Going Postal

     I took a client to the post office last week so she could mail a package. For some reason she had neither taped nor addressed the box, but had the address written on a sheet of paper.  As we stood in line, we noticed two signs declaring that all packages had to be taped and addressed by the customer. We found out that not only were employees not allowed to help tape packages, they had no means to do so.  All tape guns had been confiscated by the district supervisor from North Dakota, who had recently inspected our post offices and reprimanded the employees for being "too nice" to customers. Though the postal employees have no tape, there are dozens of rolls available for purchase at twice what they cost in other stores. The woman who waited on us had actually been written up for using the S word, claiming being too nice was customer Service.  Neither rain, nor snow nor gloom of night. . .too bad it doesn't mention tape.
     It would never occur to me to take a partially wrapped, unaddressed package to the post office, but I work in home health care and there are many clients who need extra help wrapping their packages (in every sense). This help will no longer be coming from postal employees. We live in an age when "going postal" is synonymous with job frustration and shooting up your workplace, yet some supervisor is afraid of the postal employees getting the reputation of being too nice.
     In the last few decades e-mail has replaced snail mail, businesses encourage paperless billing, and the coupons that once came in junk mail can be accessed by smart phone. The snail is becoming extinct. More importantly, with the advent of UPS, FedEx, etc. the post office is no longer the only game in town for shipping packages. Additions like priority mail and flat rate boxes have helped the post office be more competitive, but this is offset by shipping stations that both custom wrap packages and find the least expensive shipping option. The post office is going bankrupt and, unlike the rest of the government, is required to be self sustaining. In the real world, a business going under might try to lower prices and improve customer service. But the post office is not part of the real world, it is part of the government, so its solution to financial peril is to increase prices and decrease customer service. Not coincidentally, I don't go to the post office much. Good thing. I might just go postal.