Postman smashing on door and shouting

[OttilieStonelady]

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.

[Sciurus83]

Working from home is WORKING. Sometimes you can nip out to sort something, sometimes you can't. Presentations, interviews, not interruptable. I think you would be within rights to complain.

[TinyTear]

[quote outofservice]@TinyTear yes, I’m a postie.[/quote]
fair enough, then please hope you learn something from this...

many people would rather get a card and go to the depot than having someone knocking for five minutes or (in my case) leaving parcels in plain view half behind a plant pot

[PurBal]

That sounds really scary and intimidating. When DS was first born I used to unlatch him to answer the door to thinking it was important. 9/10 there’s no one there when I get to it. I don’t bother now unless I’m genuinely free. As PP says, everyone is working and everyone has lives.

[DameFanny]

@Dutch1e

I wonder if the same people saying "just answer the door" are the same people who assume WFH is a jolly and only office-based work is taken seriously

I've yet to see @Viviennemary post anything supportive on AIBU, or even recognise the existence of different circumstances than whatever they live in, so that's I've contrary opinion that can be reliably ignored.

Yanbu OP. Do put a complaint in, but maybe also stick a note in the window saying 'at work, not always able to come to the door' to cover your bases - I've got a variety I put up depending on whether I want people to knock on a specific window so I can hear them, or whether I want them to pretend I'm not there and go away.

[DameFanny]

*one contrary, not I've contrary. DYAC.

[StaplesCorner]

So its seems to be falling into 2 camps here:

Camp A - postman's requirements trump all

Camp B - if you are giving an online presentation you continue to do so

I get the feeling camp A dont work in a job that is now done from home, where online presentations are the norm - might be the sort that say next door's builders are only doing their job when they erect scaffolding in your garden, or I don't see why it was an issue when someone blocks your drive, its all the same mentality. If it happened to them it would either be the end of the world, or they'd deal with it better because they are just better people

[Viviennemary]

I've supported the postman trying to do a job. Madd twice as hard by folk like OP.

[RB68]

This is like when people ring your mobile 15 times cos you keep putting them to answer machine - its not fucking convenient right now. But I agree hang a notice - working from home - on a call and make sure the postie knows a safe place to leave any packages or can deliver elsewhere if you have friendly neighbours - there are some calls you cannot just bob out of and when you are presenting that is one. Its not anyones job bigger or better than anyone else but its an I am busy right now and can't answer - we do not have a responsibility to be available 24/7

[OttilieStonelady]

@Viviennemary

I've supported the postman trying to do a job. Madd twice as hard by folk like OP.

Standard Viviennemary response

[OttilieStonelady]

Going to make a sign for my meeting on thurs ☺️thanks for the tip everyone!

[GiltEdges]

@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.

Why is the postman's job more important than OP's?

[maddening]

"outofservice

So your job is more important than the postie trying to do theirs??"

But part of the posties job is to leave a card andtake the parcel back to the sorting office or deliver to neighbour/safe place if unable to deliver, it is literally part of their job. Then it is redelivered/picked up from the.sorting office. The op could not leave their work at that moment as their job does not include taking personal deliveries for other people.

It is not the postie's job to bang and scream.

[BombyliusMajor]

Scary behaviour from your postie, but most people I know who WFH have Do Not Disturb signs out when they're doing important meetings. Otherwise every chugger, missionary, door-to-door salesperson, rag and bone man, etc etc with be banging on the door all day long when you're trying to concentrate.

[LadyMacbethWasMisunderstood]

Op you were not unreasonable. The postman was

This thread is a classic example of some people failing to understand that the lives of others is different from their own. Not better or worse, or more or less important. Just different. For some people working from home allows for answering the door during a presentation or a meeting, and for others it just does not. It all depends of the nature of the work.

[Comefromaway]

@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.

My husband is a teacher. During lockdown he was giving live classes by zoom. In fact the school/college he works has sent an entire cohort home last week so it's back to Zoom for those kids.

DD is a student. She was taking part in practical classes over zoom.

For either of them to leave their screen for even a few minutes would be unacceptable. Especially dd who would not have then been able to catch up on anything she missed.

At one point ds and I were attending a very important CAMHS appointment on Zoom. It also would have been unacceptable for either us or the psych nurse to leave to answer the front door.

So no, it is NOT wierd to not answer the door. A parent could just as equally be bathing a toddler (kids have drowned in way less time than the time it would take)

[IveGotASongThatllGetOnYNerves]

Judging by the replies, too many people simply don't accept that working from home is working and there will be times you cannot stop what you are doing.

This is why when you wfh you get friends or family members trying to come in for a cuppa or texting you or calling for a natter.

You'd think after the last couple of years that people would finally understand that working from home is not being at home hanging around available to drop everything at any time but no, apparently not. It's 'just' two minutes, it's 'just' a quick call, it's 'just' a coffee, it's 'just' nipping to the door. 🙄

[Stoppochoco]

Strange for a postman to knock for so long and not just leave a card, but I think I would have just asked for a few minutes to deal with it and broke away from presentation.
If postman was knocking aggressively and shouting like that, I would have found it hard to focus on what I was doing anyway.

[Comefromaway]

@outofservice

So your job is more important than the postie trying to do theirs??

It very possibly might have been. The OP could have been for example presenting findings at a Child Protection conference or any number of much MORE important things.

They might not have been doing something AS important as that. But I'm betting it was more important than taking in someone else's parcel.

[Rainbowsew]

@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.

Don't be daft! She's at work...

[whynotwhatknot]

Afaik they dont have to deliver everything they put a card through and you rearrange delivery

theres no need to be agreessively knocking on peoples doors

[MajorCarolDanvers]

@Viviennemary

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

Would it be acceptable at your work to stop a presentation halfway through and tell colleagues/senior managers to hang on?

[Comefromaway]

Re leaving parcels on the mat, they can't. My door literally opens out on to a pavement. For those who are saying I should have left. Imagine similar to giving a presentation about child exploitation and abuse and talking about how victims need to be given due care and attention etc, then answering the door to the postman. I just couldn't.

I wrote my example before I read this but it really isn;t hard to imagine all kinds of situations where it just would not be appropriate to leave, unless a dire emergency.

[MrsArchchancellorRidcully]

@Viviennemary

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

You clearly have no understanding of wfh these days.

I present to clients with crucial pitches. I simply cannot leave unless I am being physically sick or the house is on fire. This is why I close the blinds when I am presenting so no one can see in.

[HouseOfFire]

@Viviennemary

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

Did you miss the bit where the OP was working and presenting ?

If you are in a meeting with other people and paid to be there, you can't just be jumping up and down and answering the door.

If OP decides she doesn't want to open the door - for any reason, its not up to the postperson to bang on the door and demand it

[EmbarrassingHadrosaurus]

@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.

Not always.

I'm involved in meetings that have quoracy rules with legal consequences. It doesn't matter if someone is banging the door down, short of an emergency, it's not feasible for me or any other member of the committee to excuse themself and leave the meeting.