2 for a dollar?!?

[cstocks]

<font color=blue>Moral: If you're going to hire idiots, at least put up a warning sign.</font color=blue>

Most people working in low paying jobs (often times kids) don't get paid enough to know or care. Their low wages do not give them the incentive to learn or excel at their jobs. They are just trying to make a few bucks.

How many times have you gone through the drivethru at McDonald's or Burger King only to find your order is screwed up when you get home? The same applies to Home Depot and just about any other place where they hire minimum wage help. Low paid employees (for the most part) just don't take ownership of their jobs.

Idiot? Hmmm, probably not. Unknowledgeable and uncaring? Most likely.

Moral: You will probably always get better service at the local lumberyard than you will at Home Depot./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[frank_f15]

just proves a point i have been making for years, IF U CALL ANYTHING A SALE people will buy it.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I've always believed in the addage, "pay peanuts, get elephants."

I've invented some pretty wild things in my time. Invariably the requests have come from employers wanting something idiot proof because they people working for them are idiots.

I've been involved in many discussions with these kinds of folks about not making it something any idiot can do but make it where there are skill levels attainable. That is where one can have a challenge and then appreciation for overcoming the challenge.

You see I believe that friction created in learning creates a bond between the employee and the product, the company, and the management of the company. That bond is the result of the personal investment by the employee.

Of course that is contrary to popular opinion in management. They want things made where any idiot can do it and then complain that only idiots apply for the job. Which goes along the idea that folks will rise to our expectations, sink too.

BTW I'm a firm believer in the axiom about there not being bad employees, only bad management.

I'm constantly exposed to small business owners complaining about their employees. I always point out that their employees should be viewed as tools. It's sorta funny how we don't cuss the drill for not sawing a board. But we will condemn an employee who's great with one skill for not being adept at another.

It's like they buy a hand saw from the bargain bin and then complain about it not working like a two hundred dollar worm drive. Just who made the decision to go cheap? And who is going to have to spend a lot more energy and time doing the same job with the inferior tool? And who is going to be crying? One and the same from my perspective.

When I was young and in management we took some classes. The thing that has marked me all these years was them giving us a test of sorts to take about our goals and dreams in the company. The stuff like which would like better, pay or prestige, etc? We filled it out. Then they gave us another copy of the same test and told us to fill it out from the perspective we believed of our employees.

They then pulled out the results of the tests they'd given our employees. We did a comparison. I don't believe I was the only one in the class taken aback by the fact that those money grubbing lazy heatherns working for us had filled them out exactly as we had.

My management style changed after that. Of course that meant I was popular with a certain kind of employee but extremely unpopular with my cohorts in management and another kind of employee.

 

[Bird]

<font color=blue>BTW I'm a firm believer in the axiom about there not being bad employees, only bad management</font color=blue>

Me, too. I used to tell the supervisors who worked for me that if we had an employee who was a failure on the job, that it was our failure, either in selection or in training.

 

[BB_TX]

It's not just the stores you mention. They had a special on overcharging on one of the news programs not long ago. They went to major retailers of all kinds including major department stores at malls and checked the marked prices with the prices rang up at the register. It was alarming the number of times a higher price came up. They approached the management in each case. The management said they would clear up the problems, but when they went back and did a similar test months later, the stores were still making the same mistakes. Check you receipts carefully.

 

[Bird]

SHF, in 1990 we went into a grocery store in Seward, Alaska, and bought a pretty good cart full of groceries, but I also picked up a 6 pack of beer. At the checkout counter my Dad insisted on paying, got his receipt, looked at it, and asked me, "What in the world is that you're drinking?!" I looked at the receipt and the cashier had rung up the 6 pack price 6 times./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif Needless to say, I got it corrected.

 

[StoneHeartFarm]

Bird,

At least you got to KEEP the beer. I couldn't convince the girl that the computer was wrong. If it says so on that screen, it's written in stone. Even when they absolutely know the price of a can of beer, if it says so on that screen...

I wonder if a good Candid Camera stunt would be to have the screen say something about "give the customer your left shoe". How many cashiers would do it?

SHF

 

[Bird]

<font color=blue>have the screen say something about "give the customer your left shoe". How many cashiers would do it?</font color=blue>

Probably at least half of'em./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif