Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Why Bureaucrats Should be Sterilized...

The day after tomorrow, I am to report to a government office for the purposes of re-establishing my identity so that I may be selected for a government job. Let me repeat that: re-establishing my identity.

You see, the government wants to make certain that I am who I claim to be. This despite the fact that when I took the test for this particular job, I was required to bring several pieces of identification (official documents), most of which the administrator on the scene at the time said wasn't necessary at the time. I was allowed to take the test (which was a total joke), and waited four months for the bureaucracy in question to contact me with the results of that test.

I passed. They wouldn't tell me my grade (they're 'not allowed' to give you the results of an exam that you took - I smell Affirmative Action), just that I had passed, and that someone would get back to me with additional details at some unspecified date.

Three months later, I'm contacted and told to report to a certain office for the purposes of re-establishing my identity. Not "come in, we have a job for you, and we'd like to discuss a few things". Not "congratulations, you're a member of the team". Not "we have an assignment for you". Just "bring all the stuff you brought before, which we told you we didn't care about."

Which leaves me with a bit of a problem.

Because some of the documents I brought with me that day had expiration dates (most official documents do). And they have passed. Now, that's my fault: I should have kept them up to date, granted. But now, I have to rush to re-establish or renew them, and alas, they are required now, as opposed to seven months ago when the agency in question said they were required, and which the admin then pooh-poohed.

This is where it really starts to get weird.

One of the documents I will need can only be obtained by presenting a valid (i.e. non-expired) piece of official identification. Which I no longer have. Another can only be replaced if I give the Federal Government two to four weeks to replace, and that's if I can prove who I am with a valid identification.

I am now in the unenviable position of having to obtain two pieces of legitimate documentation which require other legitimate (non-expired) documentation to even request. In other words, I have to depend upon the government to provide me with documents in order to get copies of the same documents (only valid copies), only the government says that the older-but-expired versions of those documents cannot be used for the purposes of obtaining new ones! And one of them might not even arrive for a month.

And this is for a government job.

Had someone done their job seven months ago, this would not have happened, notwithstanding my own oversight and stupidity.

Your government at work, not working, and creating more work for someone else.

And these people own GM, half the banks and want to run the health care system?

I'll let you know how this goes.

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