How do you deal with staff that is clearly overworked and too tired to give you the information that you need? The other day I needed to go to some government office and get some documents, and even though I repeated my urgent question about a certain matter more than three times, the person behind the desk simply didn't get it. It was like I was talking to someone from another dimension. I politely asked if there was someone else who "specialized" in the matter that I wanted information about, but the clerk told me that he didn't understand what else I wanted to know. So, I left after an hour of fruitless conversation that left me highly frustrated and called the same department in another city. There I promptly received everything I needed within a few minutes. Has this ever happened to you?
I have had something similar happen, but not because the person was tired and overworked. Some people simply don't get it and aren't interested in trying to understand or help more.
The more years that go by, the more the professional facade seems to slip in the workplace. Years ago, people used to care about their profession, and actually try to help others, or complete their work properly. These days nobody seems to give a damn. Everybody is tired and overworked, and making mistake upon mistake, and they just don't care anymore. It's just about the money and being able to keep a roof over their heads. Nothing else, and boy does it show.
Poor customer service is a real pet peeve of mine. But I must admit, a company can do a lot to help motivate their workers to provide better services to the public. One company I worked for in online interpreting would do all sorts of things as perks for their employees: there would be free massages once a month right there in the office. The kitchen was always filled with free snacks. And they provided seminars with free credits which we all needed each year to keep up our skill. Things like this went a long way to being happy at work which in turn makes the worker happy to be serving the public.
I feel like one of the problems is that many people work all of the hours that God sends, and still they are only just managing to scrape by and survive. If that was the case for me, then I wouldn't be all that motivated to help other people whilst at work either. So many people are so stressed out, or just apathetic, at this point. I feel like people should be paid more money, and be able to live comfortable happy lives. That would do a lot for the morale, and things would gradually change.
It has not happened to me yet, but that could be a little bit annoying and frustrating if a clerk/staff weren't able to provide you answers or be of any help to you. However, maybe they genuinely don't have any idea of what you're talking about, and if they would apologize politely and sincerely, I'll just try to understand.
There have been times when I have called companies up to get answers, or query something, or get a quote or whatever, and you can hear the indifference, or just plain weariness in the customer service representative's voice. Like, you can tell that they've had enough of the job, or that they've had a long day, and they have lost the will to live, or are in the process of losing it. It is horrible to hear and see. But I can't say that I don't understand it.
