Have you routinely received letters or bills from bureaucrats?

I can tell you that those banks, government agencies, and hospitals know how to backdate letters, postmark them like clockwork, and land in my mailbox on a Friday at close of business on a 3-day weekend, just to jam us up and narrow any deadline that may exist.

Even a hand-delivered notice from the landlady shows up at 6:01pm when the office is already closed. I guarantee that you will be helpless to respond in a timely fashion.

It has been suggested that "bankers hours" and 9-5 office hours were originated specifically to jam up the working man, who needed to be in the mines or on the factory floor during those hours. If a bank actually wanted to serve working people, they would be open on weekends. Traditionally it was not something your wife or kids could proxy, if they did not drive or have authorization, but the single working man was doubly screwed in these situations.

This year I also have the experience of very premature "billing notices" sent to my email and text and every other place, where the bureaucrats are counting on impatience to pay a bill far too early, before it is due, luring you in with ambiguous wording. People today are warning "do not comply in advance" and I am observing this maxim with health care billing in particular.

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tshaddox 42 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

I’ve gotten the normal stuff via mail: bills, credit card stuff, DMV, the occasional jury summons. And I’ve also dealt extensively with U.S. immigration, which often requires numerous exchanges via USPS.

And all of these things generally work fine with the assumption that response times will be a couple of days, plus the couple of days in transit.

I can’t say I recall ever encountering mail with a strict deadline very near to when I received it. (Usually the frustration is the opposite: I wish things could move a lot faster than they do.)

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jstanley 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I'm confused, are you upset about receiving letters that don't give you enough time to act, or that give you too much time to act?

	▲	RupertSalt 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		yes

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senko 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> If a bank actually wanted to serve working people, they would be open on weekends.

You do know that people also work in banks, right?

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RupertSalt 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It's about white collar versus blue collar.

White collars have the luxury of limited hours, resting on the weekends, and being able to take time off work when they have an appointment or obligation.

	▲	alsetmusic 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		This is absolutely true. When I worked as at a restaurant, the mantra from management was: "You got time to lean, you got time to clean." I've worked a lot of blue-collar jobs before making my way into office work. Blue collar workers will get chided for pulling out their phone. I'm posting this comment to HN on either side of a call that came in while I was reading the thread. In my first real office job, I grew anxious when someone from down the hall came and conversed with my office-mate for ten minutes. We had all this work that needed to be addressed! I'm obviously acclimated to office culture now; I'm just trying to underscore the difference in work culture for those who may not have worked in physical labor environments. The people working those jobs aren't even an afterthought to many people (which I can attest from having dealt with people who mistreat workers).

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nkrisc 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Are you trying to say that banks can't be open on the weekends because then bank employees would have to work weekends? Much like any business that operates on the weekends? They would have time off during the week and wouldn't have the issue that people working Mon-Fri have because they could go to the bank on their day off on Tuesday or whatever.

	▲	senko 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> Are you trying to say that banks can't be open on the weekends because then bank employees would have to work weekends? Much like any business that operates on the weekends? I'm saying there's a reason not all businesses (or government institutions) work 996[0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/996_working_hour_system