French postal workers helping lonely older people (2018)
theguardian.com
theguardian.com
In my opinion, La Poste (the France’s publicly owned postal service) found a terrible way to break the social link with their customers. The actual situation is postal workers in France are complaining to work in terrible conditions because of a new work organization, monetize what make La Poste a more human and quality service won't improve anything.
I have lived in rural France on and off for the last 20 years. The post person changes with the weather, and we have to remind them where the house is every few months. They drive ridiculously long routes, covering hundreds of kilometres on rural roads every day, and it isn’t uncommon to have them show up at 9pm with their girl or boyfriend in tow, as they’re still on their route and it’s the only way they get to see each other.
How they think that these already prodigiously overworked people will have the time for social visits is beyond me. How they think any kind of community bond can be built by a worker who’s going to burn out and leave in a few months is beyond me.
It’s like they’ve entirely failed to consider their reality before their PR department steamrolled this through.
There’s a much better way of building community and getting old people out - night markets. They started as a touristy thing, but now many communes are doing their own small scale ones, and providing a bus service for people without transport. The one in our hamlet has been heaving, and seeing people who I only ever see alone at home sharing a meal with their neighbours is a real pleasure. It also generates an income for the commune, and supports local businesses. Win-win-win.
Good luck finding a pen there.
Forgive my urban-dweller naïveté, but how does it work exactly to not see anyone but the postman once a week?
Doesn’t this person need to get food, say, at the grocery store — or does someone deliver that too? Or is she getting a month’s worth of canned goods delivered at a time? This is France, forgive the stereotype, but doesn’t she want fresh bread or other fresh food? Or is she making that at home, from flour delivered once a month and eggs from her own chickens?
I’d be very curious to learn more about what this lifestyle looks like!
Well, not everyone in France eats fresh bread everyday. The population is not as homogenous as you may think. Many French still buy fresh bread daily but not all of them. Some people stock piles of frozen food for weeks. Other people eat junk food daily...
I imagine that this person who only see the postman is unable to run errands on her own anymore. Most likely, she gets her food from her family or a social worker. For instance, my grandmother who is 90 years old don't leave her house in the winter (as the streets may be icy and dangerous for her, in the summer she still walk and buy what she needs). She sees various persons though, social workers, nurses, doctors, hair dresser, cleaning lady... (most of this paid by the government as she has a very low income, about 1200 euros a month).
Frankly, the night markets in the original piece sound much nicer than a weekly 20 min chat with the postman...
I can't imagine being elderly. This is a cold city if you don't have an immediate social group to join in on.