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Wednesday was quite a day. It's always chaos but some days are more chaotic. Wednesday was one of those days.
My favourite coworker got the worst of it, and the best story here is hers not mine.
She had been told she wasn't working with the public that day. She was meant to have an extra day to do paperwork etc. (The Holy Grail !). Unfortunately management had forgotten for the third week running that our temporary part time worker only works a half day on Wednesday so she had to see half the normal number.
Bad acting
If you tell me you are unwell that's all I need to know.
I do not want to see any bruises, injuries, rashes etc. etc.
And it really is not necessary to suddenly fake doubling over with pain. I'd seen this guy twice, and the first time I say that I am not sure whether he will qualify for a sickness benefit he doubles up then clutches his leg.
This is really stupid because (a) the guy really does have health problems, (b) because all I care about is what he says and then what his doctor says, and (c) he was a really bad actor and if he does that when he applies they'll just laugh. They won't recognise the illness he actually has.
Better acting
I'm doing my thing and walking around the building between the people I am advising and the computer, and filing cabinets, and people who know more than me.
I'm somewhat confused as to why there was a woman sitting in the main office at the supervisors desk, drinking a cup of tea. She wasn't a worker and we don't normally sit people in the back office, or give them tea. (In 5 years I believe less than 10 people have had a cup of tea out of us, and only 1 got a biscuit).
She's sitting there and every so often she looks around and then does this shuddering theatrical breath. Sometimes instead she makes a strange sobbing noise.
I was
I think she was annoyed I was ignoring her because she stepped it up whenever I got near. But as I say it's always chaos in our office and I can ignore pretty much anything when necessary. The other week I had to keep making police officers move, and she doesn't compete with the flooding that took out most of our electrics, small children setting of the panic alarm, or the woman who challenged her abusive ex-boyfriend to come down to office and get her...
I also am currently staying at my mother's house. My mother has real breathing problems, for which she is having some very serious operations. I know what someone having breathing problems sound like.
2 coworkers are more sympathetic and/or gullible.
They called an ambulance.
If the woman had wanted an ambulance I'd have called her one. Unless you are medically trained you do not make that kind of judgement - but apparently she even said she didn't need one.
So we got an ambulance, and paramedics. Who dragged all their stuff through the waiting room and stood in the main office talking to her.
The real sucker coworker actually decided they weren't taking her seriously enough and came over and said "I can tell you she was having breahting problems!", the paramedic just said "And do you see her having problems breathing now ?", er, no....
The woman then started to clutch her sides and complain of pain. The paramedics asked if she thought she was having a heart attack (I thought with maybe a slight emphaisis on the "thought"). The woman said no, but she did have panic attacks.
Paramedic : How long have you been having panic attacks ?
Woman : I've been suffering forr years. 50 years....(and on some more about her suffering)
Paramedic : You're 49.
They took her away. Unfortunately she came back.
It was my coworker who was seeing her.
The woman has limited English. She also has a problem that at this point we can only sympathise with. We advise on rights in any situation, she pretty much has none (it's a bit too complicated to explain), and the only thing left is any charity available. In the longer term if she can't find work she'll have to leave the country.
We'd tracked down a welfare organisation for people from her home country and got her an appointment with them. They could tell her the same bad news in her own language, and give a little emergency assistance.
She screamed and cried, and threw a fit and gave 10 minute speaches about how she was too ill to work everytime she was given advice. She cried and said we weren't helping her.
My coworker saw half the number of people that I did. Because of this woman she spent more time than me.
In the end my coworker got her to speak to the person from the her-country welfare group on the phone. And suddenly everything was better. She went off happily to meet with this organisation.
She even gave my coworker a hug and kept saying thank you.
2 hours +, 2 visits with the paramedics in between, and all that drama. My coworker finally relaxed, let the woman hug her and...
cricked her neck so it hurt for the rest of the day.
(I'm evil I)
Why I love my job
I get to upset bailiffs.
Why I hate bailiffs
There aren't many jobs I'll judge a person for taking, but I'd rather have a bailiff at my door than be one. I don't have the same problem with debt collectors (just the minority who enjoy the power over creditors a bit too much). Some of the court bailiffs doing evictions aren't too bad despite the horrible job, the only major complaint I've had about them was the time they took kittens - and it turned out they'd taken them to the RSPCA because they thought the ex-tenant had abandoned them.
But bailiffs *shudder*. The system is such that for normal debts (not court penalties etc.) they can really only collect if they either fool people or they intimidate them (they have to gain "peaceful entry" on one occasion before they can break in to take stuff). That isn't entirely the bailiffs fault but anyone who has a problem with operating like that won't last a week in the job. They get to force little old ladies who invite them in for a cup of tea to pay, and scared women who thought they could break in.
A real joy
So I'm helping a woman who has a debt on local tax (council tax).
The debt had been put out to bailiffs. The woman was a single parent with 2 children, and their only income is state benefit.
An arrangement had been made that she would pay £20 a month. This is reasonable. It is not much more than the council would get if they got it deducted from her benefit instead. The council has an agreement between themselves, us, the bailiffs firms they use etc. that states that this is a reasonable amount for someone on benefit.
Unfortunately this woman's children were 16 and 18. You can only get benefit for children still in education and these are the ages they check. So about 2/3 of her income disappeared while she had to send in evidence of enrollment etc.
She couldn't pay the £20.
But this woman was very sensible and did absolutely the right thing. As soon as the benfit was being paid again she called the bailiffs, she didn't wait for them to contact her. She didn't ask to make a whole new agreement she just asked to make up the missing payments now she finally had her money.
They demanded £110.
She thought that was a bit high as she'd only missed a couple of payments butt she paid (as she'd just got a backdate of benefit).
The bailiffs cashed her payment and then told her she had to pay £110 every month.
She came to us.
I phoned the bailiffs. It was
all the way. Nothing less than £110 would do. There was no legal limit. What agreement with the council ? Tough.
I phoned one of the managers at the council.
They listened to the above. They have direct access to the same computer accounts. They opened up the computer and set up the agreement at £20 with a note saying that the bailiffs had to accept this.
Then she asked about what the bailiffs had actuallly done, and discovered they'd charged £144 in illegal fees. So she wrote those off.
Beautiful. I went to lunch at 2.30pm, but full of happiness at the thought that the bailiffs would be geetting those notes at any time.
Victoria J
My favourite coworker got the worst of it, and the best story here is hers not mine.
She had been told she wasn't working with the public that day. She was meant to have an extra day to do paperwork etc. (The Holy Grail !). Unfortunately management had forgotten for the third week running that our temporary part time worker only works a half day on Wednesday so she had to see half the normal number.
Bad acting
If you tell me you are unwell that's all I need to know.
I do not want to see any bruises, injuries, rashes etc. etc.
And it really is not necessary to suddenly fake doubling over with pain. I'd seen this guy twice, and the first time I say that I am not sure whether he will qualify for a sickness benefit he doubles up then clutches his leg.
This is really stupid because (a) the guy really does have health problems, (b) because all I care about is what he says and then what his doctor says, and (c) he was a really bad actor and if he does that when he applies they'll just laugh. They won't recognise the illness he actually has.
Better acting
I'm doing my thing and walking around the building between the people I am advising and the computer, and filing cabinets, and people who know more than me.
I'm somewhat confused as to why there was a woman sitting in the main office at the supervisors desk, drinking a cup of tea. She wasn't a worker and we don't normally sit people in the back office, or give them tea. (In 5 years I believe less than 10 people have had a cup of tea out of us, and only 1 got a biscuit).
She's sitting there and every so often she looks around and then does this shuddering theatrical breath. Sometimes instead she makes a strange sobbing noise.
I was
I think she was annoyed I was ignoring her because she stepped it up whenever I got near. But as I say it's always chaos in our office and I can ignore pretty much anything when necessary. The other week I had to keep making police officers move, and she doesn't compete with the flooding that took out most of our electrics, small children setting of the panic alarm, or the woman who challenged her abusive ex-boyfriend to come down to office and get her...
I also am currently staying at my mother's house. My mother has real breathing problems, for which she is having some very serious operations. I know what someone having breathing problems sound like.
2 coworkers are more sympathetic and/or gullible.
They called an ambulance.
If the woman had wanted an ambulance I'd have called her one. Unless you are medically trained you do not make that kind of judgement - but apparently she even said she didn't need one.
So we got an ambulance, and paramedics. Who dragged all their stuff through the waiting room and stood in the main office talking to her.
The real sucker coworker actually decided they weren't taking her seriously enough and came over and said "I can tell you she was having breahting problems!", the paramedic just said "And do you see her having problems breathing now ?", er, no....
The woman then started to clutch her sides and complain of pain. The paramedics asked if she thought she was having a heart attack (I thought with maybe a slight emphaisis on the "thought"). The woman said no, but she did have panic attacks.
Paramedic : How long have you been having panic attacks ?
Woman : I've been suffering forr years. 50 years....(and on some more about her suffering)
Paramedic : You're 49.
They took her away. Unfortunately she came back.
It was my coworker who was seeing her.
The woman has limited English. She also has a problem that at this point we can only sympathise with. We advise on rights in any situation, she pretty much has none (it's a bit too complicated to explain), and the only thing left is any charity available. In the longer term if she can't find work she'll have to leave the country.
We'd tracked down a welfare organisation for people from her home country and got her an appointment with them. They could tell her the same bad news in her own language, and give a little emergency assistance.
She screamed and cried, and threw a fit and gave 10 minute speaches about how she was too ill to work everytime she was given advice. She cried and said we weren't helping her.
My coworker saw half the number of people that I did. Because of this woman she spent more time than me.
In the end my coworker got her to speak to the person from the her-country welfare group on the phone. And suddenly everything was better. She went off happily to meet with this organisation.
She even gave my coworker a hug and kept saying thank you.
2 hours +, 2 visits with the paramedics in between, and all that drama. My coworker finally relaxed, let the woman hug her and...
cricked her neck so it hurt for the rest of the day.
(I'm evil I
)Why I love my job
I get to upset bailiffs.
Why I hate bailiffs
There aren't many jobs I'll judge a person for taking, but I'd rather have a bailiff at my door than be one. I don't have the same problem with debt collectors (just the minority who enjoy the power over creditors a bit too much). Some of the court bailiffs doing evictions aren't too bad despite the horrible job, the only major complaint I've had about them was the time they took kittens - and it turned out they'd taken them to the RSPCA because they thought the ex-tenant had abandoned them.
But bailiffs *shudder*. The system is such that for normal debts (not court penalties etc.) they can really only collect if they either fool people or they intimidate them (they have to gain "peaceful entry" on one occasion before they can break in to take stuff). That isn't entirely the bailiffs fault but anyone who has a problem with operating like that won't last a week in the job. They get to force little old ladies who invite them in for a cup of tea to pay, and scared women who thought they could break in.
A real joy
So I'm helping a woman who has a debt on local tax (council tax).
The debt had been put out to bailiffs. The woman was a single parent with 2 children, and their only income is state benefit.
An arrangement had been made that she would pay £20 a month. This is reasonable. It is not much more than the council would get if they got it deducted from her benefit instead. The council has an agreement between themselves, us, the bailiffs firms they use etc. that states that this is a reasonable amount for someone on benefit.
Unfortunately this woman's children were 16 and 18. You can only get benefit for children still in education and these are the ages they check. So about 2/3 of her income disappeared while she had to send in evidence of enrollment etc.
She couldn't pay the £20.
But this woman was very sensible and did absolutely the right thing. As soon as the benfit was being paid again she called the bailiffs, she didn't wait for them to contact her. She didn't ask to make a whole new agreement she just asked to make up the missing payments now she finally had her money.
They demanded £110.
She thought that was a bit high as she'd only missed a couple of payments butt she paid (as she'd just got a backdate of benefit).
The bailiffs cashed her payment and then told her she had to pay £110 every month.
She came to us.
I phoned the bailiffs. It was
all the way. Nothing less than £110 would do. There was no legal limit. What agreement with the council ? Tough. I phoned one of the managers at the council.
They listened to the above. They have direct access to the same computer accounts. They opened up the computer and set up the agreement at £20 with a note saying that the bailiffs had to accept this. Then she asked about what the bailiffs had actuallly done, and discovered they'd charged £144 in illegal fees. So she wrote those off.
Beautiful. I went to lunch at 2.30pm, but full of happiness at the thought that the bailiffs would be geetting those notes at any time.
Victoria J