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AIBU?

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Original poster

Postman smashing on door and shouting

447 replies

OttilieStonelady · 19/10/2021 11:12

I live in a house with other people. Someone else had something sent to them by a family member so neither of us knew it was arriving. He's not in. Postman came to door to drop off. Saw me upstairs and I swear was banging on my door for 5 minutes so hard it sounded like he was going to break in. Rang the door over and over and over banging in-between. He disappeared, I guess delivered neighbours post then came back and banged on my door again, then next again, then back to me again. He even shouted 'i can see you'. I can't leave when I'm in the middle of presenting to people, especially not senior management, presenting extremely sensitive data. It's not a big house so he would've known I'd have heard him. WIBU not to open the door? Was he BU to keep banging aggressively on my door? All round a weird experience.

OP posts:
SouthOfFrance · 19/10/2021 11:31

@outofservice

So your job is more important than the postie trying to do theirs??
You could say the same the other way round though too... the postie obviously thinks they'd job is more important than the Ops.

If noone comes to the door the postman can easily put a card through the door for the recipient to arrange re delivery. No need for the aggressive and persistent banging. I'd complain Op.

TheAverageUser · 19/10/2021 11:32

I'd complain, he's completely out of order.

People saying you should have answered, have you given a presentation to senior management at your work? Would you really have just walked off and told them to wait?

ikeepseeingit · 19/10/2021 11:32

He sounds a bit mad to have come back and done it again! I would complain. No one is saying he shouldn’t have knocked the door, we’re saying he shouldn’t have been aggressive. It’s not selfish and rude to be in work so why is it selfish and rude to be in a presentation and unable to get to the door?

Medex · 19/10/2021 11:32

@outofservice

Weird not to answer the door to somebody who is busy trying to do their job. Am sure a quick excuse me to your very important colleagues would have been less distracting than listening to someone aggressively banging on your door for 5 whole minutes.
I would have ignored it too.

I had this with my neighbours until I stuck a note on my door saying I would not except packages.

urbanbuddha · 19/10/2021 11:33

Answer the door. What is wrong with people. So selfish and rude.

She was physically in the house. BUT she was giving a presentation at work. It's called Working From Home.
The postman could have left a card.

Snoopfroggyfrogg · 19/10/2021 11:38

The postie was out of order, they should be aware that people can't always answer the door. They have processes in place for that. Yelling 'I can see you' was ridiculous. It would really affect the running of formal Teams meetings, interviews or presentations if people were up and down answering the door. Therapists and doctors do patient calls from home and it would be very inappropriate to answer the door in this case. In an informal call or with the camera off then people might choose to quickly get up but this isn't always possible.

jen59 · 19/10/2021 11:38

@outofservice

So your job is more important than the postie trying to do theirs??
Yes, when the postie isn’t doing a presentation
viques · 19/10/2021 11:40

@urbanbuddha

Answer the door. What is wrong with people. So selfish and rude.

She was physically in the house. BUT she was giving a presentation at work. It's called Working From Home.
The postman could have left a card.

The OP was able to look out of the window though to see who was banging on the door. If you are really invested in your presentation you keep at it (unless the fire alarm goes off) and don’t go and have a quick gawp out of the window.
NotMyCat · 19/10/2021 11:40

Yeah I can't answer the door when I'm working. My postman knows this (apartment block) so he will buzz other people to be let in
Just because I'm visible doesn't mean I'm available

Igmum · 19/10/2021 11:40

I have a Ring doorbell. I work up in the attic. In normal times I can let delivery people know I'm on my way so they don't give up. When I'm teaching I can ask them to leave whatever it is on the doorstep. And no, to those who think it's fine to interrupt, while I would just apologise and pop downstairs in a 1:1 tutorial, I really wouldn't walk out on 200 students to get a parcel. Sometimes you can, sometimes you really can't

Franklyfrost · 19/10/2021 11:42

The other day a postman opened my front door without knocking and came in, no mask on, and gave me my post. I was speechless and scared so said nothing…

galaxyx · 19/10/2021 11:42

@outofservice

Weird not to answer the door to somebody who is busy trying to do their job. Am sure a quick excuse me to your very important colleagues would have been less distracting than listening to someone aggressively banging on your door for 5 whole minutes.
I'm thinking you've never done an important presentation Confused .Weird answer.
NotMyCat · 19/10/2021 11:42

@viques I can nosy out the window all I want but I can't move from my desk! So people might see me but I can't just get up and answer the door etc

Geamhradh · 19/10/2021 11:43

Why the fuck didn't you answer it when he knocked?
MN is absolutely insane.

Merryoldgoat · 19/10/2021 11:43

I have various meetings at home and stuff happens at inconvenient times.

I wouldn’t have had a problem saying ‘apologies - I must answer the door’

You’d have been gone for probably 30 seconds and it would have been less disruptive and distracting than what actually happened.

urbanbuddha · 19/10/2021 11:44

The other day a postman opened my front door without knocking and came in, no mask on, and gave me my post. I was speechless and scared so said nothing…

I hope you've started locking your front door now.

FOJN · 19/10/2021 11:44

The postman isn't to know you are working from home and presumably doesn't want a complaint for failing to deliver a parcel if the householder then says they were in all the time.

I work from home and have a laminated notice for the front door instructing delivery drivers or postie's what to do with parcels and not to disturb me.

He may have been unreasonably persistent but I think we all have to find ways of navigating the new way of working.

TheCategoryIs · 19/10/2021 11:45

I get this at work now with Zoom meetings, people banging on my office door when I am already in a meeting. They wouldn’t/couldn’t do that if I was in a physical meeting. But I guess the new working ways don’t apply to posties.

Ultimately you’re the one receiving the parcel so you decide how important it is. (Not very if not even yours). There are options for failed delivery and it’s the recipient’s lookout as to how inconvenient it ends up being.

berlinbabylon · 19/10/2021 11:46

I've gone to the door during Teams calls with colleagues and so have they - it's not that weird, though if you were in the middle of a presentation to external people you might not interrupt it. But that was for a parcel for me, not for a neighbour. I wouldn't interrupt a work call for a neighbour's parcel.

User527294627 · 19/10/2021 11:46

@outofservice

So your job is more important than the postie trying to do theirs??
For fuck’s sake. There are procedures to follow when a parcel can’t be delivered because no one is there to answer. The postie wasn’t prevented from doing his job. His job includes having to redeliver parcels sometimes.

You can’t walk out of a presentation you’re giving to answer the door. It would be wildly unprofessional and look really rude. OP isn’t required to jeopardise her own job to save the postie filling out a ‘sorry we missed you’ card Hmm

antoniawhite · 19/10/2021 11:46

@Geamhradh

Why the fuck didn't you answer it when he knocked? MN is absolutely insane.
Because she was in the middle of a fucking work presentation.

You're right, though. MN is absolutely insane.

TinyTear · 19/10/2021 11:48

@outofservice

Weird not to answer the door to somebody who is busy trying to do their job. Am sure a quick excuse me to your very important colleagues would have been less distracting than listening to someone aggressively banging on your door for 5 whole minutes.
And the OP wasn't busy trying to do her job?

It wasn't even a parcel for her!!!

outofservice · 19/10/2021 11:48

@Medex the postie was delivering to OPs address. People working from home generally wear headsets, teenagers at home generally have headphones in so difficult to know if people hear the door. This wasn’t the OPs usual postie so would make sense it was the float covering their day off. That person works 5 different rounds a week, delivering to more than 3200 different houses every week, walking up to 12 miles a day, carrying 80kg of post and delivering 80 large parcels every day, time sensitive items, gifts, important documents etc in all weather. It is difficult to remember safe places to leave items in that position and you are not familiar with people working from home unless they leave a sign to say so. In the event of not knowing an item is arriving that is just unfortunate. I’ve not been in the position of giving a presentation from my home office, I’m just the person who wants to deliver items to people who hopefully appreciate receiving them without having to stand and fill out a red card and carry the item back to the delivery office just to take back out 3 days later!

TinyTear · 19/10/2021 11:49

@outofservice

So your job is more important than the postie trying to do theirs??
They will be both as important, if the OP was in the office she wouldnt have opened the door either FFS

Do you even work?

Siriisatwat · 19/10/2021 11:49

@Geamhradh

Why the fuck didn't you answer it when he knocked? MN is absolutely insane.
She was working!

Christ, Imagine if you were doing a face to face presentation and you said, “oops, hang on everyone, got to pop out of the room for ten seconds!” It wouldn’t go down well in an office, certainly wouldn’t go down well on a video call.

If you are in a meeting, you are unavailable.