The Greek Interior Ministry has established guidelines for civil servants in Greece. Civil servants, otherwise known as those ignorant bitches in the government offices, are notoriously terrible here in Greece. I have had to deal with them on many issues, including my visa, which I won't go into here. Let's just say just about everyone I dealt with was rude, condescending, and had a remarkable ability to not know how to do their jobs, or tell you who could perform the tasks needed. When handed a task, many run around the office like a chicken with their head cut off, acting uncertain about where to go or what to do. Many spent time on personal calls, turning a bored and annoyed look my way from time to time.
Still, props go out to the two or three who did help along the road. Now if they could just figure out what happened to my visa papers...
5 comments:
I think they should also go one step further and ban the usage of the following phrases in all civil service offices:
Den ftaio ego-I'm not to blame (used when they've lost your papers or told you to get the wrong ones)
Apo pou eisai?-Where are you from?
(used when they see from your surname you're not greek as an intimidation tactic to keep you in your 'place')
Ela tin alli ebdomada-Come back next week (used to send you away so they can get back to their frappes and mobile phone conversations with their friends)
Well to get a job with the civil service in Greece, you first of all need 'contacts' (a friend or relation who can get you in) and secondly once your in, you've got a job for life and can sit around scratching your donats all day! The civil service is obviously way overstaffed and basically the headless chicken routine you get each time you go in is for their benefit as well as yours. If they've spent all day running around, it doesn't matter that they achieved absolute zilch. It just means when they go home at the end of the day. They can complain about how busy they've been rather than accept they are basically being paid for nothing.
And it's any public sector place where you get the same service, have you ever tried dealing with DEH or OTE? Even simply visiting the post office in Greece requires you to take a day off work. It's something you'll eventually get used too.
Well, my husband deals solely with OTE and DEH, but I'm not surprised. I used to complain about American services, I guess I am getting my due.
Thought this would make you laugh, comments from Brian Church in the Athens News:
CIVIL servants have been told not to spit at members of the public unless they insist on being served.
A new code of conduct drawn up by the interior ministry is some 32 pages long. The guide is called "Principles and policies for efficient customer service" in English and "Let's pretend" in Greek.
It will be compulsory reading for all civil servants and municipality employees while thousands of customers wait in a queue.
In a press release, the interior ministry says it wants its army of officials to be "responsible and kind and to respect basic principles".
Failing that, it will settle for civil servants not breaking wind in public.
The move is commendable but it's not going to work, is it? People with jobs for life have no motive to be nice to people. It's as simple as that. What's more they get a reasonably low salary and, on a moral level, we have no right to take away their one joy in life which is to torture the rest of us.
That said, the proposals are very sensible and will be useful when Greece finally purges its bloated army of bureaucrats sometime around 2356. Among other fine proposals the guide says:
1) Civil servants must politely answer a question from members of the public unless they haven't finished their meal
2) Officials must not talk with their mouth full
3) Four phrases are never to be uttered to a customer: "You're at the wrong desk," "Come back tomorrow," "That's nothing to do with me," and "I told you, that's nothing to do with me"
4) Bribes are not to be accepted during Holy Week
I seriously wish the venture well. As someone who has spent hours trying to get service from the National Tourism Organisation - perhaps Greece's most customer-hostile service, which makes sense as even terrorists won't be bothered to go through all the hassle of researching likely targets - it would be a miraculous change to life if suddenly we got good service.
Lol, that is hilarious. "Let's pretend"
That was the one expectation I had when I came to Greece, I know I was errant now, but I expected Greeks to be some kind of "uber" people, you know, descended from all these wonderful philosophers, scientists, and writers of ancient Greece.
Boy, was I naive!
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