Saturday, July 14, 2012

"Happy" Little Kiosk World

Yesterday we got up and moving quite early considering it's one of my last three days of vacation.  I mean, really!  The purpose of our early mission was to head into St. Kit's to turn in Eric's application for his passport!  FINALLY!  You have no idea how happy the idea of being able to freely travel out of my country with my boyfriend makes me.  Doesn't mean we'll do it, or can afford to but we all know just having the option is lovely!  Anywho's that's not the point of this post, just the intro.  The point of the post is to pose the question: 

What the hell happened to customer service? 

 Am I the only one who still bends over backwards to offer customer service even when I want to stab myself in the eye with a fork?  Is poor customer interaction a requisite for maintaining a job with the Canadian Government?  Do they offer courses in their training period on how to be a douchebag without really even trying? 

I get the fact that it's hard to be pleasant all the time when you hate your job.  But really, a government job doesn't take too much out of you as there is rarely any physical exursion.  As a worker you get every holiday off, decent pay with benefits, there is rarely any forced overtime, you have sweet, sweet hours of business (like Monday to Friday and daytime hours).  I mean, Christ, I might even be willing to give up my much loved career for a government position.   This known phenomenon about government employees has been around for so long that people just expect it and actually dread having to do anything at a building that says Service Canada or Service Ontario.  What really burns my butt?  Their little makeshift signs that let all of US know that they will not tolerate abusive tones or attitude.   WHAT????  I think next time I go in, I'll have one of those attached to my shirt like I'm running a marathon. 

I guess my shtick is, if you hate it and can't be civil or at least master the art of faking it maybe you should find something that floats your boat.  There are a kajillion people who would kill someone for a government job - the security and perks.  Life is simply too short to stick it out doing something you hate to the point of making an innocent bystander miserable.    Find something that makes you happy.  You should work to live, not live to work and since it's clear you can think of better places to be maybe you should investigate that further. 

4 comments:

  1. I may not be Canadian - I'm in the lower 48, but I think this is a systemic problem and not just with government "jobs" - I think that we are forgetting that our customers pay our wages. Giving good/quality customer service is becoming a forgotten art.

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  2. So true, and how about just being a decent human being because we are also, often, the person on the receiving end. What happened to treat others how you wish to be treated?

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  3. This may seem off topic but i was at girl scout camp with my girls a few weeks ago and the camp next to us had the leader from hell. More than once I almost went over there and took her out, not in the good way. My point being that if you aren't cut out for whatever a job, or service requires of you, don't do it!!!!

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