Seen and heard on Friday at the UPS store in Park Slope, Brooklyn:

The employee is a kid who looks to be about 16 or 17. He keeps flipping open his Sidekick to check messages and respond. He does not want to be working in the UPS store this afternoon—he won’t make eye contact with any customers and gives sullen, single-word answers to questions.

A guy in his 20s comes in.

Guy: I brought in a package earlier and you guys packed it. I need to get it back and get a refund on the shipping fees.

He hands the kid his receipt—the kid stares at it, turns away and mutters out loud in a strangely offended tone:

UPS Kid: I have to go back there and dig through those boxes and find this one package? Another UPS employee: Don’t go in the back. Just look at those—

She points to a closet area behind the counter. The kid stops in front of the area she pointed to and stands staring at it.

UPS Kid: I have to dig through all these boxes?

The kid stands in front of the closet area muttering that phrase over and over for the next two minutes, and when we leave the store he still hasn’t started looking for the customer’s box.

Probably the only thing worse than this story is that the first thing we thought when the kid refused to look for the box is, “What is this, the post office?”

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