Civil servants

As the saying goes: Time flies when you're having fun.

Today was not one of those days. I am very fortunate to have flexible working hours, so this morning I decided to come into work one hour late AND leave an hour early - and still it felt like the day was just not going anywhere. When I was beginning to think about going home, I realized that it was only shortly after 10am...

Or to put it in my colleague's words:
"First day at work after holidays = fail. Please make me unhave it."

Anyhow, I had a good reason for taking off early. I went to tackle another one of my goals! Sorting out my national retirement account. Last weekend, I spent sorting files and official documents, juggling application papers, and trying to wiggle my way back into my earlier youth to figure out whether DRV had listed all of my activities, such as work and studies.

To make things short, I was bringing a flex-folder of considerable size, coming without an appointment, and pretty late in the evening. To defend myself, I tried calling about 17 times to get prior information or actually schedule an appointment, but the only response I ever got was a "sorry, no one's available right now, call back later, click." AAAARGH.

Well, they had to deal with me. I arrived at 5:21pm, their opening hours ended at 6pm on a Thursday. Not a single customer was there. The receptionist was shuffling magazines to keep busy.

Despite having to live through an ongoing tirade about how I really should have called or made an appointment, I successfully left the building at 6:01pm, with a much lighter folder, a confirmation of having submitted all the necessary paper work, a happy civil servant that was ready to head home on time, and with the flattering feeling that it was highly unusual for "such a young person" to actually take an interest in sorting out one's retirement account :)

Now it all depends on how quickly they process the whole thing. I'm getting closer to checking off my first goal for 2012! *grin*