Robert KingettNew post: The 'Paperwork Flood': How I Drowned a Bureaucrat before dinner. https://sightlessscribbles.com/posts/the-paperwork-flood/
🍋 Superball ☀️@WeirdWriter
OMG I can’t stop laughing. This is so so good. Oh you are so good. 🤣
@superball Never mess with me before I have my morning tea! I do think it’s utterly ridiculous that I have to do this review every few years or so though
@WeirdWriter It is ridiculous. One of my friends cares for her husband, who suffered a permanently debilitating stroke, and deals with the same bullshit. I’ll have to pass this along to her. 😁
Anna 🖖🏼@superball one of my friends had a leg amputated. Same bullshit to “prove” it hadn't grown back. @WeirdWriter
@AnnaBaguenaude @superball All because people hate poor people! I was talking to a minority republican acquaintance of mine. He likes me 1 trillion times more than I like him, but he was trying to say, that the Republican party gets a bad reputation for hating people of color, poor people, and otherwise. I pointed out all the policies that his party enacted as a punishment for being poor and or disabled and or unable to work. He said and reply, but that’s the thing. Everybody that can work should work. The government should not take care of you because you want to sit at home and be on social media all day. He said my tax dollars should never go to anybody that isn’t trying to better their lives and that whole conversation literally did absolutely nothing to convince me that they do not hate anybody they do not know.
@WeirdWriter at the very least, people who they do not know are not people in their eyes, they can't know themselves better, they are like pets, you can like them, but you won't treat them as equals. @superball
ein kleines z@superball @WeirdWriter
My nephew has down syndrome. His parents have to give updates in case they somehow one day remove that extra chromosome in each of his body's cells.
My nephew has down syndrome. His parents have to give updates in case they somehow one day remove that extra chromosome in each of his body's cells.
@kleines_z @superball I don’t understand why Americans hate poor or disabled people so much! I know it’s not just an American thing, but it feels like it most days because I’m trapped in this system that hates my existence and hates me for using it. I will never understand why Americans hate social security or why they hate anybody using it
@WeirdWriter @superball
It's in Germany in my nephew's case, and it's not about immediate withdrawal of all benefits, but one example is a certain stamp for a public transport ticket that says he can take a person with him for free for his assistance. It must be renewed every year, "proving" his disability all over again. Before he can get the stamp to validate his ticket, there needs to be proof that yes, he still has down syndrome and no, he still can't use public transport all by himself without being accompanied by an assisting person.
By the way, my nephew is five years old.
Irina@kleines_z @WeirdWriter @superball Even a five-year-old with the default number of chromosomes would need someone to accompany them on public transport!
@irina @WeirdWriter @superball
Yup.
Well, the difference is if the accompanying person can go for free or with an extra ticket for themselve.
Yup.
Well, the difference is if the accompanying person can go for free or with an extra ticket for themselve.
stephaniepixie 🏳️🌈@WeirdWriter This has made my night! I hate the reason for this story but I sure appreciate you sharing your act of defiance.
@stephaniepixie Her Tone is what really got to me. No sympathy whatsoever! I shouldn’t even have to do this ridiculous review every few years AnyWho. Thank you! Don’t fuck with me before my morning tea! Smile!
@WeirdWriter I’ve had to deal with Canadian provincial support workers and I’ve never felt more condescended to in my life (and I worked in cafes and retail for decades) so I can imagine the feelings you must’ve felt. I was pure fury but didn’t have a creative response like you did.
May Likes Toronto@WeirdWriter RIP Karen's toner budget. Sorry to hear that you didn't miraculously get new vision, despite a letter from the government.
@mayintoronto I should have included a note with the latest eye chart that said your letter did not cure me!
LJ@WeirdWriter brilliant. Perfection. 10 out of 10.
@LJ Squeeee!
@WeirdWriter i have a friend - it's actually her birthday today - who is in a similar place with the hoops she has to jump through to keep the meager benefits she gets. It's disgusting how our government treats vulnerable people. Reading about your malicious (or should I say delicious!) compliance made my day.
I hope it makes her smile at least! I *hate* how our society treats poor people. Classist nonsense all the way down from people that are strangely concerned about someone feeding themselves with food stamps. I don't get the obsession. Super strange! @LJ
Lauri KotilainenSimply amazing. Well played.
Dec [{(
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It could have been worse (for the office); Karen could have been using a thermal-paper fax machine.
It could have been worse (for the office); Karen could have been using a thermal-paper fax machine.
I used to work for a company that had a contract with TI that allowed us to resell the Silent 700 terminal (and consumables). We didn't sell many terminals, but we had to keep at least one box of the official TI thermal paper in stock (to be able to supply our remote sites, where each terminal needed at least 1 spare roll of paper on hand). That contract was the best way for us to keep enough paper reliably in stock.
Everyone was using thermal paper fax machines at the time.
1/
@dec23k Oh dear Gods!
We tried the TI paper in our fax machine once, when we ran out of thermal fax paper. It was the same physical size and it worked OK, but the print quality wasn't as good: legible in good light, but it looked faded. Probably wouldn't scan well.
This was long before Internet fax or plain paper fax. Fax modems were still new.
One Friday afternoon, another company in our building asked us for a roll of fax paper. They had ran out, and they had a big contract that was due to be sent to them.
2/
We handed them a roll of the TI paper, and explained why it probably wasn't going to give good quality output on their fax machine. They just needed to be able to review the contract as soon as it came in.
We were later informed that it performed as expected.
A week later, we got a phone call: "Hey, do you guys sell Almost Fax Paper?" They namedropped our neighbour. They already knew about the low quality.
They also had a big contract due by fax that day (a Friday), and they bought 2 rolls.
3/
This happened every 2 or 3 weeks, for about a year, until plain paper fax took over offices. Word of mouth led to a few unfortunate fax machine admins buying inappropriate thermal paper from us whenever their real stuff ran out. Nobody ever reported it working well on an actual fax machine.
And TI didn't notice us ordering more boxes of paper from them.
4/4
@WeirdWriter I'm surprised that people still use fax machines when there are so many more convenient ways to send a message!
@irina It really upsets me because there’s tons of ways you can make email secure and able to handle sensitive documents
@WeirdWriter If *they* send a fax to *you*, do you have a way to make it readable?
@irina Yep I have a fax to email service
@WeirdWriter Oh good!
flo@WeirdWriter
I wonder why they *don't* use "fax to mail" and still run physical fax machines? 🤔
Ok, that way it's more fun for you, of course! 😁
@irina
I wonder why they *don't* use "fax to mail" and still run physical fax machines? 🤔
Ok, that way it's more fun for you, of course! 😁
@irina
DB SchweinH*ll, faxes are just emails that auto-print at the end. Since they're more often sent to/from public machines they're less secure than email.
The email to fax softwares just auto-print to a pdf.
Cavyherd...slow, toothy, very evil grin....
Be the malicious compliance you want to see in the world.
ragman@WeirdWriter Love me a malicious compliance in the morning!
I shouldn't even have to do this review as often as I do! And her tone. Her tone is what really got to me, like, no sympathy at all so I was like, fine, let's play! I can't stand this if you deserve it system we have now. @ragman
@WeirdWriter Absolutely. I've a couple of friends who've had to fight to get on disability and it's been such a nightmare. Nobody should have to go through the American benefits process.
Jules@WeirdWriter I just love malicious compliance weaponized like this. Brilliant.
@quidcumque Thank you! More to come, because I have a hell of a lot of these kinds of stories because my GOV hates poor people and disabled people
@WeirdWriter I hope Karen gets really really scared now everytime someone in the office asks for "complete documentation".
Artemis@WeirdWriter
Had to read portions to my spouse because I started laughing out loud.
Had to read portions to my spouse because I started laughing out loud.
Florine☝️This is for everyone who has to regularly prove they're still disabled.
Well played, sir!
@WeirdWriter
Fargate 
Well, they demanded it. It is only right they got it. One page at a time.
On another note, it appears the line linking to the tips page is missing a closing square bracket, so the link doesn't get rendered properly @WeirdWriter
@fargate Ah thanks! I just fixed it! By the way, I also *just now* learned how to do multiple redirects in Eleventy which is super epic! But thank you! More to come!
Jon@WeirdWriter this is great. So great.
@jhamre More to come! I have many more because, yes, the system gives me *plenty* of material!
Jay Grant 🏳️⚧️@WeirdWriter bless, this is life giving. The next time I get hit with a review I'm taking a page from your book.
@mxjaygrant Yes, it is so, frustrating. I used to comply with just the right anount but not anymore! Make them *never* want to cancel your services. Teach them you are radical enough to not stop until you have things sorted out. I really do hate this system we are in so much!
Alex, the Hearth Fire@WeirdWriter Five hundred plus pages. Diabolical. I hope they learn their lesson and keep your documents as a memento mori. On the other hand, imagining you threatening to do it again is making me laugh maniacally.
Nora Reed 
@WeirdWriter hello i am a stranger but i was sent this after i had to fax a thing to a medical office and was really annoyed about it and it made me feel better. cheers
@nora I know this song and dance super well! Had to do this for years! You can imagine why I am *so* tired!
@WeirdWriter im doing the hoops you jump through to ultimately find out you have fibromyalgia so i am intimately familiar with your tiredness, solidarity there. my dad used to be a reporter for the local newspaper and once a senator did this to him, but it wasn't with a fax, they just answered a FOIA request by sending him a huge box of hard copy documents
Sean Boots@WeirdWriter Robert this is genuinely epic. 😅 Thank you for sharing!
More to come so I hope my feed makes it to your reader! I also have a podcast version of my blog but thank you! I just became *so* tired of people telling me I never bring enough. Fine. I'll show you enough documentation! LOL! But https://sightlessscribbles.com/follow/ @sboots
FediThing 
Woooooo! Yes! I especially cheered at the part that read "It was five hundred and twelve pages long. Single-spaced."
Hahaha! Hoist by their own petard, very cool.
GunChleoc@FediThing @WeirdWriter Next, time, make it double-spaced 😈
@gunchleoc @FediThing Absolutely brilliant idea!
Iron Pencil Statue 
@WeirdWriter you are my hero. I hate that review too