You Run Into Stupid Everywhere You Look

One time, I was being interviewed by a young woman about a job.

Young Woman: “Where were you born?”

Me: “Tucumcari, New Mexico.”

Young Woman: “You’ll have to show your naturalization papers before you can apply for the job.”

Her supervisor and I had a good laugh after he made her look up New Mexico in the US atlas. I did not take the job because I had a very low tolerance for working with stupid people.

Another time, I had been working at a company for nine years. They had a policy of doing routine checkups of dependents to see if the lists needed to be changed. I submitted my list, which had not changed in five years. I got a call from the department saying that I had given the wrong first name for my wife.

Worker: “You gave the abbreviation of your first name, Charles, for your wife’s first name.”

Her name was translated from her native Korean to “Chae” in English. The name is listed that way on her citizenship papers. I finally had to talk to a supervisor to get her to accept my paperwork. By the way, Charles is abbreviated “Chas”.