Can you hear me now?

Two weeks ago, I let my employer know that the city's occupation tax had not been taken out of my paycheck ever. Today, the HR Rep came to me on Corporate's behalf asking me to check the first paystub of the year to confirm that it hadn't been taken out.

First; don't they have these records?

Second; didn't you hear me when I said that the occupation tax had NEVER been taken out of my paycheck? Not this year. Not last year. Not in 2003, 2002, 2001 or in 2000. What part of NEVER did you not understand? Are you even listening to the words that are coming out of my mouth? For every problem I have, I seem to have to explain it in detail two or three times before they seem to do anything about it. I'm speaking English here. I'm saying the same thing each time. Do you think I'm making this stuff up? Don't you believe me?

And I think I may have mentioned this before but whenever one of these issues come up, or any issue for that matter, when I explain it to the HR Representative, she gets a very distinctive expression. I don't know what she's really thinking but her face always seems to say, "How could you even think that there's a problem?" Her expression is so vacuous it's amazing she doesn't actually become transparent.

At first, I found this vapidity somewhat amusing but I've really grown tired of it. Especially because I have to explain myself again and again and noone seems to take these issues seriously.