To bloody hate the admin of life

[cheeseomelette]

Why is nothing simple?

have been trying to get the boiler either fixed or replaced, some medical issues looked at, and a load of other house jobs sorted while managing a demanding full time job where I’m out of the house every day. I can do basic things but plumbing, cars and electrical things are just not in my skill set.

the hassle is unreal. Logging on to things at certain times with certain pass codes, resetting endless passwords and waiting for call backs or arranging visits. I end up buying new things because I haven’t got the time or energy to chase someone down to have my existing things fixed or serviced and that’s expensive and not great for the planet.

i’m having this rant waking up in a cold house because the boiler is playing up,again and the plumber I rushed home from work to let in yesterday didn’t turn up.

I’ve booked a private medical appointment this morning because there is no contacting my GP. They turn the booking system off online and don’t answer the phones.

It’s got to the point where I just feel sick when something goes wrong in the house because I know what a load of stress it’s going to be. I don’t know what the solution is here - I’m even contemplating downsizing to an apartment with a service contract.

I can't see how we can escape from it all though. I'm tired of it all, it makes me so stressed. I hate talking to or messaging bots and getting to get through to a person.

Totally agree. I am burned out trying to do my life admin + doing it for 2 elderly parents and feel I waste soooo much of my life on portals. For mum who has Alzheimer’s to see a GP I did half an hour of forms confirming she was born a woman and doesn’t have a gambling problem - EVERY time - why can’t they store this? And conveyancers on remortgage fck up everything but won’t pick up phone, everything is via portal bots. Terrible for society, dreadful for those who can’t do it or have to do it on behalf of multiple people

Oh yes everything is so robotic these days! I just wanted my b12 prescription sent and the amount of unnecessary questions you have to answer, like surely this is taking up the Drs time as they also have to read through all your answers to make sure they're not missing anything.

Or they tell you the easiest way is to sort it online but I've already tried that and that's why I'm calling. Oh the joys..

Well that’s baffling! Not sure why dealing with faceless systems would be the price of feminism? I’d personally rather spend an hour digging up turnips than dealing with admin but I don’t see any relationship between the 2 things

Virginia Woolf (I believe) said every woman needs a wife. Who of course would do all the PA stuff that's such a pain.

What gets me is that I look around the house and think of a list of about 10 things that need to be sorted but when I mention any of them to my DH he asks why I think they need to be done. i.e. we have roller blinds on the windows upstairs and they are falling to bits so I want to get them replaced with something decent. And we need a blind in the kitchen as well so it makes sense (to me) to get a company in to measure, make, install all of these. And he asks why!! Well because it's beyond my expertise and he won't do it either.

I don’t understand this one. If you’d used a parking app, you could have paid online from your car and wouldn’t have had to traipse around finding a working machine? Surely the problem here was the lack of a parking app?

Find out who your neighbours are using?

Like everything ever, it’s mostly about saving money and simplifying things for whatever company runs the car park. It’s expensive to maintain the machines, they need to be connected to banks if you want card payments, you have to pay wages to humans to check if people have tickets, etc, etc.

There’s someone near me who does this sort of thing. She’s a bit of a virtual PA and you can outsource all kinds of things.

I find it particularly annoying when I can’t book things online. I need to book my kids a dentist app and his 2 year check. But I have to call between 9-5 (when I’m working!) and then Spend ages with them going “can you do this day?” And me saying no. They can only really work if you have regular set days and times you’re available and my work diary doesn’t work like that so I much prefer seeing what is available and choosing myself.

Have you tried things like task rabbit and air tasker, they can do anything from plumbing to life admin

So just book it

Thank you op I have found my people.

DH and I are finally in the situation where we have some money to do up our house/ go on holiday etc. However we cannot be bothered as everything is so difficult.

that's what I'm doing one item at a time.

But with everything it's a struggle as he doesn't want people in the house (anxiety), is worried about money (we've more than enough and when I tell him that he buys £300 shoes) etc etc. I'd like to have a cleaner but that's been stomped on. I've got a gardener which means he grumbles how he's not allowed to make decisions about the garden which he won't do even if he's asked!!!

It's tiring!!!

That is clearly deliberate, isn't it. Wankers.

The amazing Sue Townsend saw this coming.
I’ve just re-read Adrian Mole:The Cappuccino Years, published in 1999.

Adrian gets into a banking password muddle and is told, admittedly over the phone, “you’ll need to open a new account. As from now all of your codes are null and void.”

In his diary he writes, “I begged and pleaded with Marilyn to let me into the secrets of my own account,” but to no avail.

“why did I withdraw all my money from the building society in 1995? All I had to do then to check my balance was to ring old Mr Lewisham.”

and later he needs to call his insurance company:
”A robot answered and asked me to hold. It then told me that my call was enormously important to them. Next it informed me that I was number 13 in the queue. Throughout, Chris de Burgh sang Lady in Red. When Rod Stewart started warbling ‘Sailing’ I slammed the phone down. What has happened to England’s telephonists? has there been a cull? how long have the robots been in charge “

‘Due to unprecedented volumes of calls…’ every single time - just say ‘due to laying off half our call centre staff…’

ive read enough 50/60s dystopian fiction to see the age of the robot is not going to be good for the common man!!!

Same here!

Plus I've had to use the NHS recently for the first time in decades which started off via an e-consult app and it was all seamless and efficient..

Everything is an app. I’m going to a festival next weekend and the organisers released set times… on an app! I had to download an app just to see what time my favourite DJs are playing. Why not put it in the website?!

Absolutely ludicrous.

Who is making £ from these apps ?
It’s not the normal folk is it !

I have been known to scream “SOMETHING ELSE!” at the automated voice after what seems like the 50th “So I can get you to the right place, listen to these options”. I just want to speak to a human, ffs.

It I say ‘ S’ to a bot thing on the phones it always says ‘ I don’t know that ‘.’ My voice is my key ‘ or something for the bank , however they can never recognize my voice. It’s enough to make you lose the will to carry on at times

Oh yes I relate to this!

GP - no chance! Appointment are as rare as hens teeth. Please be respectful to staff rudeness will not be tolerated but gracefully accept that the staff can be as rude as they like to you. Take it on the chin accept that you are a nuisance and your ailments are imaginary.

Chat Bot - lists every problem apart from the one you need help with but at least it wishes you a good day.

Prove you are not a robot at least 6 times a day.. you never know! You can’t be too careful.

Spend longer paying to park the car than it actually takes to do the shopping.

Sorry your password isn’t recognised. Click here to reset and we won’t send you a link for 20mins just to piss you off. When we do we will say you have already used that password.

Tick all the boxes containing a traffic light. Ooops no try again. Tick all the boxes containing a bicycle. Ah got you!! We knew you were a secret robot.

Anyone who says - we will ring you back tomorrow. They are lying they won’t .

Thank you for holding, your call is important - it’s not but our tea break is.

Trades - I will call in and have a look on my way home. They won’t they will head straight to the pub.

Make sure you recycle everything but not without an appointment first. Your council is dealing with unprecedented amounts of fly tipping but can’t for the life of them work out why.

If you have a small job like a leaky gutter or a malfunctioning washing machine accept that the job is too small and no one can be bothered to come out unless you are willing to take out a second mortgage and make it worth their while. Thankfully YouTube has revolutionised life and you can now find a friendly person willing to talk you through fixing it yourself. My washing machine has been saved 3 times thanks YouTube.

Its called progress 🤩

I think there is a presumption nowadays that everyone WFH and is therefore available during the day. In reality, many people still work out of the home and I’m sure those WFH are not able to available all the time either.
I remember being a full time teacher living by myself and not being able to get my heating fixed as I couldn’t answer calls during the day and couldn’t be at home. In the end I had to pay extra for an out of hours plumber.

This is why I never want an electric car and will keep my petrol car as long as possible. If something doesn’t work it’s not a highly complicated electronic problem.

I hear you OP. I get ‘app rage’ the minute someone tells me I need to download an app for something simple. Or if I need to create a password to make a restaurant booking. WTAH.