“There are real tricks to getting a job that I just don’t like or understand – it feels too close to pandering. I’ve tried it, but it doesn’t work. ” — F. Murray Abraham

T H E  S C H M O O Z E R S –  L O S E R S –  D O E R S

For this week’s Word Prompt on my partner Susan and my alternate site, WEEKLY PROMPTS, I chose the word  EVALUATE.

This is an important concept to us as consumers since companies both large and small are politely requesting that we the public provide a rating of the quality of the service and prdoucts we received. Incentives are often included to entice us to play this rating game.

The one drawback to providing this much needed and sought after feedback concerns the momentary  interaction we have with the company’s personnel who perform services for us on a daily basis. Many times personality outshines actual performance. Schmoozers win out over actual doers.

Last week I visited my bank around 10 a.m. I was having a problem with the bank’s mailing system which abandoned the old snail mail approach and opted months ago for the email alternative. A that time I opted for the postal delivery approach. I did not find the email approach that effective. 

I have a financial security that will be maturing on the 19th of this month. I received an email in August informing me of this maturity date and another more cryptic email telling me nothing in particular. No snail mail letters were sent to me.

The female bank associate manning the information desk offered to assist me with this matter. She spent more than 30 minutes checking my communication preferences, calling the main office and doing all that she could to rectify the situation for me.

She was relentless in her efforts to discover why my choice of mail had not been adhered to. She gave me her business card and told me to send her the last email notification I received from the bank’s headquarters located in another province. Remember that she was the only person handling the information desk while helping me with my dilemma.

While she was busy doing her investigative research for my account I overheard snippets of conversation between nearby tellers and the customers they were serving. A few brazenly asked their customers to please give them a “high rating” if they received an email from the banks personnel department.

The young lady who was helping me did not make this same request. She was working herself ragged trying to assist me. The tellers were cashing checks and doing less stressful work and yet demanding that customers give them a favorable rating so that they can ” get a promotion in the bank”.

Is there fairness in this practice? No. Is this the new way of promoting employees and  gaining a solid more satisfied customer base. Yes. By hook. By crook. By golly.

If you check your Safeway supermarket receipt you will find that there is a draw for a one thousand dollar reward if your name is drawn for answering general store related questions. It is natural that employees would find this an imposition on their performance. Yet the trend continues. Who is currying favor from you?

If consumers can replace personnel department evaluation screenings then soon Santa ‘s elves will be delivering gifts at Christmas.

Big Brother now has willing accomplices to monitor our actions if the price is right.  A travesty of fairness and impartiality.

 

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Word Prompt Evaluate