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and on and on and on...
Today I have been doing telephone advice.
I have been mistaken for the council.
I have been mistaken for a completely different advice centre. By someone who argued that I definitely answered their number (and I know our number is nothing like their number because we use a proper local geographical number and they use an 0845 money making line).
I have been asked to recommend a private eye.
I have had 2 calls from people looking for the person who dealt with them back in the mists of time. Someone whose worker switched from the mental health project 3 years ago, who was lovely. Someone who was looking for someone who has been on extended parental leave for over a year, and who appears never to have had any legitimate reason to be bothering him anyway, who was a hag. She wouldn't give me any of her details because I'm beneath her, and only a specialist would do. You don't see a specialist without talking to me, or one of my coworkers. Slamming the phone down is OK. You don't see a specialist. I get on with my life.
6 pointless enquiries (either out of our area, or something we don't deal with), and 4 baffling ones (which we would deal with except they are basically insolvable problems).
On the plus side I had a nice lunch with colleagues. We went to the pub over the road with the woman who cleans the shared parts of the building our office is in (I think I have posted about her - she's 70+, totally nuts and mops the ceilings, thinks picking up individual pieces of dirt is easier than vacuuming and had to be stopped from cleaning the roof. She also beat me up at Wii boxing
). She's been off sick, and is currently having chemotherapy. We almost got into a physical fight preventing her trying to buy us food and drink...
I like it.
It's a complete double standard too - good enough to pay tax but not receive any legal protection.
Mind you - I'm interested in the law, and I like some of the games you can play with it. (I'm basically on the side of good - and believe in justice and good fair rules people can easily make use of - but I just can't help but admire a (genuinely smart) smart arse).
I've been helping some people with small claims, and employment claims. The sort of thing that's far too small to merit an actual solicitor. And had real joy in finding myself opposed by dumb arses.
Someone whose employer decided they owed money at the end of employment - slightly iffy but legally they'd probably have got away with it (having made the person sign away some of their rights when he was desperate for a job). Debt consisted of X which would have been legal to recover from the final wages, and Y which would not. Both amounts were just over the final wages, and the employer paid nothing without any breakdown as to what had been recovered.
A couple of years later they hire a solicitor and take my customer to court for the rest of the money. They chose one hell of a solicitor - he took legal action for X.
If he'd taken legal action for Y he would probably have won.
But if X is outstanding then Y must have been taken from the wages. And that's not legal. They may have a valid claim for X, but customer has a valid claim for Y. Y is £200 more.
At last contact they were trying to settle with no payment either way. They want to avoid the court costs. My customer has no court costs, and doesn't need to pay a solicitor because I did the forms for him. He isn't worried about costs or delays. I'm still hoping he'll come out £200 ahead.
I've got another employment case where the employer has just tried to weasle out of a 2 week notice payment by arguing that the person was on a fixed term contract of 3 months. Unfortunately they dismissed him 3 weeks short of 3 months - and now owe him 3 weeks money instead
Nothing better than an enemy who's stupider than you are. (Except an enemy who is stupider and behaving less morally - then you get to be really smug).
Victoria J
Today I have been doing telephone advice.
I have been mistaken for the council.
I have been mistaken for a completely different advice centre. By someone who argued that I definitely answered their number (and I know our number is nothing like their number because we use a proper local geographical number and they use an 0845 money making line).
I have been asked to recommend a private eye.
I have had 2 calls from people looking for the person who dealt with them back in the mists of time. Someone whose worker switched from the mental health project 3 years ago, who was lovely. Someone who was looking for someone who has been on extended parental leave for over a year, and who appears never to have had any legitimate reason to be bothering him anyway, who was a hag. She wouldn't give me any of her details because I'm beneath her, and only a specialist would do. You don't see a specialist without talking to me, or one of my coworkers. Slamming the phone down is OK. You don't see a specialist. I get on with my life.
6 pointless enquiries (either out of our area, or something we don't deal with), and 4 baffling ones (which we would deal with except they are basically insolvable problems).
On the plus side I had a nice lunch with colleagues. We went to the pub over the road with the woman who cleans the shared parts of the building our office is in (I think I have posted about her - she's 70+, totally nuts and mops the ceilings, thinks picking up individual pieces of dirt is easier than vacuuming and had to be stopped from cleaning the roof. She also beat me up at Wii boxing
). She's been off sick, and is currently having chemotherapy. We almost got into a physical fight preventing her trying to buy us food and drink...
Quoth Rapscallion
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I like it. It's a complete double standard too - good enough to pay tax but not receive any legal protection.
Mind you - I'm interested in the law, and I like some of the games you can play with it. (I'm basically on the side of good - and believe in justice and good fair rules people can easily make use of - but I just can't help but admire a (genuinely smart) smart arse).
I've been helping some people with small claims, and employment claims. The sort of thing that's far too small to merit an actual solicitor. And had real joy in finding myself opposed by dumb arses.
Someone whose employer decided they owed money at the end of employment - slightly iffy but legally they'd probably have got away with it (having made the person sign away some of their rights when he was desperate for a job). Debt consisted of X which would have been legal to recover from the final wages, and Y which would not. Both amounts were just over the final wages, and the employer paid nothing without any breakdown as to what had been recovered.
A couple of years later they hire a solicitor and take my customer to court for the rest of the money. They chose one hell of a solicitor - he took legal action for X.
If he'd taken legal action for Y he would probably have won.
But if X is outstanding then Y must have been taken from the wages. And that's not legal. They may have a valid claim for X, but customer has a valid claim for Y. Y is £200 more.
At last contact they were trying to settle with no payment either way. They want to avoid the court costs. My customer has no court costs, and doesn't need to pay a solicitor because I did the forms for him. He isn't worried about costs or delays. I'm still hoping he'll come out £200 ahead.
I've got another employment case where the employer has just tried to weasle out of a 2 week notice payment by arguing that the person was on a fixed term contract of 3 months. Unfortunately they dismissed him 3 weeks short of 3 months - and now owe him 3 weeks money instead
Nothing better than an enemy who's stupider than you are. (Except an enemy who is stupider and behaving less morally - then you get to be really smug).
Victoria J
I wouldn't be surprised if he's at least a couple grand in the hole after that.
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