[jobsworths] no time to help, no time to think

I was at the Post Office and saw something which really stopped me in my tracks. There was an old lady, I don't know, maybe seventy and she was trying to either pay something in or get some payment back.

For a start, she couldn't cope with the fast moving line which then fanned out to the "Cashier-N3-please-sing-song window". Once there, it was all brisk.

"Yes luv?" demanded the fortyish woman behind glass and the slow speaking old lady tried to explain but of course they'd changed the procedure, hadn't they?

"Here, luv, just fill these out," and she was given four forms to complete and sign. She might have had Parkinsons, she might have just been jittery but she tried to go through them and completely failed. Perhaps the eyesight was not so good.

Now she was just blocking the way for all the foot-tapping, bustling, young middle-agers waiting in the line and there was total indifference to her plight. At that same moment, I was called to one of the windows for my posting. The stamp was slapped down, I paid and the woman behind glass then walked off. She came back in three minutes and I was still there - her annoyance was showing.

In my sweetest voice, I asked her the question I'd been waiting to ask before she'd walked off and she shot back the reply but it was to the wrong question, so I had to ask again. By the time I got away, the old lady had gone - she'd clearly either given up or had been told to go home and complete them there.

This whole thing stank and it seems it's not an isolated phenomenon. Here's another:

A Job Centre in Bolton demanded that "friendly" be removed from a job ad on the basis that it discriminates against the unfriendly - "enthusiastic" and "motivated" have also been victims of similar bans.

Those women behind glass probably felt they were being eminently reasonable , in a jobsworth way but they simply weren't being reasonable. That old lady should have been sent an officer from behind the counter to help her fill in the forms - it would have taken maybe three minutes to do and the Post Office would have had one satisfied and very grateful customer.

It really affected me, that incident and made me think of some concierge service for the elderly or incapacitated. I don't know how to do it, as I'd hate to take money from pensioners and yet I'd like to get something going for just such situations. Need to think on't.