I work in a government office where we mainly deal with in-person clients. I realize that most people don’t enjoy dealing with government bodies. Know what? I don’t either. But one thing I’ve found is that attitude changes everything. People who come in pissed off (often because of something unrelated), leave pissed off, whether they get good or bad news. But while they’re here, they’re hollering, screaming, calling things “f***ing retarded”, which is absolutely horrid language to be using anywhere, let alone dealing with federal employees in a public space where there are children.
So here are some suggestions for dealing with the government.
1. Don’t come in when you’re pissed off. Take some time to cool down. When people are angry in here, they don’t listen to the very useful advice and info we give them. People often storm off while I’m explaining to them step-by-step what they need to do.
2. Read everything we send you carefully. More than once, somebody’s come in holding a letter that said “do Action X, otherwise Result Y won’t happen” and they’re wondering why Result Y hasn’t happened yet. Turns out they didn’t do Action X.
3. Don’t expect every federal employee to know everything about every department. You’re setting yourself up for a letdown. Citizenship and Immigration Canada likely won’t know how to help you fill out your Canada Revenue Agency forms. They’ll likely know where to send you for answers, though.
4. Bring your primary documents and identification. Your provincial birth certificate is the most important document you have, and it establishes you as a citizen. Be ready to present it. For those born outside Canada, bring your Citizenship card. In either case, bring a provincial ID (license) and Social Insurance Number card as well. No employee is going to risk his/her job by circumventing document requirements.
5. Expect long waits and processing times. These two things are partly due to some things every citizen wants. And that would be lower taxes and government accountability. We’re always understaffed because hiring more people would mean raising taxes. There’s always long processing times because we are expected to be held responsible for any and all decisions made. So we need to track down original documents, we need to document everything and often need the approval of a management team. All that is so we don’t give an undeserving person some public money, and nobody likes that.
So I guess I’m done ranting. Just try to keep this things in mind. It makes things more pleasant for you and us. That being said, the government’s never going to be perfect. But if you have suggestions, write them down. Don’t yell them to the receptionist, because he or she already knows what needs to be fixed. The truth is, the public has more power to effect change than the lowly employees have.
—Desk Jockey
This article appears in Jul 16-22, 2009.
Good advice.
you totally work for service canada and put up with many people waiting for EI claims.
I work with the public and I have had things thrown at me, spit on, called stupid and swore at by customers and it has made me wonder what these people are like at home.
Wow. I’ve learned that being super nice to people who work with the public often gets you a lot better service and perks. People who are rude deserve the run around.
abusive behoviour shouldn’t be tolerated anywhere,a school,a restaurant,retail,social,tourism and government..maybe the government union could pay for media ads stating this,mayby education about abuse could relieve future problems
I think the church of latter-day saints already runs those ads 🙂
It’s the old you get more flies with honey thing. I find the more polite you are to someone, the more likely they are to help you – even the hardened ones who hate everyone because they’ve been dumped on for years.
What about the governement employee I dealt with who couldn’t take credit card payment over the phone because as she told me “Sir, there is no way to swipe a credit card over the phone…” Then she told me I was being rude when I said “Listenm you don’t need to swipe the card…”
While I agree with OP’s points, I would like to suggest one more: Please don’t treat people filing for EI like shit on your shoe.
people like this should be called out the employees can’t do it so its up to the general public to tell them politely to shut their fuckin word hole
I agree with TTFN. Applying for EI, money I have PAID IN TO, is always a hassle and a painful process. The least these folks could do would be to treat us like people – not like leeches, suckling at the government teat.
I think these suggestions could be tweaked and used for ANY job that deals with the general public (government, retail, fast food, call centres, ect)
Government employees represent our government, a government we pay for. If I am unhappy about policy, wait times etc. someone should be held accountable. I do not subscribe to the idea that there is no accountabillity that lies with a representative of my government. That’s the way it is engineered so that we do not get what we want or need, and forcing them to call upon the higher-ups to make a decision is in my experience almost always necessary. I agree though that you should be polite, I am when dealing with my government, although I think it’s really shitty that you have to be nice to get what you want from your goverment.
OP, they’ve got you so snowed you think they’d have to raise taxes to pay for another body. Did you notice how much money our government pays the LOSERS of an election? I’m sure a measly $30k/yr job isn’t going to hurt anybody’s tax base. Don’t swallow the crap just because its fed to you by government.
Why should my attitude make one iota of difference to your service? Quality of service is legislated! Government systems are a bureaucracy of duplication and red tape that doesn’t give a rat’s ass about attitude. There is no “if attitude==bad then some unique course of action ensues” kind of policy.
Get over yourself, OP. You’re a lowly civil servant and you get to implement policy whether you like me or not. Just do your dam job… take what you like, leave what you don’t. We get to pick our feelings and the general public has zero responsibility to please yours.
No Kay, you don’t get to scream and holler at a receptionist who has no control over the decisions made by those in the offices behind her. Just because she works in a government office doesn’t give you the right to treat her like shit, which is basically what you’ve tried to justify in your post.
If you aren’t happy with the response from the person at the counter then by all means ask for someone higher up. If no person is available to speak with you right away, leave your contact info and ask for theirs. But shitting on the receptionist won’t get you anywhere and those government employees, like any other worker, are protected from having to deal with abusive clients and have the right to have you removed if you won’t tone it down and act like a decent human being.
After working in various federal government departments I’ve realised: a good chunk of federal public service employees are USELESS and are still employed because once you’re in (one of the various FPS unions, that is) you could come to work naked and wank off all day and you wouldn’t get fired.
I’ve experienced more than a few incidences where my supervisor and his supervisor would have “strategic meetings” on how they could get rid of some employee who couldn’t do their job properly (or could but just didn’t give enough of a shit)….and they really never came up with anything. So, given the fact that the government is riddled with these kinds of people, it’s no WONDER shit gets fucked up. I mean people bitch about indeterminate positions and how the government won’t hire permanent right off that much anymore, but is it any wonder?
I mean, give someone an overinflated salary (not all are overinflated — technical and professional classifications are often paid more in the private sector, but administrative and clerical are often paid less in the private sector, and I’d bet most of the ineptitude is coming from this level) and job security that means you really can’t be fired if you fuck around all day and you think that’s going to motivate them to work?
And the problem *is* it’s not the majority of people who are slackers, it’s just that the group that IS gives the rest a bad name. So, that’s where you get the “my tax dollars are paying your salary and you’re making a shitload more than you’re worth and you don’t do shit” mentality from the general public…that and the fact that the government is HIGHLY bloated at the mid-upper levels, but that’s another bitch all together (it took me almost three months to get an internal letter approved to send to various internal divisions. And it wasn’t even saying anything IMPORTANT. But that’s the norm in some departments).
I mean, anyone who’s worked for the feds and doesn’t admit that the rules are a bit more lax than if they worked in the private sector is a dirty fucking liar.
Voice of reason is right though: just because someone works with the public or in the public sector doesn’t mean you have a right to scream and yell at them. Generally, the people you end up dealing with are on the low end of the totem pole and have no say in ANYTHING. Pissing and moaning to them isn’t going to accomplish anything. If you’re nice to them not only will they be more willing to help you, they’ll be more willing to pass you onto their supervisor if you request it.
I’ve worked for the provincial government in customer service. I was on the low end of the totem pole as PK says for a number of years.
In my experience for every fifty people who bitch and moan to the receptionist one will actually file a formal complaint. It takes all of thirty seconds to file a complaint, and we always ask if they’d like to file one. I don’t ever remember anything changing because of complaints, there was never enough for the higher ups to bother. But if I tallied up every verbal complaint…
Wow Kay. I wish you’d stop reading the Coast.
The public seems to have this belief that they can treat public servants any way they wish. Its great when the public servant snaps back at rude, cunty people like Kay.
I’ve done it. I’ve seen it done. And the public servant is 100% in the right to treat the customer/client the same way.
I must admit, I’ve never had a good experience dealing with a government office.
For some reason most of the people there act like robots.
At service nova scotia, you can request a land-lord tenant contract for a $1. I pay you $1, you give me the booklet.
What the hell do I need to tell you who I am, of you have to hold me hostage for 10 min to just give me that garbage?!
So I gave a name that’s not mine, something complicated, and since she wanted it spelled, I told her to figure it out on her on, gave her the $1 and left.
I think Kay and Randomness are soul mates… Hopefully they join forces and create their own new kinder society on some isolated island far far away…
Kinda makes it apparent why they have such negative experiences here, they’re assholes…
ahh the joy of customer service