> The Post Office? Nope! During busy times, I've seen the line go beyond 15 or 20, and there's this only 1 slow clerk taking his time, chit-chatting, in no hurry at all.

> At my local grocery store (Safeway), they'll add a new cashier if the line becomes long. The Post Office? Nope! During busy times, I've seen the line go beyond 15 or 20, and there's this only 1 slow clerk taking his time, chit-chatting, in no hurry at all.

Because Safeway has enough manpower to do that.

> Or the DMV. Visit the SF DMV if you want to see government at "work".

I've actually been reasonably satisfied with the approach the CA DMV takes, which is to do everything possible to make people not have to visit the DMV in person. I was pleasantly surprised by how easy online driver's license renewal was (they even had a mobile version).

I'd take the USPS over, say, the customer service experience on the US legacy airlines any day.

> Because Safeway has enough manpower to do that.

I can assure you, the cashiers at Safeway make significantly less money than the USPS staff. And accounting for guaranteed pensions, even more so. Most are minimum wage employees with no job security.

And to answer your speculation: there are employees at the Post Office. You can see them through the doors.

And finally: why isn't the office staffed properly, given that these holidays like Christmas aren't exactly new and unforeseen?

I suspect a lot of this has little to do with government vs. private sector and a lot to do with the APWU [1]. There are unions in the private sector too.

I'm personally just fine with paying the postal workers a living wage, even if it means the lines are a bit longer.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Postal_Workers_Union

What you see as a slow clerk wasting time with chit-chat might be that person's only way of coping with working in a chronically understaffed environment. Just because Safeway can afford to keep enough people in the store to be able to move an additional person or two to registers during busy times doesn't mean that your local post office has the same budget.

DMVs are privately-owned franchise in a lot of states.

It pays about the same as a retail job ($12/hr & 30hr/wk starting in my state) but you get to deal with infinitely worse clientele -- that never follow simple directions, thus need to come back three times, more pissed each time. There's rarely any downtime, as the lines are 30+ people long and every terminal is full.

Additionally, due to bad pay, they have high turnover. And because the state is cheap, no sane person would open an new franchise because they don't make money unless the line is packed out the door.