Have you called an 800# to request help with something or to
buy a product or to follow up on something? And you get hit with the infamous
hold time. You know the drill. The wait time is approximately “x’ number of
minutes or you can request a call back instead of waiting on hold.
You can choose to wait and hear upteen number of messages of
them telling you your time is valuable etc etc etc or you can request the call
back and hope you are not doing something when they call back.
And then the “x” number of minutes goes for an extra hour or
you never receive the requested call back.
What gives?
Why cannot the entity hire enough people to take care of
their customers? We all know the answer. They do not care about you. No matter
how good of a customer you are or how important “your time is”, they do not
care. Not one iota. Sure maybe the people
you speak to eventually care, and will try to help you, but the corporation or
entity or whatever in general does not care about you.
Or they finally answer the phone and then you hear oh you
need one of our specialist agents I need to transfer you and boom you are back
into the “x” number of hold minutes for this new group.
And younger people say, we just go online, but really do you
get the service you need when things go wrong. Some corporations offer a chat
feature, then it takes forever to find out they cannot help you.
Corporations are in the business of making money and I
certainly understand that. We wouldn’t have their product or service if they
couldn’t make a profit. Yet lately, they keep cutting and cutting service to
the point that it costs me more to try and be their customer than it is worth.
Yet so many people accept this as a it is what it is. No, it
is wrong, but as long as we accept it, we will get this.
Switching gears, is it worth it to work 60, 70 or more hours
a week? Who benefits? Do you? In some cases you might. Yet so many entities
expect us to work an absurd amount of hours for them. Do you get paid enough in
overtime to make it worthwhile, but after 2, 3 year of it are you burnt out?
And once the overtime stops what do you have. Your same old weekly job with no
future.
So you can give it up and hope you do something successful
for yourself by working serious amounts of hours. Or you can work for your “job”
until they lay you off. Either way you are taking a gamble.
Back in the day so to speak either option may have been
opportunistic for you. Yet more and more it isn’t. You can try to start your
own business, but it is hard. Even if you get it started, your labor costs will
kill you and you continue to work excessive hours. And there is no loyalty ever
from corporations for their labor force. You are always the first to get laid
off if you aren’t salary. Why because if they can convince people to work
salary and stick them with 70 hours of work they certainly will.
Mid management sucks because in the long run no matter how
many hours you work, you will not get ahead. The people that get promoted are
either predetermined by higher ups who are clueless or are people that kiss
back ends not who work hard. And yes there are exceptions to this madness, but
in the long run, most people are stuck. And this can be in a wide range of
industries or services. The boss will always take advantage of you to their
benefit. Even mid management tries to get people to work excessive hours so
they can look good and most times it really doesn’t benefit them because they
are stuck in the same loop you are working extra to make their boss look good.
It would be great if working extra meant something for you,
yet in the long run it doesn’t except for a small few. Even in areas such as
non profits or whatever, people are expected to work enormous amount off hours
because of the cause or need. And good people do. It is a shame that this happens.
Why cannot we receive an even trade? The
upper echelon of management of whatever entity you work for will always say
your sacrifices are worth it, but in the long run it only benefits them, not
you.
People seem to expect this though. And I am one that will
say working hard is not bad, but we have to evaluate is it good for me. I may
get a promotion or a small raise, but in the long run, am I allowing some person
to make millions or billions because I am a cog in that person’s machine. If
they are making billions, why am I struggling.
And I know people will say that is lazy talk. No it isn’t.
You have a right to be paid. And the best recourse is to start your own
business, but that is a gamble and if it fails you are back to square one.
So why in 2024 are so many struggling. Inflation is one
answer, but by no means the large answer.
We are struggling because a small select group of people
make a fortune taking advantage of a system that benefits those at the top. So
many will say that is because they worked hard and they earned it and for a few
that is true, but when you put the pieces of the puzzle together, most people
are taken advantage of to benefit the few that somehow through fate, family
luck, or other reasons have risen to the top and do not give a rat’s back end
about you.
What to do? Not much unfortunately if we just sit here and
complain. How do we effect the people that put us on hold for a hour and then
never answer the phone even though it is our money that supports their
business. The more and more the world is consolidated into fewer and fewer
hands the more we are going to struggle.
As always we need change, politically we need new parties,
economically we need to quit bending over backwards for people who live in world
detached from the reality of the rest of us. Support small businesses that care
about you as a customer. When on hold,
spend the time looking for new companies that do the same business and try
reaching out to them to see what they offer in regards to customer service.
If you are willing to work for someone for 70 hours a week
because you are told that is what the job requires then why are you supporting
a business with your hard earned dollars that doesn’t care about you. And by
the way, quit working 70 hours a week for someone that isn’t interested in your
future. They may say they care, but if you still are working 70 hours a week
and nothing changes. It is time you change.
You should do your job and you should do it well. I whole
heartedly believe that, yet I also believe if you are working hard and
producing quality work then eventually the company needs to recognize that and
reward you. If not they have no reason to expect you to go above and beyond for
them. If they treat you as a mediocre worker no matter what you do give them mediocre
work. Eventually they will run out of good workers and mediocrity will be their
product. And then hopefully customers will look elsewhere to spend their money.
We accept so much bullshit because we are told hard work is
a requirement and yet we do not receive it in return.
In other posts I rant and rave about how the wealth gap is
growing and that is a problem for our society, one reason is the macro economic
policies they have Congress implement
that benefits them only. The other is
the two reasons I very un-succinctly described here. We let these entities
abuse our time either in trying to get them to help us as a customer or abuse
our time in what they offer in return for our efforts.
I do not have many answers, but first I offer if you are
willing to work hard, start your own business and treat your employees well
that help you succeed. Or second look for employers that treat you with respect
not just for your efforts, but also for you as a person. Maybe some days you do
need to work extra because of business and there is nothing wrong with that,
but in the long run, how do they treat you. Finally take the time as a customer
to go where you are treated well even if it costs a few extra cents. Support
businesses that care about their customers. Don’t accept being treated as a
customer by a business that has the attitude it is your responsibility to help
them make more money, not that it is their responsibility to earn your business.
We don’t need more wait time, we need more people willing to resolve our
situation and that is the responsibility of the entity to hire enough people to
care about our issues. Yes it will affect their bottom line, but we are at the
point that a few billionaires don’t need anymore money. What they heck do they
need to make 3 billion instead of 2 or whatever.
Time for those extra unnecessary profits to go back to the full
economy so we can all benefit.
And on a side note, just like websites get hacked and all your
personal information is now on the dark web, someone is going to figure out “apps”
and so many people are going to be screwed. Will the customers be protected?
Sheesh
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