I’m currently applying for short-term position at my university in France. There are 15 identical positions open for the next year, but for some reason I need to fill in (the exact same) documents individually for each of those positions. Pretty fun...
On a more serious note, my experience with administration and bureaucracy has been that going to the office in person, being very polite, saying abundantly that you are sorry to cause a disturbance, and making clear that you won’t leave until your problem is fixed do wonders. After 30min of you saying “I understand that I’m asking for something I’ve no right to, but could you pretty please do it nonetheless, even the most rule-loving employee will either cave in to your demand or send you to someone with actual power of fixing thing.
That is true, rarely do you get someone who intentionally wants to make you miserable. They usually just make you miserable as a side-effect of not caring enough, but as soon as you’re sufficiently annoying, they do one of those two things.
I’m currently applying for short-term position at my university in France. There are 15 identical positions open for the next year, but for some reason I need to fill in (the exact same) documents individually for each of those positions. Pretty fun...
On a more serious note, my experience with administration and bureaucracy has been that going to the office in person, being very polite, saying abundantly that you are sorry to cause a disturbance, and making clear that you won’t leave until your problem is fixed do wonders. After 30min of you saying “I understand that I’m asking for something I’ve no right to, but could you pretty please do it nonetheless, even the most rule-loving employee will either cave in to your demand or send you to someone with actual power of fixing thing.
That is true, rarely do you get someone who intentionally wants to make you miserable. They usually just make you miserable as a side-effect of not caring enough, but as soon as you’re sufficiently annoying, they do one of those two things.
The crux is that you must be annoying but in a sweet, non-threatening kind of way, over wise your interlocutor may switch to actively against you.