Oh! Right. Sunday.
I need to figure out a way to wake up early enough to get back to writing regularly again. Since I’m writing this last minute when I should be asleep already, this probably won’t happen tomorrow.
It’s kind of interesting, in the same way a train wreck is interesting, how tiring this job I have can be. I mean it’s not physically difficult. I sit on a chair, look at papers, type on a computer…so why is it when I get home I’m so exhausted? I was less exhausted when I was running around all day doing god knows what.
Now that I’ve been at least partly trained, I’m handling regular customers. I find that people who have their shit together don’t usually come to the DMV (at least, not for vehicle registration, which is all they’ve trained me for). The people who have their shit together can handle all this through the mail. So the only customers I end up dealing with are the ones with complicated issues.
‘I haven’t paid my registration in 6 years. –What do you mean those fees are due?! The car isn’t even worth that much!’
‘This took six months to process, why am I still paying for a complete year’s registration?’
Of course, my first week back from training, I get all the transactions we weren’t trained for. Seems like half the time spent in class could have been spent teaching us how to handle these crazy situations. Screw this ‘by the book’ crap. Nothing gets solved when you go by the book.
I’m just saying, it would have been nice to go over some of these issues in the time we were making origami.
One particularly bad day, I was in the process of giving a customer a $2000 break (with supervision, of course, don’t come to my window and expect me to waive your fees automatically). So while we’re bending these rules for this guy, just to get him outta there, this woman in the waiting area starts yelling ‘my husband is having a heart attack.’ 911 gets called. ‘Why are you just staring? Help me!’ Wasn’t much we could do, paramedics on their way, go back to work as usual. I think the paramedics made it on time, they were able to help the guy, and I hope he’s alright, wherever he is…but that’s kind of a trip. A guy is over there dying 20 feet away and the only thing you can do is continue helping the customer at your window. ‘Now serving F057 at window #1′
Maybe this week will go better. But tomorrow won’t if I don’t go to sleep right now.
More, eventually.
