions and personal communication combined with a recession.
Ask any postal employee how things are going nowadays, and the outlook is not good. I have worked with and befriended several postal workers in recent years, and they are doing everything they can just to get the mail out every day. There has been debate about the benefits of eliminating mail on Saturdays; carriers have also held protests and walkouts.
But postal workers are not the only employees falling victim to rude, emotional customers this season. I have always thought everyone should work in two jobs at least once in their lives – retail and food service – to truly understand what they put up with on a daily basis.
If I could pick a third, it would be newspapers, but I’ll spare you that gripe.
The Christmas spirit takes on a pretty nasty tone sometimes. Something about waiting in line or crossing off a list pushes some people over edge, which makes me wonder why we take gift-giving to these lengths. Understandably, Christmas isn’t a good time for everyone for various reasons. It can even be a depressing or sad time.
But take a second to consider about what you are doing before you fire off at someone on the phone or checkout – this is a very difficult reason for those in retail and customer service, and they are putting up with some pretty strung-out, thoughtless people. Oftentimes, the issues of complaint are out of their control.
In other words, think twice before going postal.
Katie Johnson is managing editor of the Niles Daily Star, Edwardsburg Argus and Cassopolis Vigilant. She can be reached at (269) 687-7713 or at katie.john son@leaderpub.com.