The Court is Out

The lay-offs taking place across the Nassau County payroll have put several hundred people in serious economic jeopardy. The necessity of the curtailments should put all workers on notice. If ever there were a time to make ourselves indispensible -- to do our jobs as well as they can possibly be done -- this is it.

Someone forgot to tell the woman at the front desk at the Long Beach City Court office.

This entitled worker obviously thinks she is immune not only from job insecurity, but also from common courtesy and plain old I give a shit customer service. For a minute there, I almost thought I was standing at the DMV.

I recognized her as she took a full 30 seconds to saunter all the way from her desk, a full 10 feet to the customer service window. The attitude clearly belonged to the same person who conveyed barely intelligible information on the phone when I called to confirm the hours of operation. Not understanding how to handle something I completed on my form, she turned on her heel and headed with the speed of a glacier to consult her supervisor -- without saying a single word to me and leaving me hanging to see what would come next.

The supervisor came out himself and to his credit was very professional, courteous and helpful (how sad that this bears special commendation).

But the biggest surprise of all was that no one in the office of approximately 10 people was aware of the Long Beach business I was inquiring about. How could they not know a storefront business in LB? There is only one logical answer: they don't live or shop here.

They do, however, work here. And maybe they should value that fact enough to put a little extra effort into doing their jobs well, into showing that they do in fact give a shit. There are undoubtedly many unemployed local residents who would gladly take those jobs and do them better than the people who are currently lucky enough to have them.