Is it just me?

[Freuds_Cat]

Here is a little story about how stupid some rules, regulations and People can be.

I received a phone call this morning that went thus:

"Good Morning can I speak to Catherine Hann please?"
Sorry she isn't here at the moment can I ask who is calling?

"My name is Meredith, I need to contact her can I please have her mobile number or work phone number?"
Erm.....no.

"Oh.........um...why not?"
Where are you calling from?

"I'm sorry but under the privacy act I am not allowed to say"
So let me understand this, You know who I am and you know who my wife is and you know our home telephone number but you wont tell me who you are or who you represent and you want me to give you my wife's private contact details? Can you understand why I wont be doing that?

"I'm sorry Mr Hann but its important that I speak to her"
No, I'm sorry. Unless you are prepared to give me your details I'm afraid I will not be giving you any information at all.

silence

"Can I leave my name and number and ask  that you get her to call me back?"
Certainly, your name is Meredith and your number there Meredith?

"My number is 8370 8777. Thank you Mr Hann"
You are welcome Meredith (me at my patronising best   )


Of course I immediately rang the number which I didn't recognise.


"Good Morning Stirling Medical Clinic Meredith speaking"
Hi Meredith, Bret Hann here just confirming  the number you gave me. Would you like me to get Cath to call Don (our Doctor and personal friend) direct on his mobile?

"Oh er, yes that would be good. Thankyou"


This is just one situation amongst hundreds that happen each year to us personally because of the stupidity of Privacy Act here in Australia. The same scenario in different versions is repeated constantly. Dumb Dumb Dumb.

/End Rant

[Pilgrim]

Not much different here.  For instance - if your son Bob Smith is a student at our university, unless he authorizes us to publish that information, you can call and we won't even confirm that anyone by that name is a student.  However - there is a reason for this, because abusive parents and exes have been known to track people down and harm them.

[gweimer]

When both my parents were alive, my mom was in the hospital.  They weren't going to let my father see her without the entrance password.  After a few attempts at reasoning, he told the nurse that he did, in fact, have the correct password.  It was "lawyer".  With that, she let him into my mom's room.  In there, visiting, were all the women from the church.  Privacy acts here apparently exclude members of the clergy.  I told my dad that the next time he went, to tell the nurse he was a priest.

[ramone57]

not really a privacy issue but along the same lines....

recently I had to take my wife to the emergency room at the local hospital.  the attending nurse asked several medical history questions, including what types of surgery she's had.  I told the nurse everything I could remember including that she a total hysterectomy.  the nurse then asked, 'when did she have her last period?'.  I looked at the nurse and told her it had been several years.  she seemed puzzled until I reminded her of the hysterectomy, 'oh, right...sorry!'.

just this week I was at the car dealership picking up one of our cars from the body shop.  they said the car was at the collision center.  when I asked where that was, the clerk told 'at the collision center'.  I asked where it was located and found out we now have col-di-zacs.  must be a new and improved cul-de-sac, I guess.

[Highlander]

I've had to sign the Official Secr... oops, I can't say that... 

No different in the UK - the amount of agro we've had to allow my wife to talk to the credit card company over the phone for our "JOINT CARDS" ...

On the other side of the coin, there was recently a very embarrased security manager who had employed an asylum seeker who had no right to have been working in the UK as an AIRSIDE CLEANER at TERMINAL THREE at HEATHROW... he had claimed POLITICAL ASYLUM AFTER HIGHJACKING AN AIRCRAFT AND BRINGING IT INTO LONDON-STANSTEAD AIRPORT - The WHOLE PLANE's PASSENGERS had TURNED ON THE CREW... 

[Pilgrim]

I've had to sign the Official Secr... oops, I can't say that... 

Is that a variation on: "I have a comment, but if I made it I'd hafta kill ya?"

[Freuds_Cat]

Heh yep, insanity reigns. The other most common issue is with phone companies. Joe Blow rings up from Phone co A saying his name is Joe and he needs my personal ID code before he can talk to me.  My response is usually one of these: 1. I'm sorry but unless you can prove to me who you are and who you represent I will not be giving you my secret ID code because as far as I know you are a scammer trying to get my code. or (if I'm in a hurry) 2. Then you have a problem. Goodbye.

If I actually am interested in what they have to say then I will ask them for a number that I can call them back on. Not because I am security conscious, but because it annoys the hell out of them trying to find the guy who originally rang me inside their call centre.

[Highlander]

Pilgrim...

"                         "

Nuff said...

[Pilgrim]

Here's another varient....on Thursday some heavy snow was predicted for our area north of denver, so I drove my wife to work - she and I are both at the same university - in our 4WD Blazer.  By 11 the weather was awful, and they closed the university.  We were told to leave by noon...not only told, but in my case I wanted to hang out for a few minutes until my wife was done.  I was told that they had liability if I stayed in the building, so I needed to leave.

I said - you're telling me that your official view is that I'm safer driving around on the streets in a blizzard than sitting in my own office?  If I leave here and get center-punched by a snow plow, you KNOW I'll be suing the university for tossing me out when I wanted to stay a few more minutes.  (But I said this with a smile, and both the gent who told me and I were shaking our heads over this.)

So I left and picked up my wife...no problems, fortunately. But nothing makes a workplace more hostile than someone who picks up a policy book and decides to enforce it to the letter.  Mindless enforcement is all too common - because it avoids liability, you know....

[godofthunder]

No it is not just you.