Sometimes it feels like you practically have to "supervise" everybody who offers some kind of service... even though providing that service is their job.
Like being at the deli counter at the local supermarket and having to point out that the baked chicken that's the "advertised special" is not actually what they are putting in my container, even though I specifically asked for the baked chicken that's on special, while pointing to it.
Once that hit home, I actually had to point out where the correct bin of chicken was located.
No, not a new employee. And I do not have some sort of secret advantage, like I work for the supermarket.
I remember when we had the plumber out some years ago to fix an in-ground leak — something I'm sure the plumber gets called out for quite often — I ended up being the one to point out that "a good place to start" might be the patch where the grass was remarkably lusher and greener than all the surrounding rather brown and dry areas.
Maybe I'm crediting people with having something more than common sense... but that's not exactly rocket science, is it?
Or in a different plumbing situation, using food dye to track the water flow direction of a leak. Also not rocket science, methinks.
I've found myself in similar situations with a carpenter, as well as with a stonemason.
The question here isn't whether I "knew something," but the fact that I have to constantly stay alert in order to ensure that someone who is getting paid to know better isn't screwing up my order, or job.
Of course, there's always the disturbing possibility — which I am not overlooking — that most people simply don't care whether what they are paying for is the way it's supposed to me. Maybe "adequate" is simply good enough.
The other possibility is that most "customers" simply aren't curious enough about the world around them to actually know any better.
My parents built a house in Mesa, Arizona back in the early 90's, and my mother — who hand built the house I grew up in with my father — was on site every day, checking out what the contractor and workers were doing, and how they were doing it.
She actually caught several dozen problems that would have ended up on a punch list later, and would have been much more difficult to correct then, than at the point of origin.
Quite a few of those building workers ended up learning some "old world tricks" that probably came in handy in their subsequent work.
Again, the point here is less that my mother was clever, than the fact that she even needed to be thinking about these things.
I suppose I can speculate on what is actually happening till I am blue in the face, but I can't help but wonder whether the level of inaccuracies I see all around me are actually a side effect of the pervasive "shortening" of all things in the world... everything must be shorter, faster, with the result that there simply isn't time to do things well, anymore.
Maybe even the fact that some of my electronics malfunction after a few months is a side effect of the fact that by then "I should be shopping for the NEXT model."
So why would I even care that the previous one is even breaking down?
Pay me no mind: I am "obsolete" because I still create and read long form content like this!
There are time at which I am actually grateful for the fact that I am getting old... and I won't have that many more years of interacting with what seems like decay to me.
Of course, pretty much every generation has said that about subsequent generations...
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Created at 2024-09-16 22:41 PDT
1215/2472
Service is dying in many places, no one wants these low-paying high-stress jobs anymore and ones who have them is mainly checked out and is just there for a season.
Many doesn't care anymore and I don't think its the peoples fault, its the leaders and the supervisors and the company boasting about hitting record-profits, while paying their workers as little as humanly possible x)
I even was a Store Manager until about 2 months ago. I went in to a meeting with my boss wanting to get a few more hours because I felt like we had a hard time being able to manage and do everything we needed to do daily. But I came out from that meeting, with having to save a few hours every week.
After that, my motivation died totally x)
When I do not get what I paid for, maybe, I was given something else and I got to realized it as I got home, I wouldn't buy from the supermarket another time, but best is, we need to stay on alert so that we got what we asked for 🥰🙏
You remind me of a concept I never in my wildest nightmares could have imagined, never mind lived through and now take for granted. Built in obsolescence. And I actually witnessed new houses being built....and then demolished in twenty years! We have the knowledge and capabilities to only create what we need, to last a long time, and yet we have the opposite situation.
So many just don’t take any pride in their work anymore. It’s like the soul has been sucked out of so many people. They just walk around like a corpse. The other issue feels like society and it’s issue with drugs.
There was this new construction house that the buyer wanted a few things fixed up on over a little ways from me. Two people showed up to start working on the issues. One worker spent every visit screaming about how he was a recovering meth head gang banger and deserved to have a second chance. Everyone in the area now knows about him. The other worker just sat in silence doing most of the work from the best I could tell.
The person that bought the house told me they had four walk thoughts before just giving up and accepting what ever remaining issues there were would be up to themselves to fix. When I told them what had happend they were not shocked at all.
good leadership is the best approach to get the best results out of everyone
I recently called a restaurant to ask whether there were any menu items they could guarantee were dairy-free, or at least had minimal risk of cross-contamination. Whoever answered the phone said they would check the gluten-free menu.
I didn't ask about gluten. I asked about dairy. If I ask about dairy, I also don't need to know about eggs. Dairy is from the animal that says "moo," not the animal that says "cluck cluck." I shouldn't feel this burning rage at a kindergarten-level explanation, but I will certainly not eat at that restaurant.
In fact, we can't trust some people again to deliver to their promise
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Oooh, the developing world would really irk you pal. Getting anything done "correctly" over here in Vietnam and Thailand (where I have mostly lived) is an exercise in futility and frustration. I found so many things that were rigged so that they would just work including taping off breakers that were tripping rather than finding what is making it trip. When large and expensive buildings are made here they bring in international crews and that says a lot about the faith that is had in the local population.
I like the part about your mother, my parents were the same way. I do think that a lot of people simply don't care to do a good job anymore and when it comes to something like plumbers it seems to me that by being a "good" plumber that word of mouth or online reviews of excellence would be their ticket to greater riches... but I guess they just don't care because let's be honest, with everyone pursuing college degrees instead of real-life skills you can be a terrible plumber and still have a totally filled schedule all the time.