Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The 'paperwork flood': How I drowned a bureaucrat before dinner

sightlessscribbles.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

281–290 of 510 posts

Re: The 'paperwork flood': How I drowned a bureaucrat before dinner

#281

Post by robflynn »

wholinator2 wrote: post #45
recursivedoubts wrote: post #33

Karen woke up this morning in her run down, rented flat. She briefly looks at the collections letter that showed up yesterday due to an unaffordable repair she had to pay for on her credit card. Another letter from her ex-partner's lawyer. As she rushes out the door (she spilled coffee on her one nice sweater, her favorite) her mom flashes through her mind... "What about mum?". She arrives at the office. It is an opp…

I agree wholeheartedly! This is exactly what i was thinking the entire time. Like, does this guy think this single woman is responsible for the kafka-esque trap they're both in? Will the 0.5% uptick in toner cost for the year cause the administration to rethink their requirements? He's just taken the immense weight and pain he holds for this process, undeservedly, and placed it upon another undeserving person, then l…

They attacked a fax machine, I don't think it has feelings. The woman will get over her frustration at seeing it print for two hours.

Re: The 'paperwork flood': How I drowned a bureaucrat before dinner

#282

Post by InsideOutSanta »

dwedge wrote: post #269
InsideOutSanta wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"From a shallow perspective it seems true, but in my experience bureaucrats fall into a position they enjoy" I worked in a call center when I was studying because it was the only job I could get. Nobody there enjoyed it. Everyone did it because they had no other choice. It's funny, though. In another thread, somebody pointed out that they wouldn't hire a former engineer of a company like Kalshi, Google, or Amazon, an…

A couple of years ago I changed the address on my car but didn't receive the documentation and didn't realise for a few months. Then I realised the tax was due and I hadn't had a reminder or this paperwork - one of which is needed to tax it. I phoned them and they said I need to pay for the new documentation because I had a time limit to report it undelivered. Fine, that's my fault, but I need to tax it now otherwise…

"Was this woman just following the law?"

I don't know what the law is, so I don't know if she was.

"Was it the fault of the politicians? Me, as a voter? She had no other choice than refusing to help?"

Based on my experience, I'll guess that her office was understaffed and she was overworked, and her performance was judged on how quickly she ends calls.

Dunno if that's your fault. Who do you vote for? People who promise to cut budgets and taxes? Then yes, it was partly your fault.

Re: The 'paperwork flood': How I drowned a bureaucrat before dinner

#283

Post by 0x3f »

dwedge wrote: post #261
0x3f wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> in my experience bureaucrats fall into a position they enjoy. What possible kind of 'experience' could you have to judge such a thing, save for personal preconceptions and biases?

The only experience I can have is personal. In my experience of dealing with and working with them, only those that I've had experience with. I've worked in a variety of places. Public sector, banks, places with higher and lower levels of bureaucracy. As everyone else, I've also been on the receiving end of dealing with bureaucracy. There seems to be a big divide in how long people have been working at places like th…

> The only experience I can have is personal.

Right, and the point was that personal observations and impressions are a really poor way to judge the internal thoughts, feelings and motivations of random strangers. I.e. that nobody could possibly come to this determination in any robust way.

Moreover, it's exactly the kind of conclusion that suffers from common biases, and that we should be inherently skeptical of.

Re: The 'paperwork flood': How I drowned a bureaucrat before dinner

#284

Post by rwmj »

wholinator2 wrote: post #45
recursivedoubts wrote: post #33

Karen woke up this morning in her run down, rented flat. She briefly looks at the collections letter that showed up yesterday due to an unaffordable repair she had to pay for on her credit card. Another letter from her ex-partner's lawyer. As she rushes out the door (she spilled coffee on her one nice sweater, her favorite) her mom flashes through her mind... "What about mum?". She arrives at the office. It is an opp…

I agree wholeheartedly! This is exactly what i was thinking the entire time. Like, does this guy think this single woman is responsible for the kafka-esque trap they're both in? Will the 0.5% uptick in toner cost for the year cause the administration to rethink their requirements? He's just taken the immense weight and pain he holds for this process, undeservedly, and placed it upon another undeserving person, then l…

In this case the problem can't easily be blamed on "the system". Government benefits are this way because politicians have for years blamed "benefit cheats" and "welfare queens" and other boogymen, people have voted based on this, and now the law is you have to prove you're still congenitally blind every year. The system is working, it's actually doing what the politicians and their voters want.

Re: The 'paperwork flood': How I drowned a bureaucrat before dinner

#285

Post by lelanthran »

dwedge wrote: post #77

I enjoyed this read, but: > For the recipient, a fax is a physical reality. It requires paper. It requires ink. It requires time. I wouldn't be surprised if it was also digital. > I imagined Karen’s fax machine. It was probably an old, beige beast sitting in the corner of a gray office. It was likely low on paper. It was almost certainly low on patience. I think the rest of the article was also their imagination. > "…

Agreed. This is fiction. A mere 500 pages isn't going to exhaust the toner of a printer installed specifically to recieve faxes all day, every day.

And there being an actual printer is even less likely. Even back in 2008, it was almost impossible to find an actual fax machine, even though businesses had fax numbers, they stopped needing machines.

Re: The 'paperwork flood': How I drowned a bureaucrat before dinner

#286

Post by robofanatic »

recursivedoubts wrote: post #33

Karen woke up this morning in her run down, rented flat. She briefly looks at the collections letter that showed up yesterday due to an unaffordable repair she had to pay for on her credit card. Another letter from her ex-partner's lawyer. As she rushes out the door (she spilled coffee on her one nice sweater, her favorite) her mom flashes through her mind... "What about mum?". She arrives at the office. It is an opp…

But hopefully erratic behavior of such callers may actually bring some change because Karen is definitely going to complain about him once the manager asks why the fax machine is down.

Re: The 'paperwork flood': How I drowned a bureaucrat before dinner

#287

Post by kelvinjps10 »

robflynn wrote: post #281
wholinator2 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree wholeheartedly! This is exactly what i was thinking the entire time. Like, does this guy think this single woman is responsible for the kafka-esque trap they're both in? Will the 0.5% uptick in toner cost for the year cause the administration to rethink their requirements? He's just taken the immense weight and pain he holds for this process, undeservedly, and placed it upon another undeserving person, then l…

They attacked a fax machine, I don't think it has feelings. The woman will get over her frustration at seeing it print for two hours.

I also been on the customer service side and it's really annoying getting angry persona after angry person trying to push their frustrations on you for something you have no control.

Re: The 'paperwork flood': How I drowned a bureaucrat before dinner

#288

Post by laszlojamf »

recursivedoubts wrote: post #33

Karen woke up this morning in her run down, rented flat. She briefly looks at the collections letter that showed up yesterday due to an unaffordable repair she had to pay for on her credit card. Another letter from her ex-partner's lawyer. As she rushes out the door (she spilled coffee on her one nice sweater, her favorite) her mom flashes through her mind... "What about mum?". She arrives at the office. It is an opp…

to be fair, if the author is truthful in his description of this Karen it sounds more like somebody who uses whatever leverage they have to make other people miserable. Did you see Everything, Everywhere, All at Once? Those people exist in real life too.
Post reply on HN