Remind me never to work for Centrelink
Tuesday, 22 November, 2005
I am having trouble sleeping. My brain is usually sluggish all afternoon and for most of the evening and then kicks into high gear around midnight. This means I cannot fall asleep until 2. This is not good when one is intending to get up at 8 and go to work—it makes driving quite hazardous. I switched off the alarm and tried to squeeze in another hour's shut-eye but was disturbed by the little boys yelling in the playground at Newington Prep, their incredibly annoying school bell and Ben's regular morning sneezing fit.
On my way in to MM I had to stop by Mary Andrew's College to pick up the form they had signed for me for Centrelink to apply for Newstart (yes, I decided to apply ... Ben thought I should). I spent a little under two hours at MM and cried in front of my boss (he said to me, “You're looking rather sad today” which of course is the very thing to set one off). It's a good thing he didn't mind and he said he'd pray for me.
I had to leave at 12 and I drove to Hurstville because that's where my face-to-face interview was. I already had the phone interview last Friday before the HCM exam and they asked me to fill in all these forms and bring in a whole bunch of paperwork. I don't know why I was having my interview in Hurstville—the closest Centrelink office to us is in Leichhardt and surely that would have done just as well—but they said Hurstville so to Hurstville I went. The Centrelink office has just moved and I was fortunate to find a parking lot just across the street that had free 3 hour parking.
The interview started right on time. It was with a rather nice man named Andrew. He also thought it odd that I was having my interview at Hurstville. Unfortunately he discovered a problem with my application—which was that I had no application on the system. For some reason, and despite the phone interview and everything else, nothing had been done to my record. He tried to get it done but the computer system kept giving him errors. He called some sort of internal Helpdesk and even changed computers. No luck. Meanwhile I sat there and twiddled my thumbs and listened to the rest of his co-workers around him who were doing typical office-y type stuff, like giggling over some guy's funny name and trying to work out what Andrew's phone extension was.
After much computer fiddling and talking to the woman at the Helpdesk, he said to me, “Do you want the bad news or the badder news?”
“Bad,” I said.
“Okay. Unfortunately I can't do anything about your application today. You're on our records as being a student and you'll receive your last Austudy payment on Friday. That's why it won't let me put this stuff through and that's what those intelligent operatives at the call centre should have told you when they spoke to you last week. Unfortunately they didn't which makes us look bad and I'm very sorry that you've had to come all the way out here for this.
“The badder news is that this means that we will have to start the whole process over again. You will have to do another phone interview and you will have to come in again for another face-to-face interview. Save all that paperwork for then.”
So I'm having another phone interview on Friday. And then I will have to come in and bring everything with me ... again.
“Support the system that supports you” ... who are they trying to kid?
Blinks:
A way of funding writing in the future: pitch and idea and get people to support it.
Place where you can hire play equipment for parties, etc.
How to recalibrate the home button on your iPhone.
Unsolicited manuscripts accepted by Pan Macmillan with certain conditions.
Thought Balloon is a group blog in which the writers tackle a new theme every week? month? with one-page scripts. This URL is for their Phonogram ones.
How to sew a zipper on a knitted garment.
Issues organised by tale.
|
|
Disqus comments
Other comments
:(
Very frustrating
you have my sympathy
From friends’ comments, I don’t think your epsiode is unnusual in the Centrelink experience.
They remind me of the vogons.