… to think that the postman should take his earphones out when delivering the mail?

[Thunderpat]

My postman wears earphones when he is delivering the mail. This is annoying, but is it actually something that he shouldn’t do?

I have a newborn and live in a tall skinny house which means that I am usually doing something with the baby at the top of the house when he rings. I try calling to him out of the window (he can’t hear me) or grabbing baby and running down three flights of stairs, but by the time I get to the door he is well on his way up the road with his earphones in and a cheery spring in his step.

AIBU to think that he should take his earphones out when delivering the mail?

I'm quite grateful that our postie doesn't usually knock . He only does that if he needs a signature. He usually just opens the front door and leaves the parcel on the porch. I give him a wave if I'm in the livng room. Jf he sees me in the hall will call in ' your parcels here love!'
Admittedly I'm not usually on our 3rd floor in the day time!
He often has his pods in but why not?🤷‍♀️

[quote Offmyfence]@Testingprof

The postman should wait long enough for a response, my grandmother would probably take longer to get to the door than the OP from 10 ft away, would you think that she should stand by the door from 10-3 (those are the times the post has been delivered when we’ve been there, mine comes consistently around 2:30-3)? If the postman leaves her a sorry we couldn’t deliver note, she has no way to get to the post office other than a taxi, as far as I’m concerned that would be poor service.

Unless you live in Greendale, this is not going to happen, the postman will not wait an extended length of time, as some people (as proved on MN just never answer the door.

They have an allotted amount of time to complete their round, therefore if they wait ages for people who are on the top floor of a three storey house, who have to pick up their baby to descend two sets of stairs, the chances are they have moved on. If they waited for ages for everyone to answer, not just give a reasonable amount of time, then they would run out of allotted time and they it is up to them to agree to overtime (assuming their office agrees it) or not. If they have commitments outside of work, then they may not choose the overtime and therefore the people at the end of delivery don't get post.

It is not a charity or a "service", it is a privatised company that is only interested in increasing profits.

My DH is a postman (a very popular one judging by his Christmas tips), he wears headphones etc, will wait as long as he can, but he has a job to do and can't be held up all the time, particularly at this time of year and when online shopping is at an all time high.[/quote]
It is a service, a paid for service. The fact the Post Office has been privatised has absolutely nothing to do with it being a service, many private companies provide a service.

@Testingprof they won't hang around for people to come slowly to the door. For all the reasons I stated.

They'll assume you're not in.

@Thunderpat

Where I used to live, the postman heard my elderly neighbour calling out when she had fallen down the stairs - she wouldn’t have stood much chance with this guy, though.

It is literally not his job to help people who have fallen down the stairs. His job is to shove the mail through the letterboxes. You could make the same argument about anyone wearing headphones, i.e. joggers could miss someone who has fallen down. It's unreasonable. It's not in his job description to interact with mail recipients, so headphones are fine, just as truck drivers can listen to the radio when driving trucks!

YABU, OP.

@Kotatsu

Bloody hell OP you're getting a hard time for a reasonable question...

I live in Ireland, Irish Posties are FANTASTIC. When I moved in (to two different houses, 2 different posties, and then occasionally substitutes), the postman made a point of knocking on the door and having a chat to find out the names of who lived here. My postie has my mobile number, so he can call and ask about leaving parcels (he has to ask each time, I can't leave a standing order, although I do have a postbox for small stuff). He notices stuff, if I had a baby or an injury I'd just let him know and he'd happily post stuff through a window or whatever. It's a point of pride that they're so good at their jobs.

He does wear headphones sometimes, but puts it back on one ear when knocking at a house. Ie. a reasonable compromise.

There's your answer-move to Ireland!