Occasionally, there are perks to working in the media.
That became apparent last week after I received a call from a research company working for ICBC that wanted me to participate in a survey related to a recent car accident I was involved in.
Basically, the research firm wanted to ask me questions around how ICBC handled my claim, and if I was happy with the service.
The surveyor called a number of times, explaining it would take no more than five to 10 minutes, but I was busy with other things each time and suggested she call back when I had the opportunity to talk to her.
Secretly, I hate surveys and I hoped that they would move on to some other accident victim to do their research.
But they called again on a Saturday so I decided I might as well bite the bullet and get it over with.
The first question the surveyor asked was whether I, or any of my family members, work for ICBC, to which I answered “no”.
The second questioned asked was whether I worked for the media.
I informed the surveyor that, in fact, I worked as a newspaper reporter.
She quickly said “thank you for your time” and hung up.
I can’t say I was really surprised as these kinds of conversations typically provide great ideas for the types of columns that you’re reading right now, and the last thing agencies like ICBC look for is to provide fodder for people like me to talk about.
It’s not the first time this type of situation has happened to me.
About 15 years ago, I was randomly picked for jury duty in Nanaimo.
Jury duty is mandatory and time consuming for most people, but there’s little you can do about it other than to hope the judge and lawyers find you too loopy to participate in a trial.
My biggest concern was how much time it would take from my job. It turns out I didn’t have to worry about it.
When I went to the Nanaimo courthouse at the designated time for jury selection for some trial I never had the opportunity to know about, I was told by security at the front door that I was cut from the jury list.
The security guard said someone had called my home (while I was at work, of course) that morning to tell me not to bother to show up for jury selection, but he had no explanation as to why.
Being a reporter, and also rather curious, I said that I wanted to check this out with some higher official, but the guard wouldn’t even let me in the door.
He politely gave me the name and number of some official to call for the information I was seeking.
I never made that call because I feared that I would inadvertently talk myself into being on the jury on another trial.
To this day, I have never been called on for jury duty again, and now I find out that, as a result of the work I do, I don’t even have to participate in ICBC’s satisfaction surveys.
Being a newspaper reporter can be frustrating at times, especially these days when the industry is struggling, but I still find it can be rewarding in many ways.
Being exempt from many tedious but seemingly unavoidable activities seems to be one of them.
robert.barron@cowichanvalleycitizen.com
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