[Cartman voice] I … am … so … pissed … off … right … now…
[/Cartman voice]
Okay everyone I apologize for the length and pointlessness of this rant but I have to get it off my chest. Since February, my husband and I have been involved in the most bungling, ass-munching retardedness (is that a word?) that I have ever unfortuante enough to witness and it is REALLY beginning to wreck our lives.
Early this year my husband and I, who have owned and managed a home-based computer business for 3 years, decided we’d had enough of this lifestyle and wanted to go back to a more stable one - steady paycheck enabling us to someday have the house and kids, etc. In order to do this, my husband decided he would need to get his Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer certification (although he’s very skilled and has worked with computers for almost 10 years, he has little paperwork, and thought this would improve his chances of finding a good job). The best (and least expensive) way to do this is for him to buy the necessary textbooks and training equipment and then study at home full-time for about 6 weeks, then take an exam. There are a total of 7 exams so this process would take about 10 months.
Although the books and training supplies are fairly inexpensive and we are able to purchase them ourselves, we are not able to support ourselves for 10 months with no income (the business we own pays us very little, only enough to live on and nothing left over to save - part of the reason we are ready to part with it). Enter the Government, specifically the Human Resource Development Branch, whose mission includes helping Canadians train to find better jobs and lower the unemployment rate in BC (whose economy is in pretty serious trouble lately). So we decide to apply for living-expense funding from this helpful office.
In February my husband began meeting with Career Link, the office who screens candidates and helps them prepare their funding applications. Apparently there is so much unemployment in our town that if the candidates were not screened by this other office, the Human Resources office would be completely swamped. Hmm, not a good sign. The Career Link meeting phase took from February to May, with several key events taking place:
- They asked Matthew questions. He answered them. They wrote them down.
- Repeat for several weeks.
- They urge him to put together a 30page document of all the information he needs to apply for funding. He does. They lose it. He does it again. They finally approve him to talk to HRD.
In May, Matthew was approved to visit the all-powerful Gods at HRD to finally find out if he could have some damn money. (To put this in perspective, we are asking for less than $20,000.) Here’s how that’s going:
May 12 Mathew drops off his paperwork package and is told they will call him for an interview, at which point he will get an answer.
May 17 Matthew has his interview and is told he will get an answer by the end of the week.
May 23 Matthew calls and is told he will have an answer by the end of the week.
May 26 Matthew calls and the woman in charge of his file has taken 3 days off.
June 5 (today) Matthew calls and is told he will have an answer by tomorrow because this woman has to catch up on her three days of paperwork.
Meanwhile, Matthew has slowed down the business in preparation for closing, so our teeny-tiny paycheck has dwindled non-existent. We’ve had no income for 6 weeks and it shows. We barely made rent this month, have very few groceries in the house, and have NO money whatsoever to buy those little important things such as toilet paper, toothpaste, etc. We are living hand to mouth day by day and it SUCKS. Meanwhile I have this very intelligent, very qualified husband who simply cannot get a yes or no answer from these idiots!
Actually to tell the truth they have already told him that he as an individual is totally eligible for funding, but the “study-at-home” philosophy doesn’t fit into their molds. They would like him to move to a city where the courses are offered at a certified insititution (which would cost 3 times as much of THEIR money).
So what I don’t grasp here is why it takes FOUR months to get a simple answer! If it were me I would be showing up at that office 9 am tomorrow and not leaving till I got a fucking answer. This is really pissing me off!! If I hear one more time “we’ll have an answer by ________” someone’s going to lose an eye. I can’t even imagine the wages (paid by you and I, Canadians) that have gone into paying all these people for FOUR MONTHS worth of NOT making a decision. Boggles the mind.
Sorry again for the LONG rant but like I said I needed to get it off my chest! AAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!