Amailroom (US) orpost room (UK) is aroom in which internal, incoming, and outgoing mail is processed and sorted; the field or profession is known asMailroom Operations orShipping and Receiving Services (and sometimes known as Mail Operations and Mailroom Management). It is a subdiscipline ofproperty management andadministrative professional duties. Mailrooms are commonly found in schools, offices,apartment buildings, and the genericpost office.[1][2][3][4]
A person who works in a mailroom is known as amailroom clerk, mail clerk, mailroom assistant, administrative assistant, shipping and receiving clerk, mail operations specialist, mailroom operator,post room operator, among several other titles, or, in dated parlance,mailboy. The most senior or chief mailroom clerk is called thepostmaster. The mailroom is responsible for a company's incoming and outgoing mail. A mailroom clerk prepares outgoing mail and packages prior to their being sent out via the post office or other carrier.[1][2][3][4]
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In a large organization, the mailroom is the central hub of theinternal mail system and the interface with external mail. The postmaster manages the department, clerks assist them and mailboys deliver mail for other employees in different departments using a mail cart or atrolley doing regular rounds throughout the day. Sometimes the mailboys will trolley sort using the departmental slots on the trolley to reduce work at the central hub and to speed internal mail.[5]
Working in the mailroom as a mail clerk or in dated parlance, mailboy, was a stereotypical male gender orientedentry-level job in an organization, and working one's way up thecorporate ladder "from the mailroom" is a common idiom.[6] At a few companies the mailroom is the basis or metonym for a training program for highly promising early-career hires. U.S.talent agency mailrooms, starting with theWilliam Morris Agency mailroom, became famous for alumni rising to the highest levels in theentertainment industry, documented in the bookThe Mailroom: Hollywood History from the Bottom Up.
