October 17, 2008

“Oh no, here’s my first problem of the day.”

I wrote down the events of the morning as they happened so as to present a picture of our experience as accurately as I can.  What is otherwise unbelievable has become commonplace.  I would challenge the veracity of the events unless I was not only witness, but also participant, in the tragicomedy.

In literature, tragicomedy is fictional work that attempts to blend the genres of tragedy and comedy.  In dealing with bureaucracy, there is nothing fictional about the tragic and comedic elements of the encounter.  These theaters of the absurd play out daily as we renew a driver’s license, get called to jury duty, or attempt to get anything done in today’s officialdom. 

Having waited nearly eight weeks and to the end of patience for a stamp to be put on a piece of paper we needed for a business transaction, my partner ventured into beadledom.  He placed a phone call asking when we might expect to receive the stamped document.  Told that we could potentially wait another four weeks (“nothing’s guaranteed”) or come in right away to expedite, we opted for going in right away.  As expected, “come in right away to expedite” is the system’s expression for “if you really want this done, bring your check book”.

So with check book in hand, we left in search of the stamp.  Arriving early, we found a row of eight customer service representatives and one administrator seated at the end of the row.  The administrator was on her cell phone.  All other eyes remained fixed on computer terminals.  It was obvious we were not welcome there.  Little did we know that we would soon be “served” at no less than five of the stations.  The first line in our tragicomedy script finally came from station four:  “Oh no, here’s my first problem of the day.”       

My partner and I exchanged that knowing glance, realizing that we had been actors in similar episodes many times before.  To make the proverbial long story short, what could have taken up to twelve weeks (“nothing’s guaranteed”), took all of two minutes of real work.

I guess I should just be glad we weren’t the second problem of the day.  The customer service group was looking a bit worn out as we left, more tragic than comedic.