Modern Man

You can’t turn on your television or radio these days with out hearing about the economy.  Unemployment is at its worst in decades and getting worse. Millions of people are out of work.

This makes me wonder several things, of which I plan on discussing, but only one at a time.

Today, it’s “Customer Service”.

For as long as I can remember, I have been displeased with the level of customer service I usually receive. More often than not, service stinks. Doesn’t matter where you are. People don’t smile. They’re rude, lazy, incompetent, or just plain don’t care.

When things are booming and businesses struggle to find any employee, let alone good ones, I can cut them some slack. Having owned a business I know it was hard to find good help when there were a lot of options.

But now. There are very few options. Prospective workers are lining up for jobs and yet, the level of service I’m currently receiving, is still piss poor.

I have stated before that I apparently know very little about how the world really works because it defies common sense.

For one, being an employee that still has a job, I bust my ass to make sure I’m doing the best I can. I work longer. I do most anything asked of me, and I do it with a smile on my face. I know I can be replaced or just done away with. The art business is small and cut throat.

But from what I see at the local grocers, gas stations, restaurants and just about every where else I go, I’m doing it wrong.

Apparently you can be rude, lazy, incompetent or just not care and still keep your job.

Was there some kind of rule put in to effect that I missed, that says once you have a job you can’t lose it to someone that does it better?

At a time when the global economy is in the toilet, I expect customer service to improve exponentially to the number of people looking for work.

Customer Service on a 1 to 10 scale:

World boom, not enough workers: I can live with a 4 to 6.(we still shouldn’t have to, but we can)

World economy in the toilet and double digit unemployment: I expect 8’s and 9’s.

I’m not getting more than 4 lately. Anywhere. Even the smallest effort from someone seems like they are exceptional compared to most.

Is this really all the better we have to offer?

It’s not my fault. You suck at your job. You didn’t plan ahead. I told you so all along. Why aren’t you doing more? Why can’t you fix things. It’s not my fault. I do every thing right.

I see this all the time.  We all like to point fingers and lay blame for all of our troubles. Politicians blame the other party. Worker blame managers. Managers blame workers. The tax payers blame the government. The government blames the terrorists…

Do you know what I never see or hear? Someone, any one, taking responsibility for their own actions. And why should they. We have dictated that in our society we are not to blame. Even if an action of our own doing gets us in trouble or hurt, hell, it’s someone else’s fault. Then there is usually a law suit or ten so the person truly at fault can milk money out of the person held accountable. Someone else.

It wasn’t wall streets fault the market sank. It wasn’t the big three auto makers fault their companies are failing. It’s not the CEO’s of corporate America that lead their companies to failure.

You get crappy service from a business, it’s not the fault of the employee’s, they don’t get paid enough to do a good job and work hard. Your kid got in trouble at school, it’s not his fault, it’s the other kids. Got caught speeding or running red lights, it’s not your fault. The other people don’t know how to drive or the city has rigged the lights to write more tickets. It’s not your fault. You robbed a convenience store or killed your family because you got laid off. It’s not your fault.

Wasn’t there a time in this country when people took responsibility for their own actions?  Where did that time go. When did the blame game start?

Life is pretty easy when we never do anything wrong. As long as there is always someone else to blame, we are not responsible. Don’t eventually, you run out of others to blame?

I for one am really tired of all of the blaming and irresponsibility.  I understand why it happens. No one wants to admit they might be wrong. It takes great strength to admit failure. It takes even more strength to claim responsibility for that failure.

The problem I see is that blaming others for our actions, keeps us from learning anything. We keep making the same mistakes, over and over.

I’m not seeing any alternatives either. With the accusation of fault, wouldn’t it be a good idea to offer an alternative plan to the one you are blaming for failure? It’s easy to point a finger, but then what? If you must criticize, how about hearing how you might do it better, instead of just how things are screwed up.