Post Office Etiquette

Now that I'm going to the post office literally five days a week, some things have become evident to me about the etiquette that so often goes unrealized at this, the most unconscious of public spaces. I really do believe  people just go about their business without really thinking about how they should be acting, but when it's something you deal with every day, sometimes twice a day, you start to have allergic reactions to all the obnoxious people who think their business is more important than yours.

Let's back up just a bit to the pre-post office stage. This pet peeve actually transcends pet peeve and delves straight into terrible driving; I hate when people turn left at the same time someone coming towards them is turning right, just assuming that the person with the right of way is totally fine with staying in the rightmost lane. That is most often not the case at all. A lot of people want to get in the middle or right lane when they turn. Seriously. Just don't do it.

Parking in the post office is always a mess as well. But no matter how much of a mess parking is, I don't ever think it's acceptable to park in a handicapped parking space, then hop out of your car and run inside for a second. Call me old fashioned here, but those spaces are sacred. I cannot think of a single situation at the post office that justifies taking that spot when you clearly don't need it. And it happens so, so often.

It all comes back to a sense of entitlement - and while I may suffer from that same sense on occasion, I like to think I can keep it in check enough to remember things like right of way, politeness in parking, and pedestrian safety. And while some people probably do have more pressing places to be than I do (I won't get fired if I show up five minutes late), it seems like people get so caught up in their own world that they have no time to yield, to acknowledge that all of us are going places and doing things and seeing the world through our own eyes.

If I want to get into the nit-picking details of it, I could mention how people avoid your eyes or even glare at you at the post office. I feel like, in a place like this, it's actually terrifically important to smile at people. It's like a neighborhood - you get to know the cars you park next to at the post office, and by the same token, you should get to know the people that are with you on your "shift."