Don’t like gov’t offices? Take a number

YOU EVER been to one of the ministries or a government agency’s office?

If you meet up with the wrong people, it can feel like you’re Frodo trying to trek through Middle Earth to get to Mount Doom fi dash wey di ring.

(If you don’t get the Lord of the Rings metaphor, there’s always Google).

Recently had to go to one of these agencies to clear up some business. The reasons for going are another column for another time.

I was ahead of the game (I thought) because I asked some advice from people who had been there recently.

When I got there I realised dem did leave out one and two likkle piece a information, but such is life.

At least I knew where I was going, so I didn’t need directions. To find my way around inside, well, that was a trip.

After parking, I asked the security guards at the front (cause dem know everyting) where I should go to do ‘x’ and ‘y’.

“Up the steps, to the doors, up the stairs,” was the reply, or something like that.

I say ‘something like that’ because I don’t want to swear that I got the wrong directions.

However, what I know for sure is that he did not say, ‘there’s a door on your left’, different from the other doors, which carries you to the aforementioned upstairs. If yuh know di place, yuh wi pass it.

So yours truly, and couple odda people, ended up in the wrong section.

And there’s no line to speak to a representative, so unless you know you’re next in line, you might ‘cut in front a people’ by accident.

No biggie. At least the gentleman in the section we were in was quite kind.

So up the stairs we went. Once in that room, some people, because they see the number machine right at the front, they take a number and have a seat.

It’s only when other people go up to the receptionist and ask a few questions that you really understand what’s happening.

So some persons who had originally taken a seat now heard that they had to fill out this form and that.

So when their numbers were called, they were still filling out paperwork. Sigh.

Thing is, a sign on the door saying something like ‘speak to the receptionist before taking a number’ would have been helpful.

Not to say that the staff wasn’t generally helpful overall, which, to be fair, isn’t always the case with government offices.

That’s how it is at some of these offices. If you find good staff, yuh lucky!

If you find somebody who can actually give you ALL the steps you need to take, in the EXACT order you need to take them, yuh doing fine!

To be fair, I can’t complain about the staff ’s demeanour. That’s the only thing that stopped me from getting ‘ignorant’.

But I totally understand why people avoid government offices and ministries like they are biohazard zones.

We just ain’t got time for the run up and dung. So it go.