Being underestimated by bureaucrats has its own sting. It is the soft, smiling kind of disrespect that hides behind corporate procedure. The clerk isn’t cruel, just convinced you’re some lost soul who needs a pamphlet about budgeting. It’s condescension gated behind glass. Most people swallow it, nod politely, and move on. Others might find quiet joy in waiting for the moment when the computer screen reveals a mortgage, a perfect credit score, or ten years of payments that say everything the face apparently didn’t.
