Comment by emmanuel_1234
2 years ago
Working in France, I remember having to provide a "Scan of an original of Bank Account information slip" (approximate translation). It's just a number! That I could have copy/pasted in an email to make sure the secretary won't fuck it up, or I could download the document from my bank and email it, but no, HR insisted it had to be an original.
I eventually downloaded one from my bank, converted it to JPEG, added a light coffee stain with Gimp and sent that, to pretend it was an actual scan of an actual document actually printed by the bank.
> I eventually downloaded one from my bank
Had the same experience, but that I could not do, as my bank would only give out some crude Netscape era HTML laid out with a borderless <table>, that might just as well have been plain text. I literally had to fake something that looked like a pretty paper one, complete with the bank cooler palette and slapping a semi-transparent logo in the background.
Another marvel: once I received some paperwork, and was asked to sign and scan, which I did.
I had a nice scanner. It produced perfectly noise free, upright scans. I had a nice pen. It produced very clean scripture.
Apparently too nice as the recipient lectured me that I had to print, physically sign, and scan, that they could not accept a digital signature on a digital document. The fact that I received the paperwork on actual paper by snail mail and never could have had access to a digital version completely eluded them.
That almost made me nostalgic for the French love of paperwork. 'La paperasse' I seem to recall. Watching an official in action is like performance art.
It's probably the same in other countries, but some day I did rent a field to plant some vegetables and run a small business. Every single day for one entire month I had to fill forms, sign papers, ask the field owner to give me some random information queried by some french institutions related to : nature, forest, ecology, commerce, entreprenership, business, water, rental etc.. Most of the time the field owner had to go to the "mairie" of his town to get the proper informations which would contact other services (--recursively) so I could get the information that I need to fill the forms. I am pretty sure the field owner has administration-related PTSD if he sees me again.
If you think the French love paperwork, try Japan!