I don’t understand how government employees who have no people skills, who are overpaid and employed to assist people have such a difficult time doing just that. How are you going to work for Social Services or NS Student Assistance and not want to serve or assist people? How can you be employed to help improve the quality of people’s lives and be responsible for the betterment of the community and not give a shit? Completing the most mundane of tasks such as calling you back, responding to your emails or even opening your file requires every ounce of their energy. There are people who rely on these services to provide food and shelter for themselves and their children. These are people’s lives we are talking about. Then these ‘social workers’ have the nerve to sound irritated when you call to follow up on the status of your application. I don’t get it. —ERGH
This article appears in Apr 14-20, 2011.
But if they actually helped people to get off assistance, then they would be out of a job. It’s easier for them to be an ATM.
Yeah, there’s one bitch that works for NSSA that’s AWFUL to deal with. When I dealt with them when I was in school I’d recognize her voice and just hang up and call back and I’d usually get someone else. There’s one really nice guy there who helped me out a lot with RBC fucked up my provincial loan so there are great people working there.
I also have a friend who works for the provinical library and he always tells me that the libraries are COUNTING on him and he’s super dedicated to his job. So again, there are some goodies out there.
If you encounter someone who doesn’t seem to want to help you, OP, just hang up and call again (or ask to deal with someone else if you’re in person — their supervisor in fact — and tell them and their supervisor you don’t like their attitude and want to deal with someone who isn’t a prick face).
My wife was getting treated like that once, about a year ago. The employee was rude, unhelpful, and condescending. When my wife started to protest that whatever this drip was not doing was important to our livelihood, they told her that if she continued to get upset, they’d call the cops.
Just call their dad or uncle who got them the job and complain!
I hate this! It’s like they only want to get paid to sit there and chat about how great 100 Calorie Bits and Bites are, then when you actually need them to do a basic task, they treat you like you’re a brain dead piece of shit.
four letters: C U P E
Nah, NSGEU.
NMP
BBQ
“who are overpaid” in public service … they’re not paid enough!
Clerical and administrative positions in the public service often carries salaries that exceed the private sector, HOWEVER, professional and scientific/engineering positions are often paid less than the private sector.
Really depends on your classification (well for federal anyway).
BYOB?
STFU?…:)
If you had to deal with the case load and bull shit that civil servants are required to deal with on a daily basis, your head would explode.
while s.s. is viewed as a stop gap measure, and not to be a lifelong commitment. there are those few, that milk this sucker to the limit. i’m not saying you are one of them. while i feel sorry for yur plight, i can’t help but wonder, if maybe you pushed a little bit much?
that said, those folk that work the lines there, are not case workers, and have no idea, when your worker will call you back. no need to get pissed off at jane, because paul is slow is cnnecting with you, about your file. i did this while going to dal, years ago, and i know how slow the workers getting back to you are. there could be a million reasons. and there are a lot of people, in the same boat as you. and maybe, they have a bigger problem, earlier call, or a very real emergency to take care of first. relax, you aren’t going anywhere, and they call, as soon as possible.
I agree Javagirl, I’m sure they deal with a lot of BS every day but who in their right mind would get into social services and expect it to be easy and slow all the time?
If I hear one more gd NSGEU protester whistle blowing, I am going to make them fuckin’ swallow through their asshole! They keep chanting ‘PARITY PARITY’… when in reality they should be chanting ‘We don’t get paid enough to sit on our ass!’.
The joy of a union job 🙂