8 Days to go till Christmas
No I've not found one of those lost CDs or been routing through people's bins. If you're English you can't possibly have missed the multitude of stories in the news recently about CDs full of data being lost/mislaid/stolen/left in a taxi. That should be the least of the government's worries.
This morning I went to the Job Centre with missbliss for a 'rapid reclaim' (rapid my arse, she's still not heard anything about getting any money from the claim she made 6 weeks ago!). Needless to say, I wasn't in the mood for any bullshit. It is astounding just how ridiculous this place is. It is a completely open plan office, with desks right next to each other all around a waiting area of sofas. Who needs a disc full of data when, during half an hour of waiting you can pick up enough details about each and every person in there to adopt their identity entirely. It is no wonder identity theft is rife, and was so before these discs started to go missing. Honestly, I'm now completely au fait with Miss Brown who lives at 34 I Can't be Arsed To Get a Job Street, her national insurance number, phone number, qualifications. In fact, almost everything anyone could ever need to know about Miss Brown. Shes not alone, I know all about Mr Black, Mrs Purple and Ms Cream. Confidentiality? Pfft, what a joke, what a complete and utter joke. Any sort of confidentiality is a complete impossibility in that office. So much so that every person in there at the same time as you knows everything about you.
As soon as we sat down I suggested missbliss ask for a private office. A not unreasonable request given the relatively sensitive nature of the things being discussed. Unfortunately, we were informed that there were none, and we couldn't actually go anywhere else because he needed a computer. Yes that is right, there are absolutely NO private facilities available in this place. He even tried to justify it, its supposed to be "warm and welcoming to make us seem easily approachable" fuck that, you're all a bunch of useless wankers, and I would like just a little bit of confidentiality if you don't mind! I was not amused. His best offer was to whisper, although that, coupled with his annoying, impossible to understand voice meant we could barely hear him.
After sitting there for about half an hour, making absolutely no progress. Missbliss started to get slightly upset (understandable given the fuck-ups and uselessness of what is going on.) So, we sat there, in the middle of this "friendly" open plan office and missbliss began to cry. Not only was there no privacy from the freaks in the office but the useless man didn't even offer her a tissue. He did however suggest that we break up to improve missbliss's claim and even almost began to suggest that we should lie on the form. He was very careful with his words though, which unfortunately meant I couldn't jump on him for being a knob.
So after about an hour of him suggesting completely useless things and not actually making any progress at all we decided to call it a day. I had said very little throughout the consultation but couldn't resist a closing quip about the incompetence of every single person we've come across associated with missbliss's claim. It isn't as if I was even trying to be mean, they are all useless.
I'm going to write a very strongly worded letter to as many people as possible about just how inappropriate that place is confidentiality and privacy wise.
