Regime Change

Things have been a wee bit tense over here at the DMV of late. Some time ago there was a shifting of supervisors to go along with our new carpet and (old) new cubes. This change involves a lot of piddly-ass shit that no one really gives a damn about, but the People Upstairs make a big ole stink about it anyway.

For example, someone decided that it isn't right for employees working the front counter to have beverages out front since we tell customers they aren't allowed beverages. You'll forgive me if I find that completely retarded. Some asshat who will be here for 15 minutes versus someone stuck out there TALKING to people for 7 1/2 hours? Not the same.

Then yesterday we get an email informing us that we aren't allowed to be in our cube spaces more than 15 minutes before our scheduled start time. Because heavenforfend a person should be approached and have to answer a work-related question then demand to be paid overtime for that.

But what really burns my hide is that so much attention is being focused on silly shit like who's in their cube too early or who's wearing denim, is that information that actually affects our job and our contact with customers isn't passed on. As many of you probably know, all sorts of shenanigans are going down with Denny Hecker and KARE-11 did a story about it and said "[DMV]" about 30 times during it. Do you think we were warned ahead of time about this news report and that we would be swamped with calls? Heck no!

Last week, the Strib ran a story about a diversion program for drivers with high fines and too many driving afters on their records. I saw it in the paper, but totally forgot about it...until I got a call from a customer inquiring about it yesterday. I kindly forwarded the Strib story to my coworkers since they likely weren't gonna get the information any other way.

I get that they want to improve the image of the DMV, but what they fail to understand is that customer interactions can turn from good to bad based on how much information we provide them and how quickly and accurately we provide it. Someone might not be impressed by my denim skirt, but they're less likely to care if I can get them in and out of here with the information they need with very little hassle.

Meanwhile, things that actually might improve our image just linger. Like our crappy phone system which sends people through a thousand loops and asks them for information that they will have to repeat once they finally get a human on the line. Or documents that fail to explain requirements properly. Or useless statutes designed to scare people even though they aren't enforced.

My mom always told me my mouth would get me in trouble and it has on an occasion, but that's because I'm just not a fan of suck it up and taking it from people, especially when I find something stupid. So my supervisor has heard a lot from me about the bullshit that's been going down. Luckily, she likes me (and largely agrees with my--our--complaints), but I should maybe try to hold my tongue. You never know when budget cuts might warrant laying off a few workers.