Working for Others

The representatives in a District Office for a Congressman busy themselves communicating with other parts of the federal government on behalf of the constituents of the 9th Congressional District. Needless to say this creates quite the job for the person sitting at the front desk answering the phones, aka the interns. The representatives have a responsibility to work for everyone for two reasons. One, this is the purpose of representatives of Congress to, yes you guessed it, represent people in their district. Second, if they do not do their job effectively then the Congressman does not get reelected. One of the things that makes the jobs of those in the district office harder is the constituents themselves. Congressman Cohen's phone number is readily available to the public and thus anyone can call him with any problem whether he deals with it or not. As the person answering the phones, you have to extract the information out of the rant that begins promptly after you ask "How can I help you?" That completed, you then have to direct a person to the proper channels whether inside the office or out. Well sometimes, on occasion people from both inside and outside the Congressman's District will call simply to rant and inform "Steve, their old friend" about how they support his position on the legalization of marajuana, or think he needs to get working for the people because he has not been doing anything.

Once a person's message has been recorded or they have been transferred, an intern can breath easy and focus on another task, such as data entry. However, the issues with that constituent have just begun. The representatives are often frustrated by "repeat customers" and those that flat out lie to them. It is the right of every American to seek help from their representatives, but seeking out things that are not rightfully yours creates issues for the representatives and brings a very negative air to the office. While working for others is a good and noble goal, it can be very difficult, especially because you have to trust the information that is given to you at face value and trust that information to be complete until you are farther into the process of helping them.