Annoyances
Just a handful, from the last couple of days.
First, the farce which is work's ergonomics assessment. I'm a moderately tall guy. Many non-adjustable bits of furniture are just a hair too small for comfort. This includes desks, such as the ones at work. Theoretically, they can be jacked up with bit of wood or something, but first an ergonomics assessment has to be done. Sigh.
So I spent an hour politely arguing with the OH&S guy that no, I don't need a different phone, I don't need my work area rearranged, I don't need my stuff knocked onto the floor and left there for me to pick up, I don't need my personal stuff moved to a different cubicle without asking, but I WOULD like my desk raised two inches, plskthx. And I don't want to argue about national ergonomics standards - I know damn well from fifteen years flying a desk what makes me, personally, slouch and what doesn't.
No result. Which means that I'm going to have to go find an existing jacked-up desk and steal the risers off it, the same way I got all the other things I need to do my job.
Second, the annoyance of handing in a change of details form to the local voting registration office because of the national election coming up next month. The irritation arose because the form to do this is also the form for registering in the first place AND the form for registering for local and state elections AND a whole bunch of other things with similar requirements. Somewhere along the line, someone realised that 90% of these forms were the same thing (ask for name, address, proof of ID etc) and merged them to cut down on complexity and avoid the problem of running out of form A while still having a truckload of form B.
Except that the requirements for each original form were slightly different, so there's a bunch of fine print over each part of the form saying "fill this in for A, B, and C, but not for D, E, or F". Messy, but OK, whatever.
One of the parts was a witness signature. This, the form advises, is needed when you register for a state or local election, or you are unable to sign your name legibly because of illiteracy or other circumstance.
Note that these circumstances do NOT include changing one's details for a FEDERAL election. But the clerk at the electoral commission office wanted to argue with me for ten minutes over it. Dude, I am on my lunch break. The form itself does not require a witness signature. I don't CARE that this means the state and local electoral registers will not be updated. And if you have, as you say, turned away a dozen people today for not having a witness signature despite them only updating federal details, then maybe I should talk to your manager about why you're still employed. Stop wasting my lunch break, do your goddamn job, and take the form. Do not argue with me about this. I spent most of my life interpreting forms and legislation for the federal government in one capacity or another. If you push me, this day will not turn out in a happy manner for you, I guarantee it.
You know, being a long-time (if not continuous) government employee myself, I fucking HATE when another public servant doesn't do their job, or steps over the line, purely to make their job easier. I have no problem with being asked if I wouldn't mind doing X to make things administratively smoother, but if I say no, that is the goddamn END of it.
First, the farce which is work's ergonomics assessment. I'm a moderately tall guy. Many non-adjustable bits of furniture are just a hair too small for comfort. This includes desks, such as the ones at work. Theoretically, they can be jacked up with bit of wood or something, but first an ergonomics assessment has to be done. Sigh.
So I spent an hour politely arguing with the OH&S guy that no, I don't need a different phone, I don't need my work area rearranged, I don't need my stuff knocked onto the floor and left there for me to pick up, I don't need my personal stuff moved to a different cubicle without asking, but I WOULD like my desk raised two inches, plskthx. And I don't want to argue about national ergonomics standards - I know damn well from fifteen years flying a desk what makes me, personally, slouch and what doesn't.
No result. Which means that I'm going to have to go find an existing jacked-up desk and steal the risers off it, the same way I got all the other things I need to do my job.
Second, the annoyance of handing in a change of details form to the local voting registration office because of the national election coming up next month. The irritation arose because the form to do this is also the form for registering in the first place AND the form for registering for local and state elections AND a whole bunch of other things with similar requirements. Somewhere along the line, someone realised that 90% of these forms were the same thing (ask for name, address, proof of ID etc) and merged them to cut down on complexity and avoid the problem of running out of form A while still having a truckload of form B.
Except that the requirements for each original form were slightly different, so there's a bunch of fine print over each part of the form saying "fill this in for A, B, and C, but not for D, E, or F". Messy, but OK, whatever.
One of the parts was a witness signature. This, the form advises, is needed when you register for a state or local election, or you are unable to sign your name legibly because of illiteracy or other circumstance.
Note that these circumstances do NOT include changing one's details for a FEDERAL election. But the clerk at the electoral commission office wanted to argue with me for ten minutes over it. Dude, I am on my lunch break. The form itself does not require a witness signature. I don't CARE that this means the state and local electoral registers will not be updated. And if you have, as you say, turned away a dozen people today for not having a witness signature despite them only updating federal details, then maybe I should talk to your manager about why you're still employed. Stop wasting my lunch break, do your goddamn job, and take the form. Do not argue with me about this. I spent most of my life interpreting forms and legislation for the federal government in one capacity or another. If you push me, this day will not turn out in a happy manner for you, I guarantee it.
You know, being a long-time (if not continuous) government employee myself, I fucking HATE when another public servant doesn't do their job, or steps over the line, purely to make their job easier. I have no problem with being asked if I wouldn't mind doing X to make things administratively smoother, but if I say no, that is the goddamn END of it.