Sick of everything taking longer than expected

[Collins567]

Something work-related I was told should take 6 weeks will now be taking 12 weeks I've been informed, 'due to a high volume of applications.'

Something related to finances that should've taken around a week has taken 4 weeks so far and could be longer. Once again the excuse is 'due to a high volume '.

I know I need to be patient but it's happening too much now. I don't mind slight waits but double or triple the time is ridiculous.. is anyone else finding this?

HMRC. I'm waiting on a form that should take a few weeks but they have a "4 month backlog". FFS. I bet if I took 4 months to pay my tax bill they'd have something to say...

Both are having a negative impact on me. I get it's likely down to staff numbers.

Exactly!! We're expected to do everything in a timely manner

I knew it would happen but I've never seen so much inertia before, across work, real life stuff etc

I just spoke to my pharmacist, she was helpful but I could hear she was that tired, she was struggling to speak clearly. It's a very odd world right now.

Yup. It’s been getting steadily worse for years. Accelerated when they could claim it was because of covid. But not improved since by any means!

More tech doesn’t help - might even make it worse.

Yeah, it's an odd world indeed!
Yes, can't use that as an excuse anymore

Yes it's actually angering me now how slow anything public sector is. We are funding these services. Financial services seem to be joining some kind of race to the bottom. Britain feels very like a snowball starting to roll down a very large slope.

And as for covid still being used as an excuse ODFOD!

Grrrr. I needed to get that off my chest.

It's not just in the UK, it's the same in Ireland. No public services and anything customer facing has gone to shit. Even trying to get served in a shop/restaurant/pub takes five times longer than the before times because nobody seems to move fast anymore or have any interest in their job.
What is happening??

Similar in the US. Most likely down to severe worker shortages in some sectors. So many companies are under staffed which has lead to reluctance to fire incompetent or under performing employees.

Apparently we are to be grateful that people show up for work at all and should lower our expectations.

(OK, I may be slightly exaggerating, but there is a general sense that things will take longer and service might be mediocre but that's just the way things are in our post-Covid world).

It took 15 working days for the council to send me a garden waste bin sticker so I can start putting my garden bin out. 3 bloody weeks to send a sticker.

Everything is so much worse now- telephoning an organisation for me is a matter of dread, Doctors, banks, insurance, buying a rail ticket, trying to pay for parking, attending hospital are all enough to make me despair.

But I will give one tiny bit of good news- I needed a very large sofa removed. Found a number from the internet, rang the man; within 90 minutes of making the call the sofa was cut up and removed by a man and his son (all above board) with minimum fuss, and for a reasonable cost, though not small.

But large organisations are down the pan. (Probate: pay first and wait 6 months.)

And all without the faintest sign of improvement.

Yes!

Local council, trying to get through to GP. Trying to get a dentist because mine has closed down, trying to get a form about my pension that should have been sent out to me a month ago, The NHS Business Services Authority fined me in error for not having a prescription prepayment certificate and despite me proving it, they have ignored letters sent by registered mail.

I've changed my broadband provider and the old one claims the phone conversation we had never happened and they have sent me bill. I phoned up to pay the bill, pressed the right key to make a payment, waited an hour, then a recorded message said I am 29th in the queue to make a payment. (This is a phone number where you have to pay - not a freefone).

I wanted to pay voluntary class 3 NIC for a recent tax year. HMRC don't answer the phone and the website is useless. My bank now requires me to have a mobile phone instead of a little card machine to verify payments, and cannot cope with the fact that there is no signal where I live and work.
It's all really shit.

More tech definitely makes it worse and slows things down. I think a lot of people are stuck with cumbersome software systems that make tech firms a lot of money. Everything involves logging into a portal. Argh.