Friday, November 03, 2006
Queuing at the post office
There are some days when you love Italy, some days when you hate it and some days when you're just totally bemused.
That happened to me today when I went to the posta to send Mario's nephew, who has just turned five, his birthday present.
It was just after lunch so it was very quiet - there was only one other customer in the post office apart from me, and only one member of staff serving behind the counter.
Obviously, though, this being Italy it turned out far more complicated than it should have been.
As those of you who have ever queued up in the posta to pay bills or buy stamps will know, you have to form a separate queue depending on what you need to do.
But with only one person serving, I made the mistake of thinking that we could just form one queue. How wrong I was.
'Signora, signora,' the counter assistant said pointing to the other end of the room. 'The queue for posting a parcel is over there.'
'But there's no one there,' I said.
'Yes,' she said. 'I'll be there in just one sec.
So, after scuttling five places down, sitting in her new chair and getting herself settled at her new work station, she served me, though in reality she didn't because the post office had run out of boxes to send parcels in.
By this time the queue was growing longer, and even though the next person waiting to be served was behind me, she scuttled back to her previous work station to serve the girl queued up there.
'He was before me,' she said, pointing to the guy behind me.
'Yes,' came the reply from the employee. 'But I've just served there so I need to be fair and serve here next otherwise people might think I'm being biased'.
I'm sure there's logic somewhere. Italy, don't you just love it?
Emma Bird is the director of www.howtoitaly.com and the co-author of Starting a Business in Italy: how to set up and run a successful business in the Bel Paese.
That happened to me today when I went to the posta to send Mario's nephew, who has just turned five, his birthday present.
It was just after lunch so it was very quiet - there was only one other customer in the post office apart from me, and only one member of staff serving behind the counter.
Obviously, though, this being Italy it turned out far more complicated than it should have been.
As those of you who have ever queued up in the posta to pay bills or buy stamps will know, you have to form a separate queue depending on what you need to do.
But with only one person serving, I made the mistake of thinking that we could just form one queue. How wrong I was.
'Signora, signora,' the counter assistant said pointing to the other end of the room. 'The queue for posting a parcel is over there.'
'But there's no one there,' I said.
'Yes,' she said. 'I'll be there in just one sec.
So, after scuttling five places down, sitting in her new chair and getting herself settled at her new work station, she served me, though in reality she didn't because the post office had run out of boxes to send parcels in.
By this time the queue was growing longer, and even though the next person waiting to be served was behind me, she scuttled back to her previous work station to serve the girl queued up there.
'He was before me,' she said, pointing to the guy behind me.
'Yes,' came the reply from the employee. 'But I've just served there so I need to be fair and serve here next otherwise people might think I'm being biased'.
I'm sure there's logic somewhere. Italy, don't you just love it?
Emma Bird is the director of www.howtoitaly.com and the co-author of Starting a Business in Italy: how to set up and run a successful business in the Bel Paese.
