Taxpayer beware

Taxpayer, beware

Not that recently one of regional tax office branches boasted about soaring tax collection rates, as a result of simplifying the language in which letters to taxpayers are written. Plain Polish works miracles, yet workings of tax administration as a whole still could do with some improvements.

I have not expected to receive any letter from the tax office. Since I earned my first money in 2007 until last week, I had not got any, yet on Monday I found this in the letterbox…

In principle, you could argue whether it is written in plain Polish. For me the missive is generally comprehensive, although I had to read it twice to get the message. It could have been shortened, I suppose, cause brevity as a rule adds clarity.

Before filing the tax return I double-checked it, especially personal data and tax calculations, yet as it turned out, I missed one thing – after putting KRS (national register of legal entities) number I failed to write the amount of tax I wished to be transferred to a beneficiary (charity, foundation, etc). I don’t know why, I thought it was obvious, if I wish to donate 1%, it is 1%. The situation proves you might wish to donate less than 1% and must specify the exact amount even if the don’t wish to make any haircuts…

A quick glance at webpages dedicated to tax accounting does not give the answer how exactly to clear the issue, but the letter instructs clearly not to tamper with 1% donations. In order to find out how to get the amendment right I call the contact person in the tax office the next day. The lady informs me I need to submit: 1) an amended tax return, 2) a written justification why the amendment is being on made (on a special form) and lets me know I may not now write the correct amount to be donated to a beneficiary, since after 30 April it is too late, so the only way to straighten things out is to fill the two fields (KRS number and amount) blank.

OK, I screwed it up, lesson learnt, apologies to the ones not better off. Since I filed the tax returns in person, I need to make the correction personally as well. The tax office is opened from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., so has exactly the same opening hours as my “usual” working hours, hence the most reasonable way to visit it is to decide to turn up to work later. I pick up the documents and when in the office, I go exactly to the room of the person who sent me the letter to me. She checks the amendment forms, says it is OK, enters it into the system, I am about to leave and…

…I am stopped in my tracks. “Sir will not leave now, sir has not filed sir’s personal income tax return for 2013”. “What the f**k?”, I think. I turn back and argue this must be an error. The lady insists the computer sees all my tax returns, except the one for fiscal 2013… I kindly ask the lady not to write relevant summons (with threats of severe fines for shirking the duty of tax accounting) and promise to return in half an hours with relevant documents confirming I am clear with the tax office.

I rush to the car, at home I quickly find two documents which confirm I entitled the Employer do fill the tax return (PIT-12) on my behalf and the very return (PIT-40) sent to the tax office by the Employer. I copy the documents in case the tax officials want to keep it, grab them and drive back to the tax office.

The lady greets me with lovely smile on her face. “I found it”, she exclaims, “your accounts have been done by your employer, the Employer”, she says. “Indeed”, I sigh…

The whole story actual looks to have brought no benefits – wasted paper, waster time of clerks from the tax office, my wasted time, my unnecessary stress. Water to the mill of a ruthless bureaucratic machine… The tax office branch in Piaseczno has a splendid new building I had a chance to sightsee. The modernity of the edifice could however go together with smart work done inside it…

Oversized

Imagine an office (urząd) without petitioners (petenci). Imagine a school without pupils. Imagine a hospital without inpatients, or a health centre without the ill. A mind-boggling absurdity? From the times I was a student, I recall a conversation between two student office (dziekanat) workers both claiming their job would have been much nicer, if only they had not need to deal with students (ta nasza praca byłaby całkiem fajna, gdyby nie ci studenci). So much nicer would be a job of a clerk if only those obtrusive people did not come around. A work in a hospital would be much more rewarding, if personnel did not have to take care of those horrible patients. A work in school would be marvellous, if only teachers did not have to deliver classes to rowdy brats.

Smacks of absurdity? Not really. Each organisation, as it grows, goes through certain stages of development. With each consecutive one its structures are bigger, so they require more control, reporting, paperwork, etc. With time a profit-oriented organisation, i.e. a business no longer allocates all its resources towards attaining its core goal which should be making money. With time each company builds ancillary structures, which at first enhance specialisation and support front-line units, so that everyone can focus on doing their bit. As more time goes by, in order to keep the business together, companies set up more reporting / oversight / control functions. As the process carries on, fewer employees are focused on serving customers (i.e. looking after sources of revenues) and more employees are focused on dealing with internal affairs of an organisation. When the company is bigger, internal oversight structure are vital for keeping it going in line with a certain strategy, yet the question of proportions between so called front-office, middle-office and back-office is justified. The more of a company’s resources are directed towards back-office functions and the less towards front-office, the more mature the company is. But is it more efficient?

The term diseconomies of scale has not been coined without a reason. In an organisation’s development there is a point at which the organisation grows to unmanageable proportions, i.e. is too big to be run efficiently. This happens both in the government sector (which is more prone to such distortions) as well as in private sector, yet there probability of diseconomies of scale is strongly positively correlated with size. Overgrown bureaucratic structures no longer need customers to be have something to deal with. At the highest stage of this “internal focus” middle- and back-office staff can not see the forest through the trees. They no longer realise serving the customer who feeds them should be a top priority. The become so pre-occupied with processes, procedures, reporting and other self-oriented stuff that they forget those are the customers thanks to who they can earn a livelihood.

Oddly enough, such self-oriented organisations survive, albeit rarely thrive on the market. When an organisation reaches the highest stage of development (when it does not need customers to move on) it already has established a leading market position (often might be a monopolist) and superior reputation and switching costs for customers are high. These factors allow such company not to strive for many new clients and put little effort in retaining the existing ones. Moreover, front-office functions are never neglected. Employees who bring the company the bacon are property remunerated for securing revenues essential to cover costs of the bureaucratic structures. The inertia in such huge organisations can last years and such wicked corporations do not fall apart. Senior executives often realise what is wrong and launch initiatives aimed at reinstating customer focus in organisations they run. The frequent upshot is that an organisation focuses on pursuing the programme rather than on customers…

Some time ago I took part in a series of workshops aimed at streamlining and leaning process in my company. As the workshops developed and participants came up with new ideas, the picture which emerged showed clearly the customer is actually necessary to feed us with documents we could hand over from one to another, fill in to several systems, create reports, etc. The role of a customer is boiled down to a creature which sets the bureaucratic machine in motion. Once it gains momentum, it busy with document circulations, internal analyses and reports so that the customer drops to the bottom of its list of priorities. One day when the group of workshop participants was in top form and devised plenty of ideas how to improve workings of our company, I held back for a moment, examined what had been put forward and without second thought asked an inconvenient question “but where’s the room for customers in what we design?”. I poured cold water on my fellows, the silence came into the room. They all stared at me. I realised I could have overstepped boundaries, as dissenters are not flattered in corporate capitalism. To my surprise, no one denounced me, my remark turned out to be quite productive and changed the course of works during the next workshops.

After over three years of working in the same place, I am growing weary of my current job. Or to be precise, I have had enough of my employer and how my company is run. I do take pleasure in what I do and perform my duties zealously, so the symptoms do not signify burn-out, but I am frustrated with prospects my employer and I have, or rather do not have. My employer is a part of a huge corporation with operations in most countries in the world. My diagnosis of the problem they have with their Polish recalcitrant subsidiary is that the operating environment here differs from those in other CEE countries. The corporation refuses to compromise and adjust its doing-business guidelines to specifics of the Polish market. They fail to recognise the simple rule “shape up or ship out”. They neither shape up, as consistently they fail to discern the Polish market is not malleable and will not alter to meet their expectations, nor have the courage to divest of the defiant business which totally does not fit the rest of the corporation. Customers are lost, profits are shrinking and prospects of turnaround are miniscule, because the organisation is so big that the decisions as effect of which the company could get up from its knees would have to be taken by decision makers who could not point Poland at the map, not to mention basic understanding of peculiarities of the Polish market. Thus my job is dead-end, but owing to inertia of overgrown corporations I will hold it down for a while. In the meantime I keep looking for a better one, mindful of the risk of falling out of a frying pan into the fire. As long as I am not redundant, the pressure is limited. And if they decide to fire me, there is golden parachute waiting for me by the end of this year. If it accompanies the lay-off, putting me out of misery looks like an appealing option.

Offline

Went through an involuntary Internet-rehab over the last week. The extent of the therapy wasn’t actually full, as I had access to most websites at work, but access to private e-mail, blogs, bank and brokerage accounts, allegro or facebook is blocked there, hence I was devoid of some entertainments offered by the Web. Truth be told I didn’t miss surfing the Net much, so it seems I’m not addicted to it(yet), but having no access to the Internet is inconvenient. I couldn’t read nor comment on any blogs, I couldn’t speculate in stocks, paying bills on-line was impossible, I didn’t know how my friends were keeping. Maybe the reason why I didn’t miss it much was that I had to work overtime over the week and back at home I wouldn’t have found much time to turn the computer on anyway. In fact my notebook was switched off for five days (antivirus software warnings of outdated protection popped up immediately), for the first time since September 2009…

The reason for being cut off the rest of the world was a defective Huawei (pron. ch**owy) modem delivered by Cyfrowy Polsat (hereinafter: CP). Buying their services was a memorable rough ride, but using it was all downhill since then. Until it worked…

The Chinese modem (piece of sh*t) began to spin out of control in November. It developed a despicable habit of disconnecting and reconnecting whenever it felt like doing so. This was a bit annoying, but I put up with this, as it didn’t impede much using the Internet. On 5 December it also began to transfer data at its discretion. Over the previous week most of time it didn’t upload nor download any data, but at times it roused up and did its job, until it went into a stand-by mode again. Last Saturday I went with it to several shops of CP, but none had any other modem to lend to us for the time of the repair. Finally an assistant recommended us to skip the intermediation of CP’s customer service and turn directly to Huawei repair centre, located in Piaseczno, who should check the modem off-hand and fix it overnight.

On Sunday, just after publishing the post on the blog, my modem gave up the ghost for good. My father took the modem to the repair centre on Monday. They promised to check it overnight and get in touch as soon as possible. They hung back on contacting us, so my father called them on Tuesday. They replied the modem was broken down beyond repair and under warranty would be replaced for a new one, free of charge. Unfortunately they had just run out of the devices and waited for the delivery of new ones. We called them for a few consecutive days and asked them when they expected the delivery. Finally on Friday they blatantly declared Christmas was coming and the new supply wouldn’t come in by the end of the year. The sods there didn’t give a shit about the fact that their customer would have to stay offline for some four weeks and pay the monthly fee for the Internet connection as usual. Shocked by the insolence of the repair centre I demanded my modem back, but it turned out it wasn’t an easy task for the sods to reverse the order which was being effected. I saw red, but despite having my blood pressure sent rising, I quickly realised they couldn’t do it to me. I was the owner of the modem and the sods could not seize my belongings, so I threatened to sue them for stealing my stuff. It worked. I called my father and he picked it up, together with the repair report, in the meantime I arranged borrowing another modem from CP shop in Piaseczno. My father did me a favour, handled the complaint procedure again and brought the lent modem home.

On Friday evening (or night) I returned home late from a corporate X-mas booze-up, additionally I looked like a drowned rat, as the pouring down rain left me totally sodden. Sodden and moderately befuddled, I didn’t feel capable of operating technical devices, so I decided to plug in the borrowed modem on Saturday. On Saturday I made an attempt to use the device, but it also turned out defective. The modem from CP shop lacked drivers and software and my computer couldn’t detect the content of its internal disk. I drove (no hangover so I assumed alcohol level in my blood was negligibly low) to CP’s shop and asked there to transfer modem drivers and CP software to my pendrive. I had to go there twice because for the first time they had given me the wrong software (from a different modem) and at last I needed to call CP customer service helpline to get the support in installing it…

Now it works, but things haven’t straightened out yet. I don’t how long my modem will be under repair, I don’t know if the opinion of the repair centre will be the same and if the new one will work properly. Right now I’m thinking how to get back on CP for the quality of their customer service. I’m not vindictive towards people, but powerful corporations that mistreat their customers must not go unpunished and their sins won’t be absolved. What sort of compensation should I demand? I don’t need apologies, they’re duty bound to provide me with a new modem under warranty, but how about claiming exemption from monthly Internet connection charges? Am I entitled?

Two readers marked my previous post as “well-argued / clear”, so a quick follow up – I’m still emotionally unstable and the magnitude of instability is very volatile.

Maybe due to what I described last week I’ve become disturbingly indifferent to current political and economic issues. I wasn’t focused the outcomes of EU summit held on 8 and 9 December, sovereignty marches staged on 30th anniversary of declaring martial law haven’t impressed me (my take on the martial law hasn’t changed since two years), nor did the end of Polish presidency to the EU. Yesterday in the evening, back online I found out stock markets are poised for a very bearish Christmas period (technical analysis and macro factors back this scenario) and may hit this year’s new low by the end of the year. Cesaria Evora and Vaclav Havel passed away - happens

I let things drift, every destiny should be fulfilled.

What no man can own, no man can take.
(U2, Yahweh)

You miss too much these days if you stop to think
(U2, Until the end of the world)

The two quotations reverberate in my mind and emerge from an enormous tangle occupying my head and giving way to clear thinking only when I concentrate at work or drive a car.

I let things drift, let the destiny fulfil itself.

Next week – another follow up to the story of my ex-classmate.

Student SGH vs. omnipotent bureaucracy – three short stories.

All presented in a bit weird way – as timelines…

Case 1 – Master’s thesis

September 2009 – I took a decision to complete all courses on Master’s studies within three semesters, rather than within four, as it is was set out in curriculum of studies.

July 2010 – To achieve the goal I began writing my Master’s thesis, with a view to submit it as early as possible and part company with my ignoble school.

12 October 2010 – I submitted a Master’s seminar application in the student office (dziekanat). I had a choice either to take two seminars in one semester (technically feasible) or do the first part of the seminar over the third semester and the second over the fourth semester. I opted for the latter to give myself a safety buffer in case I couldn’t make it in the allotted time, having in mind that it would put back a date of my Master’s exam.

5 January 2011 – I made it. Master’s thesis was prepared and approved by the supervisor.

16 February 2011 – I visited the student office to submit the Master’s seminar application for the second semester. Rules and regulations of studying clearly stipulate a student is obliged to do this within first two weeks of each semester. Despite this I was rebuffed and told not to show up there before I got the credit for the previous semester… Procedures clashed with the overwhelming system…

11 March 2011 – Having logged in to my account in SGH’s IT system I found out I had become a fourth semester student…

16 March 2011 – I finally submitted the hapless application, but was instructed not to put my thesis through an anti-plagiarism system, as, according to student office worker, the system was not ready to deal with theses uploaded by last semester student. I was also told to do this next week. Slightly bemused I postponed the process of checking if I wasn’t a copycat.

23 March 2011 – Same old story. Again I was ordered to wait for one more week.

30 March 2011 – I couldn’t leave the office earlier, so around midday I simply called the student office. I talked with another worker who told me I had been misinformed and the system had always been operational. Delay was then two weeks (or six weeks, if I was to count in the delay in accepting Master’s seminar applications)

31 April 2011 – I waded through all regulations concerning submitting Master’s thesis. One of quite bizarre ones was that it was not the student whose duty was to submit the thesis and several attachments by the supervisor in the flesh. I contacted the supervisor and asked him when he could go with me to the student office and handle all formalities. The only possible date was next Monday, around midday.

1 April 2011 – I took a day off at work (tapping my paid holidays) to wrangle with my beloved school.

2 April 2011 – I put the thesis through anti-plagiarism system, printed out the thesis and dozens of attachments, had my thesis bound, arranged a meeting with my supervisor.

4 April 2011 – I went to my supervisor’s work, where he were supposed to meet, unfortunately he couldn’t go out of the office, so he signed all documents and wrote at the back of an envelope a power of attorney for me to submit the thesis and attachments on his behalf. He pointed out the requirement that the supervisor was to do the job was virtually dead. Half an hour later, at school, he was proved wrong. The school followed all procedures… The whole day went down the drain.

13 April 2011 – My supervisor and I finally made it to the student office together and submitted the thesis and all documents. A student office worker, the one who had misinformed me, refused to confirm the receipt of the thesis and attachments and told us not to change workings of her always perfect office. I was also rebuked for reproaching the office over being open only three hours a day in hours inconvenient for working students – I was told to choose either to work and study on weekends or to quit the job and study in day-time mode.

Since then I have received credit for my Master’s seminar and my thesis has been handed over to a reviewer. According to the regulations, he has one month to review the thesis. If he doesn’t he won’t be penalised in any way. And this is the worst – for such misconduct or neglect of duties people should be fined. A fine of 1,000 PLN would make them meet deadlines… Of course now I don’t know when the reviewed thesis will be returned to student office and when the date of final exam will be set, but somehow I don’t hope for the best…

Cases 2 – Driving licence

9 May 2006 – My first medical check-up. A doctor came to a driving school, charged 100 PLN, asked if I was healthy and checked my eyesight. My glasses then weren’t powerful enough and I was prescribed a temporary driving licence, valid five years.

January 2011 – my driving licence was to expire on 9 May 2011 so I took first steps to find out what to do to have it prolonged. I had to do a medical check-up and obtain a doctor’s certificate with no counter-indications for driving. In a health centre I was told to wait until I got a health-care package from my employer to bring down the costs…

14 April 2011 – a real struggle began. I made several call to several health centres. In each I was told to do a different check-up, to visit different doctors, some even wanted to send me to a psychiatrist. I tried to do the whole thing at work and one colleague from different department, who overheard to whole conversation (another ‘advantage’ of open plans) told me to go to a doctor from a chain of health centres at which my bank purchased packages for employees. She said that doctor did the whole job even in transport department of my gmina, so what she said sounded like rubbish. Eventually, after find it out which examination I needed to have done, I was left with the choice either to go to a private health centre 500 metres near my house or to have the check-up in Warsaw. In both centres prices were prohibitive and nothing was included in my package. The case was, however, that according to new transport law I had to have level of glucose in my blood checked and this had to be done on empty stomach. The health centre in Warsaw did it only in the afternoon, so I plumped for early hours on Thursday, 21 April and took another paid day off.

21 April 2011 – I reported to the nearby health centre. On the door I saw the sticker advertising medical services provided in partnership with the chain of health centres I have my health care package with. To my surprise two out of three check-ups were covered by my employer and I only had to pay 70 PLN instead of 149 PLN. One nice surprise. I had my driving licence prolonged by ten years. In the transport department things went on quite smoothly, after queuing up for some forty minutes. After forking out 154 PLN and tapping a day off I wait for a new driving licence, which I won’t probably pick up before my old one expires, but this is really a minor issue.

Case 3 – Cyfrowy Polsat (this one dedicated to Scatts)

1 October 2009 – after terminating the contract on Neostrada we bought a subscription to Play Online Mobile Internet and wished it delivered a better service than Tepsa…

2010 – Play Online sucked… Couldn’t wait to the end of the contract. They declared the maximum connection speed would be 1 Mbps. Actual speed reached in peak hours around 60 kbps, as much as on my first dial-up modem in 2001…

March 2011 – I researched mobile operators’ mobile internet offers. I ruled out Play out of hand, then what three main mobile operators offered didn’t seem interesting and in the light of the fact their networks were already congested even off-putting. Once I found a leaflet advertising Cyfrowy Polsat, checked their page in the internet and settled on their plan 3 GB + 9 GB for 50 PLN. I told about it my parents and my father, after he heard the name of our new provider, immediately hatched the idea of buying the internet connection bundled with satellite television.

2 April 2011 – my father and I set off to the nearest shop of Cyfrowy Polsat in Piaseczno. It was supposed to be open on Saturday from 9:00 am. We arrived there at five past nine and it was closed. We hung around for 40 minutes and the owner failed to turn up. I called CP’s customer service and heard they couldn’t help it as this was an outlet run under franchise contract and the closure was its owner’s business… Back home I found the old leaflet which contained the number of CP’s sales representative. He agreed to visit us at home and came around some two hours later. A man in his 50’s seemed to have had problems finding a better job and was forced to foist CP upon people. Clunky but honest, he didn’t persuade us to buy a mobile phone with CP, nor to order extra TV packages. Having acquainted with offer we plumped for internet + sat TV bundle and placed an order. The rep was to hand over the order to a technician who would be supposed to contact us and deliver a satellite dish, a decoder and internet devices.

14 April 2011 – till then nobody got in touch with us. My father called the rep, who said he had forgotten about the order, but promised to mend his ways.

15 April 2011 – the technician called and said he would turn up with equipment and contracts the other day. He told us to wait all day long for him because he didn’t knew when he would be able to come…

16 April 2011 – a quarter before nine the technician called to let us know he would be in ten minutes. My father told firmly the technician and his assistant would start installing the dish only after he finished reading the contract. Ten minutes upon their arrival technician were drilling holes in the wall of our house and my father handed me the contract and attachments to read it, as he didn’t… The contract included two factual errors (wrong prices), three understatements and lacked all attachments. I called the customer service of CP, learnt they have three lines, one for TV subscribers, one for internet and mobile phone subscribers and one for potential clients. Having talked to seven consultants after forty minutes I established I was right to have deemed the contract flawed. In the meantime the technician mistook the cardinal points and drilled four holes in the western wall of our house, which turned out not to be the southern wall. The holes remained but Mr technician did not give up and decided to fix the satellite dish to the existing aerial mast with terrestrial TV and radio aerials. He accidentally dismantled my FM aerial which provided excellent signal to my Hi-fi system, my father didn’t bother because the thought this aerial was totally superfluous. Finally we ended up with not signed contracts, satellite dish hung and wires attached to the outer wall and pulled into the drawing room. An hour after the technician left wires came off the wall. The rest of the day was spent on fixing the wire back to the wall and laying it under baseboards in the drawing room.

21 April 2011 – they came again, installed everything and now it even works.

Internet connection, compared to Play Online works like a miracle, TV is OK, hope further dealings with customer service will not be a pain in the neck…

Problems always around

Everyone has them and it can’t be helped. For PO-voters these are mistrust, bureaucracy and limiting civil liberties, for PiS-voters conspiracies, manipulations, ookwud, lies, distortions, dependence. For PSL-voters privileges in pension system, for SLD-voters social welfare privileges. For one of the readers of this blog a key problem are gay rights. Everyone has different priorities, some are serious, other not even worthwhile. And finally we should draw a thick line between the serious and diminutive ones.

Look at what has been making the headlines for the last weeks. Actually there are two topics: accursed presidential campaign and the flood. Under the former ten candidates run for the office of the head of state, but only two of them stand a real chance to win. Many Poles are put on the spot and can’t settle on who to vote for. For many educated and open-minded ones none of the two candidates has making of an outstanding stateman. Many voters will put a cross against Mr Komorowski only to prevent comeback of Kaczynski’s presidency. A funny sacrifice – choose lesser of two evils just not to face a disaster. Choose a mediocre one just to fend off the mistrustful one. I made a decision to not to vote for Mr Komorowski in the first round. I have a certain vision of Poland and its president so I’ll vote for Mr Olechowski even if he’s going to get two per cent of votes.

The former is much worse. Candidates put on their shiny shoes and stroll around the embankments built of sandsacks. They come and go and the flooded are left with their problems, damaged houses, washed away belongings and no hope for the future. Whenever my thoughts are with them I discern how negligible everything what bothers me is. I have no reason to be unhappy – I’m healthy, quite well-off, study for taxpayers’ money at one of allegedly best schools of economics, I got a decently-paid job, my future prospects seem bright despite the wobbly labour market.

Yesterday I rode home a 709 bus and almost lost my temper listening to a conversation between two stupid teenagers for whom the biggest problem was what to wear for a Friday party. The generation pampered by welfare is unable to distinguish between real problems and what we make up whenever we don’t have real problems. Did they think about people whose houses collapsed in a landslide on Ursynów escarpment? Did they think about tens or hundreds of local residents whose houses in Jeziorki, Pyry or Nowa Iwiczna were flooded?

We help the flooded and the hype is over we forget, they have to carry on and their trauma lasts months or years. On Sunday TVN Warszawa crew was in Jeziorki to film houses under water. Yesterday they turned up to my school alerted by the students appalled by a recent scandal that had broken at SGH. I usually advocate the system which gives students a lot of freedom, but somehow it also creates anarchy, dilutes responsibility and secures jobs for the untouchable academic staff. The problem is that rule of law is not what can be observed at SGH. The untouchable do whatever they want, are not familiar with what they deal with and make flawed decision that wind up students and waste their efforts. That chaos has reached its ultimate limits – incensed students decided to contact TVN Warszawa and TOK FM to let the rest of the world know their university is run (partly) by incompetent people. Just try to imagine – you complete a course, pass exam in it and then you find out it has been deleted, God knows why exactly. Watch the footage I’m linking to above, read the article in today’s Gazeta Stołeczna. This is not the first time such things happen and not the first time we tell on our authorities to media just to claim our rights.

Beware, there are two sides of the story. On there is a totally incompetent Mrs Dean who cocks up everything she does and shirks responsibility for the mess she creates. Mrs Dean is accompanied by an incompetent spokesman, both have no idea what’s going on around, what’s in the curriculum and even where the heart of the problems lies. On the other side there are some other representatives of school’s authorities and student council who pull all-nighters to straighten the matter out – it’s always heartening. I deeply believe everything will shape up and students won’t have to get credits in many courses once again. The courses will be returned to their study documentations but the problem will actually be swept under the carpet. In private company someone responsible for such a mess would be fired right away. In a state-run university guilty of this mayhem won’t be dismissed, heads won’t roll as they should. We have plenty of untouchable, complacent people and “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” system under which pathologies thrive…

There’s always a glimmer of hope – reporters of “hostile” media want to pay attention to students’ problems. Unfortunately I couldn’t be present at the rally they filmed as I had to attend another event (look out for my name in Monday’s Gazeta Wyborcza, insert Gazeta Praca), but I wish I could have been there – there should be no indifference and no tolerance for professional misconduct…

Come to think of it – look at your tribulations, put yourself in a certain perspective, don’t get carried away, life’s too short to worry about trifles…

A small ticket and mounting troubles

Actually I don’t know what prompted me to buy a ticket for my father in a ticket machine rather than in a civilised way – at newsagent’s or somewhere else. It wasn’t the first time I did it, but for the first time the machine spewed out a totally illegible ticket. The situation took place on Wednesday but I put back taking any action to deal with the flawed ticket until yesterday.

Characters of this drama:
L1 = Lady no. 1, from a Passenger Service Point at Metro Centrum station
L2 = Lady no. 2, from a Polish Mint consumer service office at Metro Świętokrzyska station
L3 = Lady no. 3, from a Central Passenger Service Point at Metro Świętokrzyska station.
BU = the main character, student SGH (predictably)

I decided to head for the nearest Urban Transport Authority “Passenger Service Point”, situated on Metro Centrum station and complain about the illegible (blank) ticket.

BU: Good morning, I bought this funny illegible ticket and I would like to return it and get my money back.
L1: Where did you buy it?
BU: In a ticket machine, at Pole Mokotowskie station.
L1: In a yellow ticket machine or in a blue-grey one?
BU: (after a second thought) In a blue-grey one.
L1: Those machines are not ours (UTA’s), they belong to Polish Mint, they have their customer service office at Metro Świętokrzyska station, complain there, not here.
BU: (a bit confused) Thank you, good bye.

I had some time to waste so I got into the first train that had arrived and five minutes later I was opening the door to Polish Mint’s office.

BU: Good morning, I bought this funny ticket in your machine at Pole Mokotowskie station. It is illegible and I want to return it and get a refund.
L2: It is not our ticket! We cannot take it from you and give you a refund. You should ask Urban Transport Authority for it.
BU: I just left their customer service office, they told me to report to you, because the ticket was printed in your machine so it is your fault.
L2: Alright, we will not give you a refund, but here you have a piece of paper (giving me an A-4 format form full of blanks) and if you wish, please write a complaint.
BU: And what will happen if I fill in all those gaps and blanks?
L2: Nothing, we will reply to it within a week.
BU: But how will you get in touch with me? And how will you give me my money back?
L2: I don’t know, you will get in touch with us, or whatever.
BU: Good bye (or shove it!).

I wasn’t that hot under the collar as you think and marched into another Urban Transport Authority office, located around twenty metres away and obediently queued up, behind other passengers, most of whom were waiting to pick up their new personalised travelcards. I quickly noticed ticket returns are handled just in one counter.

BU: Good morning, I bought this ticket in a ticket machine, it is illegible so I want to return it.
L3: Where exactly did you buy it?
BU: In Polish Mint’s machine, at Pole Mokotowskie station.
L3: I see… (on the phone) Krysiu, what do we do with those illegible ticket, I have another dissatisfied client over there?
Great, did you validate it?
BU: Of course not, if I had validated it, I wouldn’t have come here.
L3: It is unused then, it boost your chances to have your ticket accepted.

Then a woman used a device ticket inspectors use to control tickets and checked if it really wasn’t used.

L3: Alright, here you have your good ticket
BU: But I have already bought such a ticket, I don’t need another one.
L3: That’s a different story, I have to ask my manager.

She headed to a back office and after a minute came back with a pile of papers

L3: Here you have five forms. Please fill them all in and in thirty minutes you will get your refund.

I looked at my watch, then at queue behind me…

BU: Can I get that ticket?

After all that ticket one day will come in useful…

If you think it really unnerved me, you’re far from truth. I found the whole vicissitudes quite hilarious. I’ll tell you more, Urban Transport Authority’s workings are a hundred times better than bureaucracy at my university. Ticket office ladies were absolutely customer-friendly, competent and the standard of treating a client is incomparably better that at SGH. SGH toughens up and such dealings as described above are a sheer pleasure!

After the whole event I attended a lecture in monetary policy given by professor Andrzej Sławiński. It was one of those moments when a teacher prompted thoughts about education system.

Why sometimes you can learn more during one lecture given by an excellent lecturer than during a semester-long course delivered by a dull one?

Why some lecturers can grab students’ attention and make them hang on every word they say for ninety minutes, when others need just five minutes to put students to sleep or trigger a headache?

Why some lecturers talk to the students and others talk their arse off and say nothing?

Why some lecturers require a lot from themselves and from their students and others take the path of least resistance, that is “I’ll pretend to teach you something, you’ll pretend to learn it, at the end of the term I’ll give you good mark and everyone will be happy”?

Why some lecturers can explain complex issues in a plain way and others can confound even simple matters?

Why some lecturers can infect students with passion to explore and encourage them to challenge teachers and others want students to keep their mouths shut?

Why the most knowledgeable scholars often deprecate their wisdom and the mediocre ones put on airs?

And at last, why do dull lecturers prevail and those akin to Mr Sławiński are few and far between?

Red tape – a student’s bogey...

After the morning trip to my school, took almost in vain. In vain I deluded myself that I’d manage to fix a date of my BA final exam (PL: obrona – deliberately I don’t translate in literally, the words ‘defence’ and ‘defend oneself’ sound confusingly). It can be done only after all lecturers deliver the exam protocols to the dean’s office, what in my case won’t occur earlier than on 30th June (all the attempts of speeding up the process were fruitless). Then I'll have to wait for Pani Małgosia to tap the grades into the internal system and then close down the last semester and give me a credit. Yesterday I talked with the friend of mine, who studies at UMK in Toruń. For no apparent reason she doesn’t have her MA thesis graded by the supervisor (PL: promotor) nor reviewed, but has the date of her final exam already set for 14th July. I finished writing my thesis in February, had it graded in March and put it in on 5th May, I also know I’ve passed all exams and know the grades – doesn’t matter – I won’t catch through…

To boot, to receive the diploma, I’ll have to lay down my student card – that means I’ll be deprived of the status of student and all my rights (including discounts, mostly fare discounts) will be taken away from me for two months (August and September). But it’s going to shape up, it has to (either way I can also ship out, not recommendable).

The only formality I got on with was the clearance slip (PL: obiegówka), all the departments put their stamps on the card, so I’m clear with the school…

After a supposedly free week I suppose I fell victim to a procrastination (BTW – the next example of young Poles willing to show off with their English, they came up with the word ‘prokrastynacja’, instead of calling it simply ‘zwlekanie’) not in terms of learning but other stuff to handle. I put everything what could wait back to these weeks in the second half of June, so I’m still running errands – good for me – I never could spend my time idle, at least I’ll enter the second half of the year without a ‘list of things to do’ piled up relentlessly . Although the final exam and bureaucracy which enrolment on MA studies involves won’t let me have such quiet summer holidays like last year (combining internships and learning English).

SGH authorities should think seriously about renaming our school into “Warsaw School of Officialdom” (Szkoła Główna Biurokratyczna). Candidates would know what they’d be in for, it would render the main thing student tussle with there – not learning but legwork, paperwork, getting to grips with WD, etc.