Experiencing civil servants

The media, including sitcoms on television, often portray various front-line goverment services as having long wait times and surly, uncaring personnel. This has not been my experience, which previously was mostly in Ohio and more recently has been with Oak Ridge's city services and Tennessee's driver services. Since my arrival people have varied from being businesslike, but still informed and efficient, to being positively friendly. To take the most recent examples, my driving examiner was positively jolly, a clerk he was working with apologized for what was a rather short wait, and the guy setting up some of my public utilities accounts today was happy to tell me all he could about what I should know as a new resident. I have often found myself feeling grateful for civil servants being a pleasure to deal with.