No it's not a joke. And in Australia dental technicians don't even have registration, so anyone can do it basically. There are no rules about lab sheets, but yes I normally would not proceed without knowing all the details.
Not that it has anything to do with my original question but this incident occurred at Christmas time. The dentist gave me 24 hours to deliver this case starting at lunchtime. It was not booked in and he gave me two other cases as well, also not booked in. I had other work to finish so when I got to the point of needing to 'have a conversation with him', it was 2am. It never even occurred to me that it might not be a PFM, as we had discussed several cases but I was not aware that he had said anything about this one. I didn't notice there was no shade until I went to put the opaquer on. Every time I ring and ask for the shade he says the same thing (C3) because he can't remember himself.
I'm not stupid, I was tired and under extreme pressure. He was pushing hard and there were only a couple of days left to go. He cracked the ****s because I charged him full fee for both the PFM and the subsequent FGC I had to make. I busted my arse to get all the work completed and was not responsible for the lack of information. He said he told me that it was a FGC but I thought he was referring to another case (which was) and he said I should have recognised that it was, by the appearance of the preparation. Which I think is absolute garbage and the biggest joke coming from someone who's work is so **** that it all looks the same. There you go, now you have the whole story.