Bureaucracy and the nice guys

Now I know that most of you are thinking, what has she lost her mind?

Is she making a very bad play on words?

What in the H…. is she thinking putting the words “bureaucracy” and “nice guys”

in the same sentence?

Well, as it turns out, even the bureaucracy possesses some nice individuals.

I recall when my husband passed away, the state was going to allot someone to represent my then minor son (in age, not in importance) and his “interests”. This “service” of course wasn’t free, but I “could deduct it from his inheritance” – like that was in his interests.

Anyway I happened to have a friend who was in the department and although I wrote the letter I am pretty sure that he was the reason the state accepted waiving this requirement in return for annual reports as to the financial status of the family until said child turned 18. The state, of course, could have cared less about the interests of my other son, who – in age at least – was an “adult”.

Today I was privileged to witness another such incident – a telephone call from a bureaucrat in Switzerland’s capital.  I was amazed at the pleasantness of the conversation, at the comprehension and willingness to listen to my explanations of the situation. (All this on behalf of my housemate – not even me: imagine a bureaucrat being willing to listen to someone who has the information even if they are not directly involved?). That was already really pretty positive.

But I was blown out of the water when I received another call from the same person just an hour later, saying that “as errors had been made” they would rescind the interdiction.

There will be partying at number 15 for many days!

And I can only hope that there are more bureaucrats out there like the one I had dealings with today.

 

credits to Cartoonstock.com