If post office/appointments/shops open at a set time shouldn't they?

[marjproops]

local post office- opening time-9am.

every single time i go, the staff amble out at the EARLIEST, 9.05am, take their time to sort out their tills/put jackets on back of chair/chat etc etc and 9.15 start seeing customers with the obligatory 'sorry to keep you waiting'. shouldnt they be ready to serve at 9am? (and other customers have expressed same)-and this happened at another place too.

same with shop opening hours. and banks.

I have weekly appointments at 9.30 every Monday somewhere, Im there always early, and the person I see ambles out at 9.40 or thereabouts every time. in fact i asked this week if that was the start time? he just shrugged. and this is an important medical thing.

I mean, you can give or take 2 mins or so, but every day? and if you ask/confront as a customer, they just point to the 'staff will not take abuse from customers' notice they have pinned up ?

I would presume the staff are paid a reasonably low wage, and are paid from 9am. Being at the desk ready to serve at 9 would mean paying them to start at 8.30 or 8.45, and I would assume the manager is unable or unwilling to stretch to this.
Alternatively, the counter staff may be unable to arrive earlier due to family commitments, and adding e.g. The cost of breakfast club to the counter staff's childcare costs might just mean it's not worth taking the job on, so the manager may have taken the decision that it's better to keep experienced staff members than lose them due to the one or two people who may be inconvenienced for 10 minutes over it.
I'd let it go, you had your say and clearly the set up they have works for them.

It's annoying but on the other hand, I worked in a large department store and the extra 15 minutes in the morning and 15 after closing to ensure we were ready to serve at 9 sharp and until 5.30 was unpaid which is crap.
If a store requires prep before it can function staff should be paid.

I agree OP. either say the shop opens at 9:10 if it's a question of not wanting to pay staff, or pay staff to be there in time to start serving from opening hours.

InMySpareTime - what a load of rubbish. You do not need to pay staff for the time needed to get themselves ready to go!

They should be ready to go from the time their shift starts, not a few minutes after. If they are all doing it, they are clearly just taking their time chatting and getting cups of tea wtc, rather than them ALL being 'a bit late because of childcare'. I mean, WTF? As if my employer would be happy for me to saunter in 10 minutes late every day!

Also, PO is not a small employer.

Yanbu, totally agree.

Don't even get me started on post office opening hours. Our local post office is closed on a Wednesday ?! And a Sunday obv. But it's also only open 9-1 Saturday and 9-5 rest of week BUT they have a two hour lunch break between 12 and 2... Wtf. I'm not sure how they're still open tbh.

when i worked in an office (pre-DC) I started at 8.30am sharp. i was paid from 8.30 sharp. I was paid to WORK from 8.30 sharp. that meant i went in about 8.20, set up my computer/desk/coat/coffee and was ready to start on the dot.

you get paid to work, not to take your taime and keeping people waiting. and i agree with binky and jackie.

If a place says 9/10/whenever then it should be open and ready for that time.

that said, once I was at local debenhams that was supposed to open at 9, luckily, the manager was also waiting to go in and was standing with me, so he phoned and told the staff to 'open the bloody doors please'. and for my waiting he offered me a free coffee in their cafe. apparantly afetr that the staff made sure the doors were opened on time!

I can understand, as I said, 1 or 2 mins but as someone above said, ALL the staff to be late?

YANBU from a customer point of view, but YABU to expect possibly lowly-paid staff to work beyond their 9-5 hours to be ready in time to serve. I work in a customer-driven industry so I always work beyond my set hours to be ready in time to serve, but I imagine not everyone is willing to do the same bitter!

I do feel for staff who are paid lowly wages, but thats never an excuse to shirk responsibilities.

I once worked in a shop where we had to be in 20 mins earlier than the opning hours to clean the bosses OFFICE! and we werent paid for that, he was a b*** who practically believed in slave labour, paid us the lowest possible minimum wage, yet we all had rent/food/expenses to pay so had no choice (apart from the fact I walked out after 3 weeks! luckilly Id found something much better).

also worked as a saturday girl in Maccy D's, and then (eons ago) if the customer didnt get their food in 2 mins then it was free? (unless they had to specially make something)they dont do THAT any more! mind you, my local McDs are quite good (we only go once a month so dont know if theyre as efficient all other times, Im sure they are)

but council offices, medical places, job centre,come on! professional?

Our local post office is inside another shop, but the people who work there own it. Not sure how it works, but it is their own little business.

They claim to open at nine, but actually they walk in through the main shop at nine and are ready to serve 5-10 minutes later. I figure they can do what they want as it's their own business. I don't think they are low paid, but if they were, then it would be fine for them to get there at 9.00. I don't think they should have to be there when they aren't being paid to be there.

More likely its the timelock on the safe.Opens at slightly different times i know our post office is like this.

I agree , I have always worked in retail . You need I be open at 9 and ready to serve as I always have been. On the flip of this i have had people trying to follow me in at 8.45 and past closing still trying to get in. When I have politely explained they can come in but must wait for me to start up the tills and machines etc they get the arse .. Can't win!

I used to work on a concession in a well known department store. We were expected to be in 15 minutes early to get the cash bag from the office, and to leave at least 15 minutes late in order to cash up and deliver the bag back to the office.

We weren't paid for those extra half hours. How is that ok?

If prep needs doing then the management/owners need to pay staff to do it.

But its the blase attitude of most of these places, like the customer is just a money bag, not important, like we dont have other things to do/places to go/we have all the time in the world to wait.

Its the way, in this particular place I go to that they just literally saunter out, take their time, like watching a slo-mo film, take a few slurps of their coffee, stand and chat, (people, theres such a thing as co-ordination, you can do 2 things at once), and THEN, reluctantly (theres another thread on AIBU about rude staff, and yes, there are also rude customers) its that 'hi hon' voice with the 'sorry to keep you waiting'. no you're not, don't say that.

@Jackie: they shouldn't have to pay staff to get themselves ready for work, no. But they should pay them for things like doing preparatory paperwork, checking till floats etc, surely? I work in an office and if I didn't get paid until my computer was ready to go I'd be pretty pissed off - it takes half an hour some days pile of crap that it is.