serving the public

You know how you ring up a government department to complain about something, and you get shuffled from phone to phone by guys who have no idea what you're talking about and just want you to go away and keep forwarding your calls to the wrong people? And by the end of the fifth phonecall you just want to punch something and SCREAM but you're still being sort of polite in the hopes that they'll be more helpful if you are, but then you also gave up on being helped about ten minutes into phonecall three when the guy asked you your name AGAIN and then said "And you're wanting to talk to someone about traffic congestion, right?" when your problem is parking tickets and they're STILL NOT GETTING IT, and any minute now you're going to have to start your explanation over AGAIN, and you HATE THE WORLD?

I love dealing with people who are having a day like this.


Mainly because I usually am the person they need to talk to. And because, normally, my phonecalls go something like this:

( conversation #1 )

Whereas, with these poor people I described above, it's more like this:

( conversation #2 )

They're so pathetically grateful not to have their call forwarded on again, that you instantly become their best friend in the whole universe, and they'll do anything just to make you happy.

And that makes me feel so nice.