Are office mailrooms still a thing?

[mywayorcyway]

Watching Best of SportsCenter and the old commercials. One of them with LT putting mail into cubbies wearing his helmet with tinted visor.

I spent about 10 years in corporate cubicle office hell where everyone had an office mailbox and you had to go check it every day or two. There was a mail person and that was pretty much their full time job. I haven't worked in an office in almost 15 years.

Do they still exist in a similar capacity? Or have they gone the way of the pager?

 

[CycloneNorth]

Working for a city government we still get mail from older residents but vast majority of communication is email. I doubt there are many fully functioning mail rooms left.

 

[NorthCyd]

They are still a thing.

 

[Isualum13]

 

[jdoggivjc]

They're still a thing. Someone/thing has to be able to receive things that can't be sent via email, such as large packages. Logistics isn't going away, no matter how much of a digital society this becomes.

 

[vacyclone]

Definitely still a thing, especially with larger office buildings. Someone has to accept and distribute packages and other important mail (for example, documents that require original signatures). I'm not sure how it used to work since I'm somewhat younger, but in my experience, it's often an outsourced function. The mailroom workers aren't corporate employees - they work for the property management company that the tenant company hires to run the building.

 

[Rabbuk]

I can confirm I have been in the company mailroom to send mail.

 

[RonBurgundy]

Definitely still a thing, except our company went from personal delivery at your desk to a centralized area on each floor that you have to pick up your mail from a box.

FedEX and packages are still delivered personally to your desk. Wonderful during the holidays that our company permits Amazon personal packages to be delivered to work. No instances of porch pirates in last several years for me, and I do my holiday shopping almost exclusively on Amazon.

 

[Gorm]

Our cube mailboxes were being slowly phased out at my office when I started in 2008. When the whole build was remodeled in 2015, the mailboxes never came back. Now the only thing is the "inter office" mail. Which is really only for bigger items which need to go from the multiple (nationwide) locations.

 

[SpokaneCY]

Watching Best of SportsCenter and the old commercials. One of them with LT putting mail into cubbies wearing his helmet with tinted visor.

I spent about 10 years in corporate cubicle office hell where everyone had an office mailbox and you had to go check it every day or two. There was a mail person and that was pretty much their full time job. I haven't worked in an office in almost 15 years.

Do they still exist in a similar capacity? Or have they gone the way of the pager?

My company of 1500 has an official mail room with machines and scales and cubby holes... Permanently staffed by a contract crew.

 

[SpokaneCY]

MY question is on the stand-alone blue mailboxes everywhere. Is it just me, or when you see someone dropping something in there do you just assume its a ransom note, anthrax letter or some manifesto?

 

[BCClone]

MY question is on the stand-alone blue mailboxes everywhere. Is it just me, or when you see someone dropping something in there do you just assume its a ransom note, anthrax letter or some manifesto?

I use the one outside of the post office if I have to get something in the mail that day since ours is usually gone by 9. Can just drive up and chuck it in there.

 

[mywayorcyway]

MY question is on the stand-alone blue mailboxes everywhere. Is it just me, or when you see someone dropping something in there do you just assume its a ransom note, anthrax letter or some manifesto?

When I send my ransom notes, I use a hired patsy found on Craigslist. Mainly because I dont want to get caught, but also because standalone boxes are getting tough to find.

 

[cyputz]

And tolerate all those subscriptions “important” had to receive. I was amazed seeing our mail clerk sort through that crap for executives through the chain - asinine - most could not keep up with their mailing - but it looked impressive

 

[DFWClone]

I’ve worked for 3 companies, 1 internship and 2 full time positions since graduating from ISU, none of the 3 have had mail rooms.

 

[Clonehomer]

Our mailroom is now a small corner in the office supplies area. We receive packages in a receiving area, but the office has very little physical mail anymore.

 

[Sousaclone]

The closest thing we have to a mailroom is a corner of the receptionists desk and I guess we have a PO Box as well. For some reason we still get a lot of paper invoices.

 

[cyfan92]

Insurance company employee. Our mail room is huge. Still a lot of people who want paper contracts. Or regulatory reasons for mailing confidential items.

Department secretary does the sorting for us

 

[wxman1]

No real mail room so to speak. Everything external comes in through receiving who sorts it to go out to the various buildings where I beleive the admins take turns sorting it at designated points. In my prior position I would receive stuff daily. No I barely know the process and haven't received anything in three years.

As far as the blue drop boxes go. I generally use them if I want stuff to get out that day like BCC said, if I want it to be in a secure box (checks and what not) or Christmas cards.

 

[BikeSkiClone]

Mail room on the first floor, next to shipping & receiving (hospital; on top of regular supplies, we ship and receive a lot of personal items for patients). Each department or program has a mail slot but some get their mail delivered to their admin assistant, who distributes to individuals. My mail slot usually only has internal flyers and some spam from airlines or hotel chains I use for my work travel.