Crazy talk about employers

I have been having crazy thoughts about employers (in the broad sense considering I am not employed by anyone – I am self-employed) lately. Many of these thoughts are similar to other crazy thoughts I have had about being a customer so maybe there are some parallels here …

Wouldn’t it be something if the company I did work for listened to me, let me know it was listening and then did something about what I was saying? I do work for a company and for the most part things have been going well. Lately we have been getting a little ratty at each other and this week I found out there may have been a little issue I am uncomfortable about. So I wrote a note to my notional boss/supervisor expressing my concerns. No response yet. I’m not sure if one will be forthcoming and all that is likely to happen is that I’ll be less and less enthusiastic about working for this company and that isn’t great.

I have a similar gripe with a company I buy techie stuff from. I have been waiting for some software for a month now and the only time I know there is a delay is when I phone after the latest promised deadline has passed. Ultimately not having the software doesn’t mean I can’t do what I need to do. It just means that my enthusiasm for the software has been waning to the point where my passion for the company itself has dimmed. It is just like any other company that couldn’t bother to drop me an email and let me know my order is still being monitored.

Why do companies do that? Is it a South African thing? Are South African companies just generally crappy when it comes to customer/hired gun service? Is it too much to ask for a company to communicate? This reminds me of a quote I heard in a Guns ‘n Roses song and which is from the movie Cool Hand Luke (never seen it):

What we’ve got here, is … failure to communicate. Some men you just can’t reach. So you get what we had here last week. Which is the way he wants it. Well, he gets it. I don’t like it any more than you men.

If a company can’t be bothered to communicate with its customers/hired guns then all it can expect are diminished returns in terms of enthusiasm for the company and a desire to get back in the saddle and do more for/with the company.

(Image: “What does this picture mean to you?” by chema.foces licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license)

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usual rant, employers, employees, customers, passion, enthusiasm, communication