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Most of the funny stuff is from Thursday if any one wants to skip. I met some real characters on Thursday.
MONDAY
You know it's a bad week when you turn up to work on Monday and you think your supervisor is winding you up when she tells you what's going on because things can't possibly be that bad. Oh ...
There are 4 and 1/2 people doing my job. So on Monday I turn up just before we start seeing people and ask my supervisor if the first room is free, and who else is seeing clients.
Just me.
The 1/2 person only does Thursday and Friday. G is on holiday. D is sick. S is sick.
The manager saw clients with me. He also saw 12 people and finished before I saw my normal 8. Which is pretty good but we'll never hear the end, and he can get away with cutting corners we can't.
We turned about 20 people away. I guess double what we would have done if everyone was in.
Despite the stressful start the day went OK from my point of view. The only real problem is people wait longer to be seen so they get crankier.
TUESDAY
I do paperwork. Uneventful.
WEDNESDAY
D and S are back. Both have ongoing health problems. D is down to seeing 6 customers and leaving early. It's great to have her back because she's been off for 5 weeks, and because she's lovely.
However my day was not so good.
I had a customer who cried.
I had another customer whose partner had died last week, with the funeral this Friday. She was asking about practical arrangements and while I went through some stuff with her I also said everything will wait until next week. I said I'd ring her back with an answer to another question and I was automatically saying I'd ring her the nextday week. Yes these things need doing, but if you have to take your young son to his father's funeral that's more important. It all went well really, and she was much calmer when she left. I feel good about it, but it was a really hard interview to get through,.
Luckily the dead man is not around - or I would smack him. If you have a terminal illness and you live with a partner you are not married to MAKE A WILL. If you don't have a terminal illness do it anyway. That is all.
I also had a customer with a 2 week old baby. Both very nice but they'd waited a long time and towards the end the baby was getting hungry and started wailing.
Then the customer accidentally knocked everything out of her handbag - and left me holding the baby while she picked it up
In fairness she didn;t just say "hold this" and stick it in my arms before I realised it was the baby I was being handed (which has happened, though with somewhat older babies). She asked, and took plenty of time to make sure I was holding him safely. But I am not particularly comfortable with babies, and he's probably the second youngest I've held (after my own sister). He hated me and howled and turned red.
On the plus side the temporary admin worker looked through the window in the door while I was holding him and trying to calm him down by rocking him. She was very impressed, I think she (rightly) had me down as someone with the maternal skills of a brick.
I finished an hour after the other 2, meaning my last 2 customers were really annoyed because suddenly they were waiting much longer between people being called through. I didn't finish late either, D finished early because she was seeing less, and S because he's newly arrived from somewhere that does less in depth work. (He'll get a lot of his paperwork back with instructions to do extra work). Luckily the admin person entertained the last woman for me.
THURSDAY
Now for the fun stuff. Please remember I only see 8 people, and this is all on one day. I want sympathy !
I think the Guv''s bent !
I think this woman escaped from an old fashioned and highly unrealistic crime program.
Apparently she and her partner were being harassed by someone else on the housing estate where they live.
This man had moved in, cut the lock off a garage and proceeded to run an illegal car wash and mechanic business out of the "lock up".
He'd harassed them in various ways. Then he'd attacked her partner and injured him, but had claimed her partner had a knife so that it was her partner who ended up in court. In court he stood up and said that her partner "had no standing on the estate". Her partner was acquitted.
The reason the police won't take action is that he is a police informant and is therefore "protected".
We talked briefly about personal injury - only it was out of time. She then said her partner had problems he'd never had diagnosed properly because every time he leaves for a specialist medical appointment this man threatens him and he can't go.
She asked about injunctions - and wouldn't accept any of the problems I raised with them. But eventually understood they rely on the police to enforce them. So that was no use.
She rejected every legal suggestion I made. (I have no idea if this was a more or less true story told in a very odd way, or whether some of this is rather more imaginary. Either way I have to treat everyone equally and have to advise based on what they tell me).
It was no use making a police complaint because everyone knows only the police deal with those and they all lie to protect each other.
Eventually she went off saying it was no use and I couldn't help her and "I'll take the law into my own hands and I'll go to The News of the World".
Okkaayy...
Bonus points - every other sentence was "I'm not a racist but..."
The News of the World will probably love her.
(I'd like to add that I have spent most of my life living in East London, and between my own experience and the fact that I see people from all over the area including many from what could be seen as the least desirable housing I think I know something of life here. I'm not saying there aren't problems, or some areas with violence, but I don't recognise the world she describes at all).
I think he has a phrase book.
I had a customer from Lithuania.
I often see people who don't quite have enough English, but most people have more words than this.
"Big problem"
Kind of need more details than this.
He also knew "blood" and "no money".
I suspect a phrase book. One of those that seems mainly to deal with disasters... "I have gout, where is the blood bank, where is your centre for infectious diseases" etc.
Between some paper work, a call to a friend who didn't answer, and a call to a friend who spoke a little more English before she got cut off I worked out part of his problem.
We made a phone call to get some information about a claim he had made. He promptly failed the security check as he couldn't answer questions like "what is your name".
Would it be wrong to beat a guy to death with his white stick ?
This man deserves to die.
We give advice to individuals not those running businesses and organisations. However I try to be helpful to those running voluntary organisations in the local area as it tends to be good to keep on good terms, and I also will tell you if what you are thinking of doing is blatantly not legal. I would have hoped no case would be both...
He has a question about his own mortgage which was fine.
All his other questions related to his being chair of a very small organisation for the blind.
A number of small and petty questions like where did we get some posters we had up etc. which I answered.
The big thing though was that he wanted me to tell him how he could sack their employee who was on maternity leave.
There seemed to be 3 reasons. 1 she had offended him. 2 they had discovered some minor mistakes once she was not there. 3 she had taken time off and was costing them money. She was only costing them money because they were too stupid to have correctly claimed her maternity pay back from the government.
Can anyone say "sex discrimination case" ?
Do NOT mess with pregnant employees. They have more employment protection than anyone.
Do not argue with me. I don't care what the contract says. I don't care that 3 isn't the only reason. No you can't just make her redundant, you've just told me you're frantically trying to fill the role now she isn't there.
I now HATE you. But I'm still helping you. If you do this you will lose your organisation a lot of money. Plus you can be named personally in a claim as her manager.
Talk to someone who actually advises employers. Pay a solicitor. They may be willing to try and find a way for you to sack her legally over 2. I am not. I know her pregnancy has affected the decision to sack her, and therefore it IS illegal discrimination.
And stop trying to argue with me. You are a loathsome idiot.
If I was as annoying as you I wouldn't carry a stick even if I walked into walls without it. It's just so tempting...
My time, can I have it back ?
This one's long, annoying and ranty. And not as funny as the other Thursday ones.
Not the customer's fault. He had come in to see us on another day when we were short staffed and on this occasion the supervisor had been seeing people.
When the manager roles his sleeves up and joins us he does it properly. Not her. When she does it she picks and chooses who she'll take and then does a bad job.
In this case the customer complained about 2 debts and said we'd previously sorted them out.
She doesn't look into this. She doesn't ask questions. She waffles about making instalment arrangements etc. She tells him he may be able to have an appointment with us but we need to see evidence of his income and do a calculation. Instead she offers him an appointment with an outside organisation who visit us and don't have the same financial rules. He doesn't want this and says he'll come back with the paperwork.
Which is where I come in.
First thing I check the old case. 3 years ago we told him the larger debt was not legally enforceable. That won't have changed. The other one is new, so I ask him about it. He says he's never had a contract with this company and thinks someone may have forged his name.
Like hell do we make instalment arrangements !
Now I wouldn't even have booked this guy an appointment. I have a letter he can send to the first unenforceable debt. I have a letter he can send to the second regarding possible identity theft and requests for evidence of contracts etc. But he was told he could have an appointment.
I do the check. He can't have one of our appointments. However his wife is stopping work soon.
I recommend an appointment with the other organisation, but we could see if he will soon be able to have one with us.
He wants me to check for when his wife stops work.
So I check and still no. Then I check again and when she stops work, and some benefit they get only because she works also stops they will be able to see us. But this wouldn't be until September at the earliest, and then a whole new check would be needed in case anything else has changed.
SO I explain this. If he wants to wait he can. He can have my sample letters and write himself until then. But I really really recommend the other organisation. They offer all the same help we do.
He finally says he's worried about the cost.
First thing I say to people - "I need to do a calculation. You may be able to have an appointment with us. If not I can book you an appointment with this other organisation. Either way you get the same help. It's free, it's with a specialist in debt, you'll have a named caseworker who will help you until this is sorted out and you'll be seen right here. Now let me work out which appointment we need to book".
How the hell did she not explain this !
And why was I not sensible to ask why he didn't want to see them >
And how is she my supervisor when she got every single bit of that case wrong. (And tells us we have to do the calculations for people who come back ourselves, without counting them as a customer again).
nice and normal and...
Oh. A nice normal debt case. Yes I see the problem. Oooh - you brought me all the right paperwork. Yes - I think we can agree a solution. Yes - you can have an appointment and we can sort this out !
Yes - debts are stressful aren't they. Talking about them makes your eyeballs vibrate ?
Nope, you're on your own there.
Too in touch with your feelings
I saw this guy last week, and now he's back to accompany his mother who also needs advice.
He's a nice guy. Friendly and cheerful and a little bit camp. Someone I work with had him as a neighbour once - I bet he was a great neighbour. As a customer he just takes up too much time.
He just considers every interaction with too much depth. All these emotional nuances.
Last week I talked to him about 2 occasions where he may have been discriminated against. And while both cases ended with actual mistreatment he had to tell the full story with every look and change of tone of voice. And given how sensitive he is about such things it's pretty much impossible to hurry him along.
This time he did the same with his mother's case. I ended up with no idea about all the practical things that had happened but hearing over half an hour about how he'd been unhappy with the way a man spoke to him on the phone, and the he complained politely but felt he'd offended him, and then he called back and there was a disagreement and he said he never wanted to speak to the guy again, and then he sent the guy an apology in a card but didn't receive a response. (I suspect the man who works for the council has never previously received an apology in a nice card and didn't know the etiquette).
As everyone in the house had been persuaded to sign some documents that I think they need some advice about I booked the mother an appointment with a local solicitor. I've made up my notes and there's enough to justify the appointment and probably more than many of my colleagues would have put, but not what they'll expect from a case I referred. None of the details of all the steps that led up to this because all I know is how some guy sounded over the phone. I always get all the useful information !
If I get the man a third week running I think I'm going to be adding myself to the list of people who have offended him. Just too time consuming.
I finished an hour after everyone else again. Though this time because I finished late.
FRIDAY
Paperwork. I had to write up my records for Thursday and relive it all.
I think something snapped.
Bonus annoyances.
In addition we keep having complicated and annoying issues re., the union, a change in sickness policy and disputes.
Also I saw poor D standing at her desk and typing with her keyboard on a cardboard box. Send her home. Or get someone to at least think about heath and safety.
Finally I think the apocalypse is coming. I talked to my manager about something. He immediately got angry and defensive. I talked some more. He actually listed and we ended up agreeing. This has NEVER happened before.
Victoria J
MONDAY
You know it's a bad week when you turn up to work on Monday and you think your supervisor is winding you up when she tells you what's going on because things can't possibly be that bad. Oh ...
There are 4 and 1/2 people doing my job. So on Monday I turn up just before we start seeing people and ask my supervisor if the first room is free, and who else is seeing clients.
Just me.
The 1/2 person only does Thursday and Friday. G is on holiday. D is sick. S is sick.
The manager saw clients with me. He also saw 12 people and finished before I saw my normal 8. Which is pretty good but we'll never hear the end, and he can get away with cutting corners we can't.
We turned about 20 people away. I guess double what we would have done if everyone was in.
Despite the stressful start the day went OK from my point of view. The only real problem is people wait longer to be seen so they get crankier.
TUESDAY
I do paperwork. Uneventful.
WEDNESDAY
D and S are back. Both have ongoing health problems. D is down to seeing 6 customers and leaving early. It's great to have her back because she's been off for 5 weeks, and because she's lovely.
However my day was not so good.
I had a customer who cried.
I had another customer whose partner had died last week, with the funeral this Friday. She was asking about practical arrangements and while I went through some stuff with her I also said everything will wait until next week. I said I'd ring her back with an answer to another question and I was automatically saying I'd ring her the next
Luckily the dead man is not around - or I would smack him. If you have a terminal illness and you live with a partner you are not married to MAKE A WILL. If you don't have a terminal illness do it anyway. That is all.
I also had a customer with a 2 week old baby. Both very nice but they'd waited a long time and towards the end the baby was getting hungry and started wailing.
Then the customer accidentally knocked everything out of her handbag - and left me holding the baby while she picked it up
In fairness she didn;t just say "hold this" and stick it in my arms before I realised it was the baby I was being handed (which has happened, though with somewhat older babies). She asked, and took plenty of time to make sure I was holding him safely. But I am not particularly comfortable with babies, and he's probably the second youngest I've held (after my own sister). He hated me and howled and turned red.
On the plus side the temporary admin worker looked through the window in the door while I was holding him and trying to calm him down by rocking him. She was very impressed, I think she (rightly) had me down as someone with the maternal skills of a brick.
I finished an hour after the other 2, meaning my last 2 customers were really annoyed because suddenly they were waiting much longer between people being called through. I didn't finish late either, D finished early because she was seeing less, and S because he's newly arrived from somewhere that does less in depth work. (He'll get a lot of his paperwork back with instructions to do extra work). Luckily the admin person entertained the last woman for me.
THURSDAY
Now for the fun stuff. Please remember I only see 8 people, and this is all on one day. I want sympathy !
I think the Guv''s bent !
I think this woman escaped from an old fashioned and highly unrealistic crime program.
Apparently she and her partner were being harassed by someone else on the housing estate where they live.
This man had moved in, cut the lock off a garage and proceeded to run an illegal car wash and mechanic business out of the "lock up".
He'd harassed them in various ways. Then he'd attacked her partner and injured him, but had claimed her partner had a knife so that it was her partner who ended up in court. In court he stood up and said that her partner "had no standing on the estate". Her partner was acquitted.
The reason the police won't take action is that he is a police informant and is therefore "protected".
We talked briefly about personal injury - only it was out of time. She then said her partner had problems he'd never had diagnosed properly because every time he leaves for a specialist medical appointment this man threatens him and he can't go.
She asked about injunctions - and wouldn't accept any of the problems I raised with them. But eventually understood they rely on the police to enforce them. So that was no use.
She rejected every legal suggestion I made. (I have no idea if this was a more or less true story told in a very odd way, or whether some of this is rather more imaginary. Either way I have to treat everyone equally and have to advise based on what they tell me).
It was no use making a police complaint because everyone knows only the police deal with those and they all lie to protect each other.
Eventually she went off saying it was no use and I couldn't help her and "I'll take the law into my own hands and I'll go to The News of the World".
Okkaayy...
Bonus points - every other sentence was "I'm not a racist but..."
The News of the World will probably love her.
(I'd like to add that I have spent most of my life living in East London, and between my own experience and the fact that I see people from all over the area including many from what could be seen as the least desirable housing I think I know something of life here. I'm not saying there aren't problems, or some areas with violence, but I don't recognise the world she describes at all).
I think he has a phrase book.
I had a customer from Lithuania.
I often see people who don't quite have enough English, but most people have more words than this.
"Big problem"
Kind of need more details than this.
He also knew "blood" and "no money".
I suspect a phrase book. One of those that seems mainly to deal with disasters... "I have gout, where is the blood bank, where is your centre for infectious diseases" etc.
Between some paper work, a call to a friend who didn't answer, and a call to a friend who spoke a little more English before she got cut off I worked out part of his problem.
We made a phone call to get some information about a claim he had made. He promptly failed the security check as he couldn't answer questions like "what is your name".
Would it be wrong to beat a guy to death with his white stick ?
This man deserves to die.
We give advice to individuals not those running businesses and organisations. However I try to be helpful to those running voluntary organisations in the local area as it tends to be good to keep on good terms, and I also will tell you if what you are thinking of doing is blatantly not legal. I would have hoped no case would be both...
He has a question about his own mortgage which was fine.
All his other questions related to his being chair of a very small organisation for the blind.
A number of small and petty questions like where did we get some posters we had up etc. which I answered.
The big thing though was that he wanted me to tell him how he could sack their employee who was on maternity leave.
There seemed to be 3 reasons. 1 she had offended him. 2 they had discovered some minor mistakes once she was not there. 3 she had taken time off and was costing them money. She was only costing them money because they were too stupid to have correctly claimed her maternity pay back from the government.
Can anyone say "sex discrimination case" ?
Do NOT mess with pregnant employees. They have more employment protection than anyone.
Do not argue with me. I don't care what the contract says. I don't care that 3 isn't the only reason. No you can't just make her redundant, you've just told me you're frantically trying to fill the role now she isn't there.
I now HATE you. But I'm still helping you. If you do this you will lose your organisation a lot of money. Plus you can be named personally in a claim as her manager.
Talk to someone who actually advises employers. Pay a solicitor. They may be willing to try and find a way for you to sack her legally over 2. I am not. I know her pregnancy has affected the decision to sack her, and therefore it IS illegal discrimination.
And stop trying to argue with me. You are a loathsome idiot.
If I was as annoying as you I wouldn't carry a stick even if I walked into walls without it. It's just so tempting...
My time, can I have it back ?
This one's long, annoying and ranty. And not as funny as the other Thursday ones.
Not the customer's fault. He had come in to see us on another day when we were short staffed and on this occasion the supervisor had been seeing people.
When the manager roles his sleeves up and joins us he does it properly. Not her. When she does it she picks and chooses who she'll take and then does a bad job.
In this case the customer complained about 2 debts and said we'd previously sorted them out.
She doesn't look into this. She doesn't ask questions. She waffles about making instalment arrangements etc. She tells him he may be able to have an appointment with us but we need to see evidence of his income and do a calculation. Instead she offers him an appointment with an outside organisation who visit us and don't have the same financial rules. He doesn't want this and says he'll come back with the paperwork.
Which is where I come in.
First thing I check the old case. 3 years ago we told him the larger debt was not legally enforceable. That won't have changed. The other one is new, so I ask him about it. He says he's never had a contract with this company and thinks someone may have forged his name.
Like hell do we make instalment arrangements !
Now I wouldn't even have booked this guy an appointment. I have a letter he can send to the first unenforceable debt. I have a letter he can send to the second regarding possible identity theft and requests for evidence of contracts etc. But he was told he could have an appointment.
I do the check. He can't have one of our appointments. However his wife is stopping work soon.
I recommend an appointment with the other organisation, but we could see if he will soon be able to have one with us.
He wants me to check for when his wife stops work.
So I check and still no. Then I check again and when she stops work, and some benefit they get only because she works also stops they will be able to see us. But this wouldn't be until September at the earliest, and then a whole new check would be needed in case anything else has changed.
SO I explain this. If he wants to wait he can. He can have my sample letters and write himself until then. But I really really recommend the other organisation. They offer all the same help we do.
He finally says he's worried about the cost.
First thing I say to people - "I need to do a calculation. You may be able to have an appointment with us. If not I can book you an appointment with this other organisation. Either way you get the same help. It's free, it's with a specialist in debt, you'll have a named caseworker who will help you until this is sorted out and you'll be seen right here. Now let me work out which appointment we need to book".
How the hell did she not explain this !
And why was I not sensible to ask why he didn't want to see them >
And how is she my supervisor when she got every single bit of that case wrong. (And tells us we have to do the calculations for people who come back ourselves, without counting them as a customer again).
nice and normal and...
Oh. A nice normal debt case. Yes I see the problem. Oooh - you brought me all the right paperwork. Yes - I think we can agree a solution. Yes - you can have an appointment and we can sort this out !
Yes - debts are stressful aren't they. Talking about them makes your eyeballs vibrate ?
Nope, you're on your own there.
Too in touch with your feelings
I saw this guy last week, and now he's back to accompany his mother who also needs advice.
He's a nice guy. Friendly and cheerful and a little bit camp. Someone I work with had him as a neighbour once - I bet he was a great neighbour. As a customer he just takes up too much time.
He just considers every interaction with too much depth. All these emotional nuances.
Last week I talked to him about 2 occasions where he may have been discriminated against. And while both cases ended with actual mistreatment he had to tell the full story with every look and change of tone of voice. And given how sensitive he is about such things it's pretty much impossible to hurry him along.
This time he did the same with his mother's case. I ended up with no idea about all the practical things that had happened but hearing over half an hour about how he'd been unhappy with the way a man spoke to him on the phone, and the he complained politely but felt he'd offended him, and then he called back and there was a disagreement and he said he never wanted to speak to the guy again, and then he sent the guy an apology in a card but didn't receive a response. (I suspect the man who works for the council has never previously received an apology in a nice card and didn't know the etiquette).
As everyone in the house had been persuaded to sign some documents that I think they need some advice about I booked the mother an appointment with a local solicitor. I've made up my notes and there's enough to justify the appointment and probably more than many of my colleagues would have put, but not what they'll expect from a case I referred. None of the details of all the steps that led up to this because all I know is how some guy sounded over the phone. I always get all the useful information !
If I get the man a third week running I think I'm going to be adding myself to the list of people who have offended him. Just too time consuming.
I finished an hour after everyone else again. Though this time because I finished late.
FRIDAY
Paperwork. I had to write up my records for Thursday and relive it all.
I think something snapped.
Bonus annoyances.
In addition we keep having complicated and annoying issues re., the union, a change in sickness policy and disputes.
Also I saw poor D standing at her desk and typing with her keyboard on a cardboard box. Send her home. Or get someone to at least think about heath and safety.
Finally I think the apocalypse is coming. I talked to my manager about something. He immediately got angry and defensive. I talked some more. He actually listed and we ended up agreeing. This has NEVER happened before.
Victoria J
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