There has been a lot of talk about customer abuse in essential services. We journalists have dealt with it to the extent of exhaustion. Party, government, trade union and all kinds of meetings have analyzed the issue, but unfortunately there are groups for whom this does not seem to be enough.
You can see it when you spend more than three and a half hours in front of the Holguin 1 post office, located on one of the sides of the central San Jose Park in the eastern part of the city, and observe how it is always possible to raise a little more the pitiful rod of neglect to the population, especially when in certain entities control and ethics escape and through the same «hole» apathy creeps in.
Around 10 o’clock in the morning of this Monday, July 29th, I put myself in the queue of the mentioned office, among other things to access the Extra Cashier Service and to get some cash. The time has passed and at 12:30 noon they do not let anyone else in the institution and only those who are inside and seated will be served. The rest from 1:00. pm onwards.
Some in line have given up waiting, but not me, and I am the first in line for the evening service. The time specified in the schedule arrives (which actually means that the office closes at 11 o’clock and reopens at 1 in the afternoon to save energy), but a metal chain continues halfway through the door, blocking the way.
With a grim face, a worker without a uniform and with a bottle of water in one hand approaches the entrance, sits down on a bench and, without taking her eyes off her cell phone, announces that they will open at 1:30 without bothering to explain.
The slowness and «vibe» of the doorkeeper, who reacts with obvious contempt to anyone who asks her for a service and continues to stare at her phone, is annoying, but the worst thing is that while they delay the reopening, a group of workers (between five and six) belonging to the branch in the area arrive from the street and enter in droves to withdraw money through Caja Extra.
They are seen opening their cell phones, standing in a group to access the service, but not before greeting each other with their good colleagues, including laughter and loud voices.
An admirable camaraderie… if it were not for the fact that they are in a public institution, during working hours, and disrespecting those to whom they are indebted, those customers who, after all, are the ones who generate the dividends that now allow them to comfortably take cash home.
I, accustomed to writing about workers, their virtues and sacrifices, wonder that, yes, logically, they have every right to access the service, to enjoy it in a scenario of cash shortage that affects us all, but is this the right way to exercise this possibility, to pass over and «herd» an entire population that is waiting and despairing?
When I finally got through and asked for the service, the cashier flatly told me «No!» because the money left over was «for the workers» who were still waiting. At this point, I am a customer, but I am still a journalist, so I introduce myself and ask to speak to the manager in charge of the facility.
The cashier herself points out to me, behind her, in the first window, a colleague dressed in blue, who promises to serve me as soon as I am finished, because he too, Osmar Chong Reyes, deputy director of the Holguín Post Office, has come to access the Caja Extra service, as he would later tell me, and that takes time… if I will know.
A few minutes later, I talked to the aforementioned manager, who argued that they had agreed to take turns with a client and a worker at Caja Extra.
He explains that if there is a possibility of having one manager for the queue and another for the workers, both are arranged in such a way that they can provide the service of Caja Extra and neither party is affected because, as he says, «at the end of the day, a worker is the same customer».
«In the specific case of today, I cannot give you all the elements right now because, well, I do not live here. The company is three blocks away. I am here for the same reason you are, to receive a service, and I come across the existing situation. We would have to check. We will give you the appropriate answers,» he concludes.
Obviously, I am dissatisfied and I wonder how a manager of that level, who sees his workers sitting waiting for the Extra Cashier, and who has also heard the answer they have given me, which also affects the rest of those who choose the same service, does not activate in due time and enforce what he himself has said is stipulated, and incidentally relieves the flow of attention to the rest of the customers.
Then I think about distances, and I have no doubt that you can be physically three blocks away from one place and inhabit other galaxies at the same time. Someone with a sense of humor might say that the postal service has a universal spectrum for this…
I will not go on, but the story does not end here. Then Maridalia Rodriguez Machado appears, introducing herself as the director of the Basic Business Unit of Correos Holguin and explaining that she is in charge of this office because it currently has no director, unlike the other two centers in the provincial capital, located in the «Pedro Diaz Coello» and «Pueblo Nuevo» neighborhoods.
He had just come from a government meeting and was not aware of the situation, he said. I recite my statements to him so that he understands, and this is his response: «It is complicated when I am not there to know what is going on and to know what is being violated and what is not.
I inquire about other issues that damage the public image of the institution and he comments: «The colleague who is at the door is not even from the door, she is an accountant. There is no staff at the door. This office has 50 percent of its staff working».
The reasons for this figure are low salaries, which, although made up for by profits and the delivery of modules, are clearly not enough…
Finally, the director gives a version of what could have happened in her absence. She explains that in order to have access to Caja Extra, the rotation of workers is organized by department, and I quote: «Maybe that’s why you saw so many at that time, because maybe it was the turn of Department X and they all came and instead of respecting one from the line and one from the street, they all went in at the same time. That happens…in troubled waters…»
However, experience tells me that these moments are not so isolated. About three months ago, something similar happened to me: the cash in the till was not available to the population because the workers were being paid.
The experiences of others on Monday also leave no room for doubt. Darieska Proenza, a young woman with a baby in her arms, testified that she had experienced the situation described here on several occasions, adding that «the service is extremely slow and they mistreat the customer».
Another lady sitting two rows back also wanted to give her opinion, and after a comprehensive look at the premises, summed it up: «lousy connection, ineptitude at work, and two closed windows».
Nothing, it would be good if the Holguinan collective, in addition to simply charging Caja Extra, would give itself a letter of attention and put some «twists» to efficiency and organization.
