BEGIN RANT:
So there I am in bed this morning, having had about 3 hours of sleep (bad pain and mind-whirring night) when my phone rings. Hmmm. “Anonymous” as the caller ID- don’t like that.
“Can I speak to Caitlin O’Connor”
“Who’s speaking?”
“This is [Faceless Droid] from TheAuthorityWhichControlsYourLife *. You have to come in for a medical review. Is 3:30 today ok?”
“No, it’s not.”
“What about tomorrow?”
“No, I can’t make it tomorrow either.”
[by this stage faceless droid is getting REALLY uppity and annoyed] “This IS compulsory, you know, you HAVE to come in. What about Wednesday?”
“LOOK” I said, trying to be polite, and probably only JUST managing, “I’m not trying to be difficult, but I already have appointments this week. Wednesday I’m in hospital, for a procedure which will leave me incapacitated for Thursday and Friday. I can come in next week, ok?”
“Next MONDAY, then,” triumphs the Faceless Droid. You must be at TheAuthorityWhichControlsYourLife at [time] next Monday. If you don’t come your payments will be suspended.”
WHAT I wish I’d said: LOOK, Just because I get a miserly payment from the government doesn’t mean that I don’t have things ON! How DARE you assume that my life is empty and meaningless because I’m not employed? How DARE you believe that I can just drop everything at your beck and call and get myself to your office (where there aren’t even any public toilets) when I can’t even DRIVE today because of the pain?
Would YOU be free for an appointment that could possibly ruin your life at the whim of some underpaid-quasi-doctor if I called you up with less than 6 hours notice? I DON’T THINK SO!
And by the way, you have NO RIGHT to get snooty at me with your whiny voice and your cranky manner, or to treat me like I’m an idiot just because I get a d1sab1l1ty pens10n.**
GRRRRRRRR! Do the faceless droids and their bosses think that I LIKE being poor and sick? I would LOVE to be able to make them live a fortnight in my shoes, on my money, in my house that we can’t afford to repair the bloody termite damage on yet, with no !&*@#%& cable TV or fancy wine or expensive cuts of meat and we’re better off than MOST people who have to do it on a p3ns10n, I can tell you, SHEESH!!!
*More familiar to Aussies as C#ntr3l1nk – aka federal government welfare administration.
**Possible overly-paranoid, but apparently they have people who just sit around and read blogs, to see if someone’s been WORKING when they say they can’t. l33t (leet) stops the googlebots which are scanning through the web for any mention of the organisation’s name and associated words.
END RANT.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have brownies to bake.
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Tags: Health
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Dear Caity,
I hope that you got a receipt number of the drone’s call! That way you can make a complaint.
Bastards. We were just not able to do that a few years ago. I dread to think what the prev gubniment got away with.
Also on their website there is nothing about the timeframe in which you have to attend a review or any appointment for that matter. But you can bet your bippy that it ain’t the same %)*(ing DAY.
Bastards.
I drove myself to the brink fighting this shit when I worked there. And they wonder why I could never, ever, ever work there or in a department even VAGUELY related to them again?
Bastards.
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Dear Annie,
At no stage was I offered a receipt number – Faceless Drone was REALLY pissed at me! Also I had JUST woken up. (Fancy that, someone on a d1sab1l1ty p3n510n who can’t keep “office hours”! How inconsiderate!!)However, armed with your timely reminders, I will be calling TheAuthorityWhichControlsYourLife tomorrow and registering a complaint. I thought the whole “same day right NOW!” thing was bullshit, too.
I don’t think I could EVER work in the PS as a whole ever again – I’m just too fragile once I get stressed, and then the bullies walk all over me – and that’s EXACTLY what they are, bloody bullies!
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Pingback from Caityquilter.com · Result! on March 12, 2008 at 23:06
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*hugs*
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