Not a Good Time, not a Good Future
Many warning signs have been popping up with alarming frequency since I've returned home from the comfort of the Air Force military family. The economy here is getting worse and worse and has shown no signs of getting better. Not now, not soon.
The biggest blow today came to me whilst driving to meet two goode friends for a nice, evening meal. Gas prices are now in the whopping four-dollars-per-gallon range. I never even thought I'd be paying $3.00 per gallon; today I acquiesced (though more like tacitly, begrudgingly, tight-fisted-ly conceded) to $4.01 per the gallon. Out of both frugality and a heightened sense of urgency due to anxiety, I bothered not to fill my tank. I simply gave 'er half. I should probably be a bicyclist....
The second blow came during my sitting through traffic. As I sat there, worried about my engine and coolant and heat, I noticed that the ol' chronometer read 6:11. Why the rush hour-esque traffic so late in the evening? I came to the conclusion that it is due to people working longer hours. We have to squeeze those extra two hours in per day just to barely scrape by.
Dinner itself conjured up thoughts of the service industry and how there are too many telling signs therein. The waitress, Katie, was lovely; she was personable and cool and very friendly; I liked her. However, she was a little bit pushy. Pete felt she put a burden on us. As someone (shamedly) in the service industry, I empathized with her. The truth to her act soon made itself apparent as she made it known, herself. Turns out that the restaurant we went to was conducting call-in surveys on its servers. The waitress gave us the whole run-down and seemed a tad desperate for us to fill out the survey. She let us in on the dirty details; give nothing but '5's because anything else is automatically a '0.' She also seemed wary of her shift leader/manager, whom I noticed stalking the floor with a menacing glare.
It reminded me so much of the recent meeting at the MoS about "guest services." Basically, we are to treat every "guest" as a member of our family and donate blood and organs. The new service guidelines are so flawed and rested upon a flawed and--dare I say--illegitimate and corrupt institution. The Secret Shopper programme (the corrupt and illegitimate institution) is a Gestapo-like organization that sends laypeople out to different outlets--clothing & apparel stores, museums, restaurants, et cetera--and have them go on a small spending spree in order to "rate" the customer service experience. The various outlets actually pay secret shopper companies to conduct secret shopper operations on their premises in order to better wrangle their front-line employees. Number one, talk about entrapment. Number two, there is absolutely NO accountability with these secret shoppers. I've seen the adverts for hiring potential secret shoppers: "Say! You wanna' get PAID to SHOP at YOUR FAVORITE STORES??" Imagine the calibre of person that would answer such an ad and that is who is secret shopping.
Based on low scores, the MoS has been thrust into a panic mode on top of a panic mode. So they've implemented this offensive "Oz Principle" or some other such hokum. The Oz Principle is disgusting in every possible way. It uses the 1930s, fascist chic, Ayn Rand objectivist tale as an analogy to customer service. Basically, everything is the server's fault. There is no circumstance to fall back on. It isn't even an argument. Aggressive rhetoric like "own up to it" and "take responsibility" and "take accountability" is thrown all over the place. Basically, take ev'ry blow. 'Tis all for the sake of the "goal" or "result." The rhetoric works on two levels: 1) it makes one feel ashamed if they begin logically giving a causal account of any situation and 2) it tricks one into believing that it is somehow the more honourable thing to simply take the fall. I know how it works because I was in the military. No company is a military organization and they need to learn this.
The balance of power has been shifted so unfairly against the server that the customer has complete and total run over the server. There is nothing a customer cannot get away with. So, the new training involves "smiling" and "being more personable" and being a lobotomized automaton whilst people walk all over oneself. So now the server is subject to meeting mounting expectations for whining, complaining, self-indulgent, upper-middle-class snobs who feel entitled. I really wish I knew where these expectations come from; I, for one, have very low expectations of my servers. Why? I'm realistic and am human, so I can understand and empathize with other humans, so I know they're not working their dream job and honestly care not about me or what I think, so I'll just take what I want and be on my merry way. That is not a bad thing. That is a fair and reasonable way to look at it. People are not tools. People are human... and humans are animals. Unfortunately, somewhere, somehow, somewhen, somebody felt that they deserved more than they ought to as another human being.
I am digressing a bit....
All that boils down to the big scare. The service industry is in a panic because, as some will admit, attendance is at an all time low. Nobody's going anywhere anymore. I wonder why...? Maybe it's because we're in a shit economy! See, the '90s bubble was so good and so awesome! Every one could do every thing! People could afford not only necessities but also trips to a Museum, a decent restaurant, a movie and even splurge on some non-utilitarian clothing and accessories. Not so anymore. Now we are back to the days of ultimate choice. The line has boldly been drawn between "need" and "want." Any type of "want" is now chosen from a list. Can't have dinner and the movie. Gotta' choose! Unfortunately, that cuts participation and attendance down by a third and, in some cases, by half or more. When one surveys the average Bostonian, their choice comes down to saving up for one of the big games or splurging on the MoS. The game'll win every time. People can't be forced to participate.
Also, the truth about demographics becomes apparent. The workin' man can't afford to go certain places. Before he could get away with it every once so often; enough to garner good profits. Now he cannot. Only those with the well-enough incomes can afford to go to places with a high price of admission. This is where customer service gets interesting. The people with enough income are usually the worst people ever allowed to take part in capitalist society. The truth about these people, though, is that we're sorta' lucky to have 'em. These people want to spend money. After all, that is why they sell their souls for it! No matter how rude one could be to them, though they will huff and puff and make a lot of noise, they will drop their money. Because they can.
What's wrong, though, is that the noisy upper-middle-class snob gets the workin' man fired. There is no tolerance anymore. Why continue to pay a person with dignity slightly above minimum wage when you can pay a naïve immigrant below minimum wage and with greater success at control? The fear of losing a job is more effective against someone new to the country than to someone who knows his/her "inalienable human rights." Things like "continuity" and "turnover rate" are less important than things like "end of fiscal year profits" and "payroll."
Anyway, to get to the point, the services industry is in a panic about lack of high profits. The panic isn't about taking care of the entire oranization (read: the workers) but about maintaining the six figure salaries for the people who do none of the work. Instead of realizing it's the poor economy, they, instead, turn against their pillars.
So now we've got a terrible situation. People are working harder, for longer and still barely scraping by. Just when the workin' man thinks he's done enough to survive, the price of certain commodities increases again. This country is already tired, this coming after a whallop of an attack (yes, 9/11). Morale is low and getting lower. The next decade will see the end of the US as a major global player. We're too tired, we're too poor, we're too sick. If things fail to improve, the centre will not hold. Things'll fall apart. The pillar of a person's back can only bear so much of the burden. Will we even have enough energy to enjoy the good times when they come back?
Or will this just become the new standard of an exhausted ideal?
The biggest blow today came to me whilst driving to meet two goode friends for a nice, evening meal. Gas prices are now in the whopping four-dollars-per-gallon range. I never even thought I'd be paying $3.00 per gallon; today I acquiesced (though more like tacitly, begrudgingly, tight-fisted-ly conceded) to $4.01 per the gallon. Out of both frugality and a heightened sense of urgency due to anxiety, I bothered not to fill my tank. I simply gave 'er half. I should probably be a bicyclist....
The second blow came during my sitting through traffic. As I sat there, worried about my engine and coolant and heat, I noticed that the ol' chronometer read 6:11. Why the rush hour-esque traffic so late in the evening? I came to the conclusion that it is due to people working longer hours. We have to squeeze those extra two hours in per day just to barely scrape by.
Dinner itself conjured up thoughts of the service industry and how there are too many telling signs therein. The waitress, Katie, was lovely; she was personable and cool and very friendly; I liked her. However, she was a little bit pushy. Pete felt she put a burden on us. As someone (shamedly) in the service industry, I empathized with her. The truth to her act soon made itself apparent as she made it known, herself. Turns out that the restaurant we went to was conducting call-in surveys on its servers. The waitress gave us the whole run-down and seemed a tad desperate for us to fill out the survey. She let us in on the dirty details; give nothing but '5's because anything else is automatically a '0.' She also seemed wary of her shift leader/manager, whom I noticed stalking the floor with a menacing glare.
It reminded me so much of the recent meeting at the MoS about "guest services." Basically, we are to treat every "guest" as a member of our family and donate blood and organs. The new service guidelines are so flawed and rested upon a flawed and--dare I say--illegitimate and corrupt institution. The Secret Shopper programme (the corrupt and illegitimate institution) is a Gestapo-like organization that sends laypeople out to different outlets--clothing & apparel stores, museums, restaurants, et cetera--and have them go on a small spending spree in order to "rate" the customer service experience. The various outlets actually pay secret shopper companies to conduct secret shopper operations on their premises in order to better wrangle their front-line employees. Number one, talk about entrapment. Number two, there is absolutely NO accountability with these secret shoppers. I've seen the adverts for hiring potential secret shoppers: "Say! You wanna' get PAID to SHOP at YOUR FAVORITE STORES??" Imagine the calibre of person that would answer such an ad and that is who is secret shopping.
Based on low scores, the MoS has been thrust into a panic mode on top of a panic mode. So they've implemented this offensive "Oz Principle" or some other such hokum. The Oz Principle is disgusting in every possible way. It uses the 1930s, fascist chic, Ayn Rand objectivist tale as an analogy to customer service. Basically, everything is the server's fault. There is no circumstance to fall back on. It isn't even an argument. Aggressive rhetoric like "own up to it" and "take responsibility" and "take accountability" is thrown all over the place. Basically, take ev'ry blow. 'Tis all for the sake of the "goal" or "result." The rhetoric works on two levels: 1) it makes one feel ashamed if they begin logically giving a causal account of any situation and 2) it tricks one into believing that it is somehow the more honourable thing to simply take the fall. I know how it works because I was in the military. No company is a military organization and they need to learn this.
The balance of power has been shifted so unfairly against the server that the customer has complete and total run over the server. There is nothing a customer cannot get away with. So, the new training involves "smiling" and "being more personable" and being a lobotomized automaton whilst people walk all over oneself. So now the server is subject to meeting mounting expectations for whining, complaining, self-indulgent, upper-middle-class snobs who feel entitled. I really wish I knew where these expectations come from; I, for one, have very low expectations of my servers. Why? I'm realistic and am human, so I can understand and empathize with other humans, so I know they're not working their dream job and honestly care not about me or what I think, so I'll just take what I want and be on my merry way. That is not a bad thing. That is a fair and reasonable way to look at it. People are not tools. People are human... and humans are animals. Unfortunately, somewhere, somehow, somewhen, somebody felt that they deserved more than they ought to as another human being.
I am digressing a bit....
All that boils down to the big scare. The service industry is in a panic because, as some will admit, attendance is at an all time low. Nobody's going anywhere anymore. I wonder why...? Maybe it's because we're in a shit economy! See, the '90s bubble was so good and so awesome! Every one could do every thing! People could afford not only necessities but also trips to a Museum, a decent restaurant, a movie and even splurge on some non-utilitarian clothing and accessories. Not so anymore. Now we are back to the days of ultimate choice. The line has boldly been drawn between "need" and "want." Any type of "want" is now chosen from a list. Can't have dinner and the movie. Gotta' choose! Unfortunately, that cuts participation and attendance down by a third and, in some cases, by half or more. When one surveys the average Bostonian, their choice comes down to saving up for one of the big games or splurging on the MoS. The game'll win every time. People can't be forced to participate.
Also, the truth about demographics becomes apparent. The workin' man can't afford to go certain places. Before he could get away with it every once so often; enough to garner good profits. Now he cannot. Only those with the well-enough incomes can afford to go to places with a high price of admission. This is where customer service gets interesting. The people with enough income are usually the worst people ever allowed to take part in capitalist society. The truth about these people, though, is that we're sorta' lucky to have 'em. These people want to spend money. After all, that is why they sell their souls for it! No matter how rude one could be to them, though they will huff and puff and make a lot of noise, they will drop their money. Because they can.
What's wrong, though, is that the noisy upper-middle-class snob gets the workin' man fired. There is no tolerance anymore. Why continue to pay a person with dignity slightly above minimum wage when you can pay a naïve immigrant below minimum wage and with greater success at control? The fear of losing a job is more effective against someone new to the country than to someone who knows his/her "inalienable human rights." Things like "continuity" and "turnover rate" are less important than things like "end of fiscal year profits" and "payroll."
Anyway, to get to the point, the services industry is in a panic about lack of high profits. The panic isn't about taking care of the entire oranization (read: the workers) but about maintaining the six figure salaries for the people who do none of the work. Instead of realizing it's the poor economy, they, instead, turn against their pillars.
So now we've got a terrible situation. People are working harder, for longer and still barely scraping by. Just when the workin' man thinks he's done enough to survive, the price of certain commodities increases again. This country is already tired, this coming after a whallop of an attack (yes, 9/11). Morale is low and getting lower. The next decade will see the end of the US as a major global player. We're too tired, we're too poor, we're too sick. If things fail to improve, the centre will not hold. Things'll fall apart. The pillar of a person's back can only bear so much of the burden. Will we even have enough energy to enjoy the good times when they come back?
Or will this just become the new standard of an exhausted ideal?