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Actor Steve Allen wrote a book many years ago called "Dumbth" where he relayed stories from his own life that is relevant to this discussion.
My opinion, too many distractions. Pressure from bosses, cell phones, problems at home, lack of sleep, substance abuse. Or, just not caring. One must keep their mind on the task at hand, one thing at a time. I remember being at work long before cell phones and many men's wives called constantly. How do you concentrate when you're always interrupted? Must you yap with friends and family 24/7?
"Almost nobody's competent, Paul. It's enough to make you cry to see how bad most people are at their jobs. If you can do a half-assed job of anything, you're a one-eyed man in the kingdom of the blind."
A line from a Kurt Vonnegut book called Player Piano, 1952.
Threads about incompetence always remind me of this line.
Another problem is that so many people in our society today don't get enough sleep and then prop themselves up with massive doses of caffeine during the day which only serves to perpetuate the problem. I do like what Wm. F. Buckley said in the referenced article on the previous page. Many of us operate on automatic in our daily lives and tasks. We have forgotten how to be fully awake and aware. None of the chemicals we use to enhance our mental states can help improve this situation. They all alter our normal consciousness.
And I'm strongly opposed to the defense of "If you don't pay me enough I'm going to do crappy work." Not only does that prevent the employee from getting the kinds of support and promotions he needs to improve his pay scale but it telegraphs to me that he has been raised with little concern for self-improvement.
All service employees need to keep in mind that they are the one who needs the money and the customer is the one who has the money. No one, no matter how experienced, doesn't have room to learn something new that can make them even more competent.
Why don't people get enough sleep? You're saying the store cashiers and other customer service people aren't able to get 7-8 hrs. sleep nightly? Why not?
I don't know what the cause is, but I agree it's getting ridiculous.
If English is your second language I can understand, but if you're born and raised in the U.S. and I have to tell six times what I want in my coffee, then yeah, it gets annoying.
Actor Steve Allen wrote a book many years ago called "Dumbth" where he relayed stories from his own life that is relevant to this discussion.
My opinion, too many distractions. Pressure from bosses, cell phones, problems at home, lack of sleep, substance abuse. Or, just not caring. One must keep their mind on the task at hand, one thing at a time. I remember being at work long before cell phones and many men's wives called constantly. How do you concentrate when you're always interrupted? Must you yap with friends and family 24/7?
The sign of some bored wives. My mother used to call me at work (or try to) in the afternoons, after she'd run out of people to talk to in the mornings. But out office had a "no personal calls" rule, which helped a lot.
I've noticed an increasing lack of mindfulness in service jobs over the decades and can give you two reasons among many:
1. Cell phones.
2. People who argue for legalization of cannabis on web sites who say, "I use it every night and it doesn't interfere with my job."
the Shuttle guy was letting his cell phone do his thimking for him, instead of following the POLICY MANUAL and sticking to the program that has worked.....for decades. I agree.
And yah, let's toke up BEFORE math class and then wonder.....wha??......what were we talking about???
My problem with incompetence is I always expect it and/or call it, every time, and it happens. It drives me absolutely insane.
For example...I paid big bucks for a Sony TV. Lifelong Sony guy who paid the "sony tax". Long story short, it was a POS defective TV, first bad Sony product I've ever had. From the start I was adamant about getting a replacement as it was under warranty. I call Sony, dread it just because I know I'm going to have to spend an hour on the phone for them to just tell me to reboot, unplug, reset, yadda yadda yadda which I'd done 45 times already to no avail. Not everyone is an 85 year old lady who doesn't know how to use technology.
So there's that. Fixes nothing. So I call back, then they say they're gonna send someone out to replace the motherboard, after I spend ANOTHER hour on the phone wasting my time. First thing I said is, "that's not going to solve it, but ok whatever I guess." Guy comes out. Just as I predicted, it accomplishes nothing. Tv starts acting up an hour after the guy leaves.
So I call back AGAIN, and spend another hour, this time much more agitated, explaining that the TV should have just been replaced from the start and that it's a waste of my time, and that I shouldn't be spending HOURS talking with support when I spent big bucks on a Sony. "If I wanted all this I would have bought a 65" Westinghouse," I told them.
To their credit they did make it right, and sent me a model year newer and nicer model. I will still stick with Sony for life because they did make it right by upgrading me for free. For example, if the old TV was a 2016 BMW 3 series, the replacement I got was a 2017 5 series. So I am satisfied in the end, absolutely love this newer, nicer model I got out of it, but still....could they not just have LISTENED to the (not dumb) customer from the get go and saved lots of time and hassle and just replaced it to begin with??
It's incompetence like this in daily life that just drives me nuts. It's not hard to NOT be incompetent.
Why don't people get enough sleep? You're saying the store cashiers and other customer service people aren't able to get 7-8 hrs. sleep nightly? Why not?
It's a little complicated to go into detail here but a glance at these articles can provide part of the scientific explanation.
Apparently technology and lifestyle is affecting the way First World countries experience sleep. And remember, it's not just amount of time in bed but also the quality of the sleep.
In regards to the service industry, I'll mention something that I didn't see in the thread yet (though I could have missed it)....
Understaffing. Because companies want to save a buck, they don't staff enough employees so the ones who are there are rushed and not paying as much attention. I think that's why orders are rarely wrong at places like Chick-fil-A - they always seem to have plenty of people working.
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just missed TWO plane bookings
