Dealing with Boorish Messages from Strangers
I walked to the mail box with a garbage bag in my hand. I was going to simply toss my trash in the dumpster, but the mail woman was driving up to my mail box, so I walked out to retrieve my mail with my sack.
The mail lady handed me my mail. I set the bag down, and quickly sifted through my stack. Within seconds, over 90% of my mail ended up in my garbage sack.
The postal worker seemed outraged.
“That’s just rude,” she chastised. “Advertisers spend good money to create that mail. Then they pay to have ME deliver it. And then, you don’t even have the decency to read it! After all the time and trouble they went through! You’ve got a lot of nerve just tearing it up and throwing it away right in front of my face. You have ZERO manners. ZERO!”
I laughed at first, because I thought she was kidding.
She wasn’t. My mail person was truly offended by my behavior.
photo credit: metropolart
Going postal. Fearing the violent reputation of many mail workers, I simply nodded and walked off with my remaining mail. And my garbage bag.
Thankfully, she didn’t shoot me as I tossed my garbage in the dumpster.
No sense in arguing. We all know what junk mail looks like without a thorough inspection. It didn’t take me more than a few seconds of thoughtless processing to deal with slick visual come-ons from people I don’t know, with offers I don’t want.
I dump most junk mail on automatic pilot. I’m sure most of us do.
Visually, all junk mail looks pretty much the same. We know to chuck it, unread.
And when we’re tricked into spending a few seconds opening a piece that turns out to be junk, we feel annoyed — before we toss it.
So what’s worse? Is it really bad manners to IGNORE boorish messages from strangers? Or is it bad manners to SEND boorish messages to strangers?
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Comments
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Saves you the hassle and the environment.
I’ve been using it for a while and love it.
Incredible.
Honestly - I’d seriously consider a report to the PostMaster who oversees her.
She is a government employee - while some/most of her pay is from the advertisers the USPS also receives support from the US Government. Making her, in effect, your employee.
With no right to verbally abuse you like that.
Your time is yours. That mail - once delivered - is yours. Direct mail is unrequested, and users of it know the percentages when they send it out.
So no - it’s not boorish to ignore it as it comes in.
I’m not convinced it’s boorish to send it (disclaimer - I was recently on the sending side as we did a mailer for the Sessions training). Since the costs of direct mail are borne by the sender I have far less of an issue with it over email marketing. Sometimes there just isn’t an alternate way to communicate a message to a given audience as efficiently as direct mail - even knowing the percentages.
When one says ugly things about (or to) others, they say more about themselves than about anyone else.
Life is far too short to spend your valuable time arguing with people about unimportant things. Besides, there is nothing a stranger can do, no amount of time they can invest or money they can spend that obligates me to pay attention to them. IF I pay attention to something it is because I choose to do so. Not because I have an obligation.
Larry
I side with you on this my dear. Not only is junk mail a nuisance, it KILLS trees.
Besides, they just had a feature on the local news about a “junk mail” letter that was designed to look official in order to convince home owners they needed to order an expensive copy of their deed. I got that letter yesterday and immediately recognized it as junk, but the “perpetrators” were banking on the fact that people are gullible and would order a copy of their deed in fear of facing fines or penalties. So junk mail is not only annoying and environmentally unsound, it can be misleading as well.