Casual surprise

Anecdotes from dealing with an organization.

This isn't a post about how a large bureaucracy failed. Every interaction with the folks involved in the organization I reference here was fantastic.

It is a post about the small things. Two conversations with different people

Me, "So here's the problem and here's the history. I think something is not quite right, but I don't know. What can you tell me?"

"Well, this is a survivor's pension. It looks like blahblahblah, but I agree, it does seem wrong. This would have been setup when Hillary started collecting her pension. What was done then?"

"Well, she never collected her pension, she was still employed. Fills in additional details relevant to our conversation which include recent timelines"

"Ah. Okay. Well..."

Another time, asking about a different issue, talking to a different person.

"So blah blah blah, I think it's half setup, but I got confirmation of A and not B."

"From what I can see on our side, both A and B are setup, you should get confirmation of B sometime soon. But there is definitely an error with A, so I'm glad you contacted us."

"Really? What's wrong?"

"It says you have at least two dependents, which means kids under 18."

"I have two kids under 10."

"Ah. Oh. Uh. Okay. Well..."

I am clearly not a common demographic that the folks there deal with. It comes up in strange ways sometimes. Child patient release forms which ask for contact information for both parents. The last time that came up, I left the second box blank.

"We'll need Isaac's mother's contact information as well."

"... Uh. No."

"Okay."

That hesitation before the no is me deciding if I really want to drop on the person what the situation is with regards to Hillary. I usually just leave it hanging. If a followup question happens, I cheerfully go into the details.