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Fun times ahoy!! I am now in my third-and-a-half temp job this year!! First was the abortion I told y'all about in MIM, then a week and a half doing the nursery claim forms, then two weeks with the Fire Service 
and now back to the good ol' Council doing some crap they no longer have the manpower to do!! I am now doing... *drumroll* ...bus passes!!
So here's the deal. Come April our bus pass service is changing. You can still get them for certain disabilities but mostly these are for old folk. You can no longer use them on trains, taxis or ferries, and you can no longer get tokens unless you're disabled, and even then you only get £32 annually. Everyone with a current bus pass has been sent a bundle of forms to fill in to get the new ones.
So yes, we've had problems. And I'm not even on the phones...all I'm (well, we're - for the first time my housemate and I have the same temp job!!) doing is sorting these forms.
There's four big stories that's come from a mere three days at working at this job.
And they're all quite general...
Tale the First - YES you are too young!! YES I know you're 61 this year!!
Eeeeyyyyup. Crazy. The rules on the pamphlet - You can claim for an old person's pass if you are born before the 6th of April 1950. If you are born after this date, you have to wait until you are the woman's pensionable age - which could be anything up to 65 depending on when you're born. Sorry, THEM'S THE RULES. We've found loads of applications from people born in 1950...but after April... We overheard our side of the conversation to one of these women (they all seem to be women doing this at the moment, not sure why
) and God she sounded pissed!!
Tale the Second - NO FRICKIN' WAY MATE!!
You have NO IDEA of the amount of hate mail we're getting!! These people are very angry at the changes we're making, moaning in letters and sometimes on the forms themselves that the cuts are too much!! Well they may or not be too constricting to folk who need them, but whinging to the actual concessions team is only going to have your bitching laughed at by temps!! If you want your complaint to actually be read, write to the director of Environment or something!!
Including one who graffitied the entire form, calling it 'DISGUSTING BONE-IDLE LAZINESS' ...okaaaay...
Tale the Third - Oh bitch, bitch, bitch.
As you can expect when dealing with stuff from old folk, we get a few letters from children telling us that their mum or dad has died, or on a few occasions too sick to really need a pass any more. Tis sad enough, granted.
But lady, DO NOT use your letter informing us of this to bitch about the above!! What kind of sympathy do you WANT?!?
Tale the Fourth - I like Gardens
The craziest thing...with these forms came a little Equal Opportunities monitoring form. Confidential, no name, just three questions: a multiple-choice for your ethnic origin, and two normal questions "What is your sexual orientation" and "What is your faith or philosophical belief system". Most of the forms that come back - about half don't have it with them - are fine for the first and third questions, but the second question has had us in stitches...
These people are 60+, council, and we have proof that some don't understand the question!! The vast, vast majority answer 'Male' or 'Female'... or even '?'...
The second most common answer is 'Straight' or thereabouts, but also 'Normal' crops up a fair few times... -_-;;
Some are bloody insulted that we would dare ask such a thing:
"What a stupid question"
"What a waste of money"
"What's this got to do with getting a bus pass"
"This is a scandalous invasion of my privacy"
And some are just downright hilarious:
"Too old"
"Facing East" (orientation...)
"I like pretty young ladies"
"I like chasing the ladies, but as I walk with a stick it's getting hard to catch up with them, alas"
"Retired"
...and the best one...
"Gardening"
and now back to the good ol' Council doing some crap they no longer have the manpower to do!! I am now doing... *drumroll* ...bus passes!!So here's the deal. Come April our bus pass service is changing. You can still get them for certain disabilities but mostly these are for old folk. You can no longer use them on trains, taxis or ferries, and you can no longer get tokens unless you're disabled, and even then you only get £32 annually. Everyone with a current bus pass has been sent a bundle of forms to fill in to get the new ones.
So yes, we've had problems. And I'm not even on the phones...all I'm (well, we're - for the first time my housemate and I have the same temp job!!
) doing is sorting these forms. There's four big stories that's come from a mere three days at working at this job.
And they're all quite general...Tale the First - YES you are too young!! YES I know you're 61 this year!!
Eeeeyyyyup. Crazy. The rules on the pamphlet - You can claim for an old person's pass if you are born before the 6th of April 1950. If you are born after this date, you have to wait until you are the woman's pensionable age - which could be anything up to 65 depending on when you're born. Sorry, THEM'S THE RULES. We've found loads of applications from people born in 1950...but after April... We overheard our side of the conversation to one of these women (they all seem to be women doing this at the moment, not sure why
) and God she sounded pissed!! Tale the Second - NO FRICKIN' WAY MATE!!
You have NO IDEA of the amount of hate mail we're getting!! These people are very angry at the changes we're making, moaning in letters and sometimes on the forms themselves that the cuts are too much!! Well they may or not be too constricting to folk who need them, but whinging to the actual concessions team is only going to have your bitching laughed at by temps!! If you want your complaint to actually be read, write to the director of Environment or something!!
Including one who graffitied the entire form, calling it 'DISGUSTING BONE-IDLE LAZINESS' ...okaaaay...
Tale the Third - Oh bitch, bitch, bitch.
As you can expect when dealing with stuff from old folk, we get a few letters from children telling us that their mum or dad has died, or on a few occasions too sick to really need a pass any more. Tis sad enough, granted.
But lady, DO NOT use your letter informing us of this to bitch about the above!! What kind of sympathy do you WANT?!?
Tale the Fourth - I like Gardens
The craziest thing...with these forms came a little Equal Opportunities monitoring form. Confidential, no name, just three questions: a multiple-choice for your ethnic origin, and two normal questions "What is your sexual orientation" and "What is your faith or philosophical belief system". Most of the forms that come back - about half don't have it with them - are fine for the first and third questions, but the second question has had us in stitches...
These people are 60+, council, and we have proof that some don't understand the question!! The vast, vast majority answer 'Male' or 'Female'... or even '?'...
The second most common answer is 'Straight' or thereabouts, but also 'Normal' crops up a fair few times... -_-;;
Some are bloody insulted that we would dare ask such a thing:
"What a stupid question"
"What a waste of money"
"What's this got to do with getting a bus pass"
"This is a scandalous invasion of my privacy"
And some are just downright hilarious:
"Too old"
"Facing East" (orientation...)
"I like pretty young ladies"
"I like chasing the ladies, but as I walk with a stick it's getting hard to catch up with them, alas"
"Retired"
...and the best one...
"Gardening"
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