Only in government

Further proof that I no longer have a real job

Two weeks ago today I looked down and noticed that our phones weren't working. We lease space from an area nonprofit, so I gave the appropriate building contact a call. He said "I bet you're calling because you're phones I down. I unplugged them. We are going to sell that system. I'll plug them back in".

Some back story: a year ago the building installed a new phone system without any contact with us. We've been able to make outbound calls with it since then, but our inbound calls have continued to be received via the old system. We've talked to building management and the appropriate person in our organization (who works in another city) about this issue on multiple occasions, but it's never been resolved.

Well, apparently the old system is now down for the count. For the last two weeks, we have been unable to receive calls made to our office phone number. The only way to contact us is to call the building and then either be transferred or to punch in our extension. We do not have direct dials to our desk. Of course, essentially no one knows how to do this as all we ever give out is the office number (being me, I had provided the other method to my friends and family right after I started a year ago). The crazy thing is, our management, working out of another office, doesn't seem to be too concerned. Can you imagine if this happened at a real business? People would be fired, there would be talks of leases being broken, etc. Not when you're government. We, the employees, have naturally greatly enjoyed not receiving calls from the general public.

But wait, it gets better. One day last week we couldn't make any outbound calls either. We also found out that when you called the building it said "You have reached a number that has been disconnected or is no longer in service." We immediately reported the issue, and it was fixed in an hour or two. The problem? The building hadn't paid its phone bill in 3 months! The maintenance person was on medical leave, their finance person quit/got fired, etc. It's a very interesting place.