A question for our American friends.

My daughter lives in New York and is a film editor and before that she was a journalist and worked on several high profile magazines. She has met quite a few rich and famous people and takes it all in her stride because she is a very confident person, so why does the thought of visiting a U.S. Post Office fill her with dread!? She absolutely hates posting anything because she says that the people who work there are so rude, antagonistic and unhelpful.

Is this true, are the Post Offices in New York staffed by nazis or demons from hell? I've always found that New Yorkers on the street are unfailingly friendly, courteous and helpful (apart from one taxi driver, who was an ******* of the first order), so I wonder if any New Yorkers on the forum can verify this or have had the same experience.

Not from there however i do go there a lot to see friends and family, in my opinion all Post Offices are filled with nazis and demons from hell. The look they all give you just spells **** off. :|

Really!? So my daughter's impression is correct. I didn't doubt her word, just couldn't understand why she felt so intimidated by people who are supposed to be public servants. Another question, why are they allowed to get away with it? They should be sacked!

The place she goes to might just be bad, sometimes certain buildings are just staffed with terrible people. More so I'd say it would have to do with the number of people that go to her place. They might be frustrated if they are understaffed, and depending on whether this is New York, or New York New York, this place could be having problems.

We have really kind public service here. But almost no one knows swedish even though we're supposed to have 2 main languages. So if you somewhere and speak swedish then it's almost guaranteed that the service will be crap.

No one likes the post office. It's usually staffed by senior citizens who've been at the job for 3 decades and who wear glasses so thick they can no longer read addresses so there's always the chance that your package will end up in Bora Bora. Usually post offices lack air conditioning as well, which is an absolute killer if the lines are long, though, admittedly, this has improved a bit of late.

And New Yorkers "unfailingly friendly," we're talking about the city, right?

New Yorkers from the Western part of the state where I live are typically friendly. Even at the Post Offices. The office where I live, the town I grew up in and the one in the town I work in are all staffed by decent humans last I knew.

The United States Postal Service is in a bad situation and is loosing money every day. The government is operating the system on a shoe string budget. Employees are worried and the offices are always under staffed. I understand why people would dread going there, I get a sense of impending Doom when o go to the post office.

its an unpleasnt job and usually the buildings aren't well equiped for comfort... its a lesser form of the dmv but without any seats...

First Tolvo, my daughter currently lives in Brooklyn at the mo' and before that she has lived on both the lower Eastside and the Westside in Manhattan, so it's seems that this 'attitude' is citywide.

And Pendant, I'm a senior citizen myself and I also wear glasses. I've also worked in retail and I know it's not easy being nice to people all the time and, whilst I admit that now and then I wasn't as helpful as I could have been, I was never as antagonistic or downright rude as these people seem to be. And yes I am talking about the city. As for the air conditioning problem, I can see this could be a contributory factor.

I'm on the west coast, most all of the civil servants I've met in washington are less than nice. The only exception for me is actually the libraryans. They're generally nice.

Well thanks everybody for satisfying my curiosity. It just seemed unbelievable that this was the situation that's all. My condolences to the citizens of New York. It must be a tough call going out to buy a stamp, no wonder people communicate via the internet.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: I love old people. My grandmother is one of the most amazing people on this planet.

WhatDoesThePendantDo? wrote:PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: I love old people. My grandmother is one of the most amazing people on this planet.

I hope you've told her that. I'm sure she'd appreciate it.

Not recently. Probably should.

Same here Pendant, I'm the only one of my direct siblings that actually visits their grandparents.