Maybe I expect too much, but these days it seems that most people aren’t very good at doing their jobs. More often than not, when I reach out to a company for help, I have a crappy experience.
It used to be that if an employee wasn’t doing his or her job, they’d just get fired. It’s pretty simple really. If you’re not capable of doing the job you were hired to do, then you can find a job to do someplace else.
But over the last couple of decades, it’s become increasingly difficult for companies to fire people. So, the ranks of companies are filled with squatters collecting a paycheck while holding positions that could be filled with better-qualified people.
Then, companies started adding inclusivity to their hiring policies. They got so focused on making diversity hires that they forget to hire people who can actually…you know…do the work.
And then it got even harder to fire an incompetent employee. I mean, heaven forbid if you were to fire a PoC (person of color) or a glibtaq (read this). Doing either of those things will get you branded as some sort of an “ist”.
The decline of businesses’ ability to support their customers has been going on for years. But in the last year or so the deterioration has accelerated. Because the COVID lockdowns and mandates forced nearly every company to adapt. Unfortunately, their idea of “adapting” was to take a bunch of people who weren’t very good at their job to begin with, and allow them to work, essentially unsupervised, from home.
If you take an employee who was only doing a half-assed job in the first place, then add to the mix barking dogs, delivery men, whiny kids and a crappy Internet connection, what you end up with is a recipe for a piss-poor customer experience. And that’s what we get.
Here’s an example of what happens when you follow that recipe.
I called AT&T recently to get a billing problem fixed. While I listened to a baby screaming in the background, I was informed by the rep that it wasn’t possible for him to help me. I knew that what he was telling me didn’t make any sense, so I asked to talk to his supervisor. The rep explained that the supervisor was only going to tell me the same thing. I spoke with her anyway and, sure enough, after twice asking her kids to quiet down, she politely told me that what I was asking them to do was impossible.
But it wasn’t.
I waited an hour and then called back. The person I spoke with at that time was able to resolve my issue in about 30 seconds. I don’t know if she was sitting in a call center or if she was at home and just didn’t have any kids or pets. What I do know is that she didn’t seem to be distracted. I had her full attention. And she was able to do the impossible. In less than a minute.
Was she able to do what the others couldn’t because she was better/smarter than they were? Or was it because I didn’t have to compete for her attention while she also made sure her kids were entertained, dealt with the exterminator, and cleaned up dog barf?
It’s probably a little of both.
I’m sick and tired of hearing that, because of COVID, we all have to deal with people who aren’t very good at what they do. COVID didn’t cause the issue. It’s only highlighting a problem that has been decades in the making.
The real problem is that companies value diversity over competency and incompetent workers are prioritized over satisfied customers.
