Do Public Servants have to give their name?

Probably advised not to give their names most likely.

When was the last Civil Servant actually fired? Anyone know?

ChewChew wrote: »

I think when you ring a number and the switch/hunt pits you through, before that public servant answers the phone we should get their full name, address, mobile no and pps number. Just in case we need to torch them like.

My torch is broken..any idea where I could get it fixed?

I wouldn't give out my full name in work, maybe my first name or my employee number. But I dont feel comfortable giving out my name to irate people who want to complain because they are not happy with the correct information you are giving them.

ah, wouldn't it be great if we all had medical cards. ah:cool:

There are 2 million :eek: medical cards and GP only visit cards in issue. :eek::eek::eek:
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/almost-half-of-us-has-a-medical-card-222522.html
Somebody must be getting through to the HSE OP.:pac:

In the Civil Service Department I work in we HAVE to give our name when dealing with the public. Sure why wouldnt you give out your name anyway?

I don't work with the public myself but do deal with the civil servants that deal with the public.

The amount of lies from the public on social welfare is amazing. Claims of not receiving letters, emails, texts happens all the time. Amazingly messages sent the same way are received when they involve rate cuts. Clearly stated on the letters contact for an appointment but the people just arrive expecting to be seen instantly.

They ring and shout down the phone at people who answer them. There is absolutely no point in having the persons name as they won't be processing your claim. It would be like asking for the receptionists name in a insurance company to know who deals with your claim. The reason for faxing is they need a physical document for legal reasons. If you can email it you can fax it.

The amount of incomplete documentation that comes in is amazing. People send in doctors letters without their PPSN like people are going to fill out the forms for them after figuring out what their PPSN is. I would say the vast majority of lost application fall into that category. They are just dumped as far as I know, the theory being simple fill out the form to apply if you don't you will apply correctly the next time and be in touch.

In one area they sent out letters to all job seekers to verify their address, 40% never replied and were cut off. Then only a small portion came in. Similar was done with medical cards

Alrighty, since this is turning into ps bashing thread:
I Worked for a section as a summer temp for the Dept of PS about 2 years back now.

Lets get one thing straight in my time there, some people working there, are genuinely nice people and I'm not discrediting them as I go on, they deserve a mention and made my time there bearable , and the others which I shall elaborate on were complete assholes, just like real life.

Now I was only in one office, I've heard some really good stories / really bad stories of other offices.. so yeah the PS is gigantic... some of it's fine.. some of it not so fine.

Anyways now to my wondrous time there, I was public facing, and I actually can't comfortably watch "the office" because it reminds me of that place so badly I want to be sick.. you know the young guy that they ask "what does he think about career prospects" while working were.. and he replies "I'd rather throw myself under a train then continue working here"... that about sums up my time working there.

In regards to the name thing, I genuinely didn't care, if someone asked for my name I gave my name.. if they asked for my full name.. I gave my full name, I really REALLY didn't give a ****. If I was being an ass..I figured I should get fired, so giving them my name made sense / motivated me to be a nice guy.

I went out of my way to be quiet calm and nice on the phone.. and trust me there was a lot of people shouting at me, but eventually I'd calm them down and get them to accept their options ahead. Whenever I got someone "normal" who just went along with it I literally counted my lucky stars and they reminded me there was some sane people out there.

Every now and then.. lets call him old regular, who has worked there for an age, would get a call.. he would get angry with them.. curse and then slam the phone down.. even calling them stupid. How was he allowed to continue working there...why the hell did they put him on the phones.. basically.. wtf management.

He was untouchable because of his union. But that very union was representing a protecting a complete asshole who deserved to be dropped from the top of the building.

And so you have the civil service.. where the nice quiet old dears are screwed and kill themselves doing work.. and complete assholes get away with being assholes.

Lets not forget the system / offices they are in. They are old, nasty and the machines are ancient. The systems they use to keep track of things are ancient,
the systems for tracking things... are ancient. My favourite game was to sit there and think how much time it would take me to produce some web app to just do all the things we did... / let people log in with their pps and find out info for themselves. Imagine the money it would save... lol imagine... if it wasn't run by old people basically.

A college student today could write a better application to solve their problems then some of the massive software applications they have had custom made.. 20 years ago .. it was terrifying how inefficient everything was.

The whole experience made me fearful of life after college.. Thankfully I work in an awesome office now with cool people in the private sector.. which just further cements how nuts the whole system is.

TBH, if you really want an answer.. call the same section... just ask to speak to the manager... they usually are quite busy.. but say you'll wait.. and talk to that guy... they don't become managers without being sane... atleast not in my experiance.. and you'll get your convo.. and your name then.