So I'm standing in the lobby, waiting to talk to a friend of mine who works there, when this large old man (LOM) walks in. He strides up to the counter. and the ever-cheerful, always helpful receptionist (ECAHR) asks in she can help him.
LOM: "Yeah. I work for the Post Office, and yesterday I didn't go into work because it snowed...I don't do that...nope...don't do it. So now I need a letter from you all because they say that they're going to mark me as AWOL for the day unless you give me a letter that say that the roads were impassable."
(By way of background, we'd gotten a little bit of snow the day before that one. It had stopped by 8PM, it was only an inch or so, and the roads were all perfectly clear by the next morning.)
ECAHR: "I'm sorry, sir. We don't do that."
LOM: "Oh yes you do."
ECAHR: "No, sir. We don't."
LOM: (wagging his finger at her) Now before we get to arguing over this, let me set you straight right now. You people have done it before for me, twice!"
ECAHR: "Who did that, sir?"
LOM: (Gives last name of the previous sheriff...the one who left office a year ago.)
ECAHR: "Well he's not the Sheriff any more, sir. And I'm not doing it."
LOM: (turns around and stomps towards the door.) "You can go to Hell then!"
ECAHR: (waving.) "Have a nice day."
Whatever happened to "Neither rain nor snow nor gloom of night..."? I'm thinking that Benjamin Franklin would be disappointed in this guy. But then Dr. Franklin never had to deal with parasitical unions like this guy undoubtedly belongs to.
Such is life in Dueling Banjo country.
He must have been going to Texas with Davey Crockett then.
ReplyDeleteGee willikers! Sounds like the USPS in New Orleans!
ReplyDeleteI think we have an idea why the US Postal Service has a $240 billion budget shortfall.
ReplyDeleteIn a word - unions.
ReplyDeleteBenjamin Franklin was actually a really big supporter of "parasitical" unions. He championed the printers' union in the 1786 Philadelphia Typographer's Strike - the first successful labor strike in American history. If you interested in learning more I'd suggest "American Labor's First Strike" by Henry Rosemont.
ReplyDeleteI believe you simply encountered a jerk who happened to work for the post office. The receptionist in your story could have easily belonged to a union as well.
Unions had a place a hundred years ago when workplace health and safety was a valid issue,but rightly or wrongly, the government has taken over that role completely now. Unions today serve to extort money from businesses and workers alike, offering no benefit to a business but threatening to curtail productivity if they aren't constantly placated. They also suppress good workers by telling them to slow down when they make the bad workers look as bad as they are, and they spend 90% of their time trying to keep the same 10% of bottom-tier, lazy and/or criminal employees on the job (which also denies the job to potentially better workers on the outside). Businesses should be free to fight unions, and NO public-service workers should be allowed to unionize. All unions do today is drive up costs and prices and ensure that businesses so burdened are no longer competitive on the world market.
ReplyDeleteUnions had a place a hundred years ago when workplace health and safety was a valid issue,but rightly or wrongly, the government has taken over that role completely now. Unions today serve to extort money from businesses and workers alike, offering no benefit to a business but threatening to curtail productivity if they aren't constantly placated. They also suppress good workers by telling them to slow down when they make the bad workers look as bad as they are, and they spend 90% of their time trying to keep the same 10% of bottom-tier, lazy and/or criminal employees on the job (which also denies the job to potentially better workers on the outside). Businesses should be free to fight unions, and NO public-service workers should be allowed to unionize. All unions do today is drive up costs and prices and ensure that businesses so burdened are no longer competitive on the world market.
ReplyDelete