- Where should the buck stop?
Have you ever noticed how people try to make their problems yours? Let me give you an example, we have a small garbage dumpster next to our office building and other people began using it to dump their trash as soon as we installed it. Of course, we then put a lock on it but this didn't seem to deter a few people who put their trash on top of the dumpster. We even had one instance where someone deposited an old sofa on the dumpster which caused me to pay the garbage man a little extra to dispose of it. In other words, people transferred their problems to me.
There seems to be a lot of this going on, particularly among Customer Service people. A lot of the service people I talk to seem to be more interested in compounding my problems as opposed to solving them. Nobody really likes to deal with problems, but if that's what you're getting paid to do I fail to see the rationale of complicating life as opposed to simplifying it.
You see this "pass the buck" mentality just about everywhere, not just in the office but at home as well. It has become so prevalent it's like a giant merry-go-round with everybody passing their problems on to someone else. Here's an idea; why not pull the plug on the ride and have everyone address their own problems, it's what we call "responsibility," something a lot of us cannot seem to accept.
As to our dumpster problem, we picked through a couple of bags of garbage that had been dropped off on us and found the name and address of the person who dumped it. We then dutifully returned the bags of trash to their rightful owner who was unhappy to see it returned. I think we need to see more of this type of action, instead of letting the buck stop on our doorstep, how about returning it to its rightful owner?
Keep the Faith!
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Tim Bryce is a writer and the Managing Director of M&JB Investment Company (M&JB) of Palm Harbor, Florida and has over 30 years of experience in the management consulting field. He can be reached at timb001@phmainstreet.com
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Copyright © 2013 by Tim Bryce. All rights reserved.
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