I See Dead People
Thursday, May 6th, 2010 by Mark | Posted in Unconventional Thinking | Comments
So today I walked into a post office for the first time in many years.
But hold on: it wasn’t as if I just walked into a specific type of government building. It was more like walking head long into an episode of The Twilight Zone.
On the surface, everything looked like life on earth but as I stood there, waiting on line to pick up a certified letter, I had the distinct feeling that I had been transported into another dimension, an eerie reality, that is light years away from the life I know in the real world.
That life, mine, has everything to do with invention, creativity, entrepreneurship, drive, human achievement, results, reinvention. That is what I know. That is what drives America. That is at the core of our national culture. It is why people the world over come here….to be Americans. To start companies. Small ventures. And work with enormous zeal to drive their success.
But in the post office, well, the hands of the clocks are frozen in place. It is always a few seconds to five. A moment from closing. A holding pattern that is a bridge to the next day off.
Sometimes, when I drive around with my golden retriever stretched out in the back seat, I notice that he is happy to stare at the door in front of him. For hours. That there is a world of activity, of people and cars and clouds through the window just above his sight line, seems of no interest to him.
Staring at the door is just fine.
That’s how I felt in the post office. The person who served me was pleasant but did she really know I was there? Did she really care what she was doing? Did she want to improve her performance?
I think not. In the twilight zone, the rules of the real world don’t apply.
Interestingly, the post office is a brick and mortar facility but it is also a metaphor. As a people, a nation, a world, I wonder if most live in the “post office,” staring at the wall, marking time, going through the motions as opposed to sucking the hell out of all the potential life has to offer.
I’m not sure of the answer to any of this but I do know that the two breeds who inhabit this nation, this planet, are as different as night and day. We like to say we are all the same, some smarter or more driven than others, but that’s a politically correct way to express a deeper, stranger truth.
Let me put it this way: I don’t plan on visiting the post office ever again.
You know why.
Just go back to the title of this Blog.
Mark Stevens
CEO
Image courtesy: 1.
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May 7th, 2010 at 3:20 pm
Dude,
Love the commentary. I think you may have just set me free.
May 19th, 2010 at 5:01 pm
You don’t make any suggestions for organizational changes and you say that you’re not sure of the answers to any of this. One thing we all know. Change will be forced on the USPS, because it is bleeding badly and is deep in a financial hole.
Some of the clerks give pretty awful service, where any drive they ever had to be of help has vaporized. There doesn’t seem to be a link between their job performance in producing customer satisfaction and their compensation. Which is one reason for the dilemma.
Unfortunately, we will have to pay a lot more for snail mail before we stop seeing dead people at the post office. The workers will still differ from entrepreneurs. But what’s surprising about that?