Today I was at the US Post Office in Multnomah. They have added a little machine with a touch screen where you can buy stamps, weigh mail, etc. etc. I think it is some kind of self-service teller, so that people can conduct many of their USPS transactions without human interaction.
Interestingly, whoever is in charge of staffing the USPS in Multnomah has decided to place a uniformed person next to the machine to cajole people into using it.
Inside, because I had a transaction that required human interaction, and because I hate using machines when people are looking over my shoulder, I stood in line with 5 other people who gave as much clearance as possible to the cajoler while we sneaked into the main "doing business" part of the post office.
The amazing thing was this: All of us were waiting on one teller behind the counter.
So, on today's payroll at the Multnomah Post Office, at least when I was there, they had two people helping out: 1 behind the counter working as fast as possible to service a whole line of people that were queued up and waiting, and the other person sitting on the other side of the glass doors on a bar stool, greeting people as they passed by.
What was the quote from the movie "Contact"? When they were discussing government spending they said something like "why build one when you can build two at twice the price?"
One Comment
I wonder if people felt the same way about when ATMs first started appearing in banks. I'm too young to know.