"Stop passing the buck! STOP PASSING THE BUCK!!" (longish)

[MsCrankypants]

The bureaucracy is, indeed, incredible (and incredibly frustrating at times, even for those of us on the other side of the desk. Just to give you an idea, our regulations handbook is six inches thick, and may as well be written in ancient Greek, because most of the regulations are written incredibly ambiguously). Navigating red tape is intimidating at best for those of us who are fully equipped to do so; I can't even begin to imagine how difficult it would be for someone with a limited education or limited understanding of complex concepts.

It's easy to see why people get angry or frustrated, and I fully sympathize. I just don't have much patience for people who are just determined to be nasty, rude and/or abusive no matter what.

[RickSpangle]

I don't actually set out to "make people's lives miserable." Unfortunately, saying "no" or denying eligibility is part and parcel of the job. I don't like doing it, but it has to be done on occasion.

This isn't to say that I'll accept shoddy treatment at the hands of an angry client. I'm not going to take harassment, abuse or offensive speeches lying down. I was trying to maintain my cool and be professional, but she kept cutting in and acting like the whole thing was a big game, and if she just taunted me long enough and hard enough, I'd magically have a solution for her. Which totally wasn't the case.

It wasn't my intent to make her miserable, and she didn't make me miserable, just hacked me off by saying that I was unwilling to do what I'm paid to do. "Working miracles" is, unfortunately, not in my job description, and it was a miracle that she was expecting.

My apologies - I did consider stating that you obviously weren't trying to make her miserable and I'm not sure why I didn't. I've worked in a call centre too - though the services I was denying were not at that sort of level - and my point was more that you can't help what you have to do, she obviously hasn't got the equipment to challenge it anyway other than by shouting at you and basically both of you end up having a crappy experience while the people who actually decide to deny healthcare never get bothered for a second.

But yeah, please do accept my apology if it looked like I was suggesting you were at fault.

[MsCrankypants]

No problem.