The other day my man found some rather personal and important papers for a young lady while walking around the block. Included in this stack was a checkbook and a packet of WIC information along with active WIC checks for food. Now, WIC is a government-run program which provides families with the ability to get some basic food items such as milk, cheese, and cereal as well as infant formula. We thought it was rather important to get this information back to this young lady but the checkbook did not have a phone number listed.
The following day I attempted to reach out to the local WIC office whose information was stamped on the back of the packet. A lady named Barbara told me that she could not provide the client with my name and phone number becuase it was a confidentiality issue. Stumped, I asked her to clarify.
"Due to confidentiality agreements we have in place, I am unable to provide your information to her."
"You mean you can't give her contact information to me." I corrected. "But I'm not asking you to. I'm asking you to have her call me so that I can make sure she gets her information back."
"Yes, ma'am, I understand that; however, due to confidentiality, I will not be able to give that information to her."
"But, I'm giving you permission to hand out my phone number. How is that a breach of confidentiality?"
"Ma'am, I can only tell you that I can't break confidentiality on this issue. But if you could come by..."
This wasn't a confidentiality issue, it was a lazy issue. Point blank. I ended the conversation abruptly with the woman, having too much to do in my day to waste precious moments dissecting the confidentiality issue.
That night, my neighbor attempted to locate the woman by the address left on the checks but to no avail - no one was home.
The next day, I discussed it with my man and we decided we would just mail the information to the WIC center. A few days passed while I tried to wrangle my unbelievably busy life, leaving the packet of information still unmailed.
Yesterday, I received a call from a different woman from WIC asking if I'd had a chance to mail the information. No, I had not, I explained.
She repeatedly attempted to relay how important it was to get this information back to the rightful owner and could I possibly bring it to the office today.
I relented that I could try to bring it by at lunch or after work. That wouldn't do apparently, as she tried to encourage me to drop it off in the morning since their offices opened at 7:30am. I don't think I've ever woken up early enough to provide ample time for leisurely strolls about the city, so the morning would not do for me.
I told the woman that I would come by at lunch; however, if I couldn't break away it would be after my day ended at 4:00pm.
Today I attempted to drop the stuff off, but the parking is atrocious and I soon found myself out of time and patience.
As I was leaving the county complex, I called and left the woman I'd spoken with just yesterday a lengthy message explaining how I was completely irritated that I had had to go out of my way to try to reach out to this poor girl to get her information back to her and was blocked at every turn while the government facility tried to make it my responsibility to get their client's private matters back to her. And then I let her know that, in fact, if it was such a confidentiality issue to provide the girl with my contact information, then the WIC employee had broken that very rule when she called me the day before without my permission to do so.
Needless to say it only took a few moments to get a return call. During this time, the woman (Christy) tried to tell me that she had informed me that it was not that they couldn't give the client my information, but that they couldn't share her information with me. That information was NEVER relayed to me during either the call with Christy or the original call I had placed to their facility. And quite frankly, duh...I'm not a moron, but apparently Ol' Barb is. I had tried and tried to get Barbara to understand during that first conversation I'd had with them. Then Christy informed that initially they were in fact going to give the girl my information but that since she'd had some things stolen, she wanted to talk with me direclty about where I found her belongings so they hadn't given my information to her yet. Umm...anybody else confused by this statement? Then why didn't they give her my information? They already had my name and phone number as well as my express permission to give it to her. Wow...
We ended the phone call abruptly when I, again, lost my patience with the woman who was desperately trying to pin some misguided fault on me and exonerate her employees for being too lazy to help a girl out who is a client of theirs so they can help her out.
Sad, really.
So, I'm sending the stuff return receipt, signature required for two reasons:
1. I have a trail should the information not make it back to the client's hands.
2. There's no way I can be held liable should they try to blame me for anything.
