No excuse for poor service

DEBBIE JACOB

BE FOREWARNED. I am not taking any rudeness, incompetence, spitefulness or laziness from anyone in a service job. I will give you a piece of my mind, speak to your supervisor and then write a formal letter of complaint to the person occupying the highest level of your workplace.

I am fed up, and I’m on a crusade now.

My breaking point came last week when I finally asked to speak to someone’s supervisor after a runaround for a refund owed to me since June. I got nothing but excuses from the person handling the issue and the usual, unnecessary requests to resend documents.

When I finally went over this employee’s head, I discovered a cheque had been issued in August. I never received the cheque. The paper trail for the missing cheque clearly existed.

I no longer have the time or the patience to put up with people who waste my time, don’t do their jobs and don’t care how they treat people.

Too many of us have to remind ourselves that we have the right to be treated with dignity and good service. We accept far too much bad treatment from people whose salaries we pay and somehow convince ourselves that these people who depend on us for their livelihood have more power than we do.

As my daughter, Ijanaya, always says, “I have never seen a country like TT where people are upset because they have jobs.”

When she lived here, Ijanaya fought back against poor service and rude employees. She insisted I register my complaints on websites. Once, she had me write to an international company when an employee here made fun of my accent. Believe me, international companies take poor service seriously.

I wonder how many of us have well-educated, hard-working children – like Ijanaya – who left this country when they couldn’t get job opportunities because so many people are just taking up space at their workplace?

Our children work hard and flourish abroad. Another country benefits from the dedication and diligence of our children because people who can’t be bothered to do their work are never held accountable here.

If they’re in the public service, it’s likely they will join the game of musical chairs and get transferred to constantly destabilise the workplace and frustrate people depending on government services.

If they’re in the private sector, they become entrenched in their mean and lazy attitudes and feel smug, with their passive-aggressive behaviour. They get a petty sense of power from wasting people’s time. Their goals are to make people feel hurt or miserable. I experienced this in 30 years of trying to get citizenship.

But I’m not lowering my standards or expectations any more.

I’m not accepting this poor work ethic that prevails here. I don’t want to hear what can’t be done. Find solutions. When it comes to the workplace, we need a complete cultural overhaul in this country.

We pride ourselves on being an independent country, but we need to start showing what that means. We operate at best as though we are still under colonialism, where people in charge can thwart our efforts to be happy, productive citizens by dragging us through frustrating bureaucracy.

We can’t be patriotic and productive when we are worn down from long bureaucratic procedures in the public and private sectors that make us swallow our pride or beg to be served and treated fairly.

There is no place for lackadaisical, lazy or spiteful actions in any workplace. This poor attitude is one of the main issues we have to rectify in this country. It will not be addressed until we speak out, write formal letters of complaint and demand people be removed from their jobs when necessary.

Demand proof that action was taken when you are mistreated. Get it in writing.

A job is a privilege, and you’re supposed to earn it by putting in effort and challenging yourself to be more creative and efficient. Far too much time gets wasted because employees don’t perform their duties.

If private companies and government ministries get a pile of letters from disgruntled citizens about their under-achieving, rude and inefficient employees, they will be forced to take notice and deal with this issue.

At least, this is how the real world usually operates.

Anyone who has a job should be held to the highest standards. Employees must be evaluated regularly, and they should have to work hard to keep their jobs. There’s no excuse for poor service or rudeness.