“Bad bungle or nod, wink?”
It is standard bureaucratic thinking. I bought a trailer on the 13th. The seller put down the 15th on the title. I went to the tag office on the 14th to pay the tax and get the tag. The clerk said you can’t do that until tomorrow because the date on the title isn’t until tomorrow. I showed her the carbon on the check I wrote and she said, “that doesn’t matter. To get the tag today you must get an affidavit from the seller to change the date.” I realized that reason (no potential for fraud) or argument was hopeless. I have dealt with the head of the office and no amount of logic will suffice.
My experience with government officials at all levels is that they have this clerk-like follow-the-rules mentality. You see this periodically with the ridiculous school suspensions for nibbling a pop tart into a gun. It’s a particular mentality that either government forces on officials or only brainless boobs go into government. I’m not sure which.
I first noticed it in the service. If they could find a way to find you in error or noncompliance, they could go back to not working.
And that, my friend, in addition to excellent perks and pensions, explains the mess the bureaucracy is in.
I’m 65, and I’ve been around government employees of one stripe or another for decades. They are, on the whole, unemployable in the private sector, because they have zero initiative, less creativity, and are generally lazy. They tend to be surly, unhelpful, and slooooooow at their job. And they know it is almost impossible to get fired, so they parlay that into an attitude that is simply appalling. Certainly there are some that are hard-working and talented and are dedicated to public service, but they are not in the majority.