Friday, August 08, 2008
Rockefeller Center Post Office – redefining futility
By today’s standards, the Post Office in the basement of the Rockefeller Center is large. And considering how many people work in the area, it should come as no surprise that it is usually busy in there. When I went in yesterday at about quarter to two, just at the tail end of lunchtime, there was a fairly lengthy line, though certainly not the longest I have seen. Five tellers were behind the counter, of whom, I would discover, only three were serving customers – all, very, very slowly.
Unfortunately, the man in front of me was muttering every 20 seconds comments such as “oh, come on!” and “so slow!” He let up when I said “Please! You’re not making them go any faster!”
While the number of active tellers rose briefly to 5, the line moved somewhat quicker. It took barely more than 5 minutes for me to go from 17th in line to 5th, then another 10 minutes from there. I was aware all of this time of one woman who could put out DVDs on how not to work. This woman is near genius level. Only near, because if she was true genius, I wouldn’t have tumbled her.
I watched this woman putting labels on envelopes with extreme deliberation. She moved things from the right to the left side below her counter, then moved things from right to left, then attached more labels, looked thoughtful, attached yet more labels and further re-arranged things. All the while, she was initiating conversations with the woman a the station next to her. Oh the laughs they had!
When she finally took a customer, she continued her conversation and managed to take several minutes processing a single package. And then another couple to recount money and move some more things.
When I was close to the front of the queue, a woman was walking around asking people if they were aware of the new hours at that office, and handing out glossy leaflets for those who couldn’t remember that it will now close at 5pm without a piece of paper. My thoughts, having witnessed the work ‘ethic’, was that it must be incredibly exhausting avoiding work so effectively, and by 5pm they presumably are too tired to continue.
More seriously, if Post Office tellers were paid by the number of customers they see, my time in that place would have been 5 minutes instead of 40. What a total disgrace.
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Unfortunately, the man in front of me was muttering every 20 seconds comments such as “oh, come on!” and “so slow!” He let up when I said “Please! You’re not making them go any faster!”
While the number of active tellers rose briefly to 5, the line moved somewhat quicker. It took barely more than 5 minutes for me to go from 17th in line to 5th, then another 10 minutes from there. I was aware all of this time of one woman who could put out DVDs on how not to work. This woman is near genius level. Only near, because if she was true genius, I wouldn’t have tumbled her.
I watched this woman putting labels on envelopes with extreme deliberation. She moved things from the right to the left side below her counter, then moved things from right to left, then attached more labels, looked thoughtful, attached yet more labels and further re-arranged things. All the while, she was initiating conversations with the woman a the station next to her. Oh the laughs they had!
When she finally took a customer, she continued her conversation and managed to take several minutes processing a single package. And then another couple to recount money and move some more things.
When I was close to the front of the queue, a woman was walking around asking people if they were aware of the new hours at that office, and handing out glossy leaflets for those who couldn’t remember that it will now close at 5pm without a piece of paper. My thoughts, having witnessed the work ‘ethic’, was that it must be incredibly exhausting avoiding work so effectively, and by 5pm they presumably are too tired to continue.
More seriously, if Post Office tellers were paid by the number of customers they see, my time in that place would have been 5 minutes instead of 40. What a total disgrace.
