Biggs-Christmas came late
AFRIEND received two Christmas cards that had been posted in England at the beginning of December. They had taken more than a month to get to her by airmail. Meanwhile, the cards she had posted early in December had arrived in England a week or so before Christmas.
I received an e-mail over the weekend anxiously asking whether the parcel that had been posted on December 1 from Canada had arrived. No, not yet.
I’ve been told by several friends that big bunches of Christmas cards have suddenly come pouring into their letterboxes three weeks after Christmas. The items I posted to Canada had arrived in good time for Christmas.
This is not unusual and it isn’t because of strikes or blizzards or because it’s downhill in one direction. It’s simply a matter of not caring about service delivery. All over the country people march and wave banners and complain about lack of service delivery, but we don’t care very much if we are the ones supposed to deliver the service.
No. It’s other people – that nasty “they” – who must deliver service to us. In northern countries, they hire extra staff to handle the flood of December mail. In our country, we run on skeleton staff because half the workers have “gone home for Christmas”.
Many municipal offices and libraries have the same problem. Their staff go home over Christmas. There was a time when people took leave at times that were least disruptive to their jobs. Now the jobs are put on hold whenever they disrupt the lives of the workers. When I was studying, fellow students earned good money sorting post over the Christmas holiday period. The Post Office hired extra staff because they knew there was a flood of mail in December. There always is.
Several libraries in my area closed on certain days during our recent holiday period for the same reason: “Our staff have gone away.” I would have thought it was more important than ever to have libraries open while pupils are free to spend time reading, but no, apparently libraries are there for the convenience of their staff. The customer doesn’t come first anymore. The customer comes a very poor second. Every week I get little notes dropped in my postbox by people (often describing themselves as “Malawian”) looking for work.
Unemployment is at an alarming level. Thousands of people are looking for jobs. Whether they are actually looking for work is another matter.
I suspect that “Malawian” might be shorthand for “I won’t rush off on holiday whenever there’s work to be done.” Now I am heading down to the Post Office to see if there’s any Christmas mail for me.
Last Laugh
AFTER her wedding the new bride sent a “thank you” letter to her cousin.
It said: “Thank you so much for the lovely vase you sent us for our wedding. “Unfortunately it arrived broken. “It was most considerate of you to wrap the pieces individually.”