My Thoughts on the Weather

 

I truly hope that the upcoming winter will have temperatures as mild as what we have had this summer. We have had a few hot days but nothing extremely bad. Hopefully we will not see the hideous cold caused by the Polar Vortexes from last year.

I have no problem with some snow but I certainly hope any snow we get is at least something not extreme. I have no problem driving in snow but there are entirely too many people out there that believe that there vehicles traction is the same as warm and dry weather regardless of what is on the roads.

Hopefully there will also be a bit more thought going into what conditions outside workers are required to work in. Last year during the worst snow it was decided that we were not going to be working because it was dangerous just to get to the locations let alone do the outside work. About 5 of us were already at the shop and a bunch of others were on the road headed that way before the decision was made. I am very glad that decision was made but would it not have been better to make it early enough that no one was on the road? There was already like 11 inches of snow on the ground before I left home and the snow was to continue for several hours.

 

Technorati Tags: Weather,cold,winter,driving conditions

Todays Political Circus

 

With the financial crisis we have gone through and with the Congress pretty much refusing to agree on doing anything to help we really need to look at staying on every member of congress and as they come to election we need to kick the old school and the completely unreasonable new school out of office and get a group in there that can pull together and make things work again.

We certainly do have way to many regulations which is one of the things that is slowing down things to a degree but the problem was caused by regulation being removed because the benefactors (investors maybe?) of many members of congress pretty much told them what to remove and they did it without taking into consideration what might happen.

The removal of the Glass-Steagall act actually is what caused the vast majority of the crash. By removing the barriers that kept the banking system safe and allowing them to do pretty much whatever they wanted to do with the money of people that were placing there money in accounts along with those that were investing directly they caused the bubble by using the money to invest and speculate on things that were promising huge returns. Anyone that has invested knows that when something promises or guarantees a huge return it is not safe because there is no way you can guarantee a return.

Glass-Steagall needs to be put back in place. If it were put back in place it would put an immediate halt to the crap going on on Wall Street. Banks would scream and they would not make much money for a while but they have made such enormous profits that they can withstand that for a bit and if this was done things would start turning around and we would see a much faster pace in the recovery. It will not happen overnight but we could easily see a recovery to the way things were before the bubble started and we were doing quite well as a nation and companies were making a lot of money. They just might have to settle for 100s of millions or single digit billions in profits rather than 10s or 100s of billions.

Now for those that are screaming right now that money will not disappear. It will make its way to to those that are working like hell and barely able to afford the necessities of life. Once they start getting that money they will start to spend again and much of that money will work its way back up the chain to the corporations. That is the best way to handle things because “trickle down” economics has proven over the last decade and a half or so that it does not work. In order for it to work there needs to be an enormous change in the mind set of the corporate leadership that a decent amount of that money needs to go to the folks on the front line that make the business possible.

When that happens they spend more and a lot of it comes back and the country and the economy as a whole will explode into success.

Technorati Tags: Financial Crisis,Glass-Steagall,Wall Street,Banking,Regulations,Economy

My Take On The Last Several Decades.

I have reached the age where one looks more closely at ones mortality. I am starting a project that will put my experiences and views on how things have progressed since the mid to late 60s into a format that can be read by anyone choosing to do so.

I have had a number of relatives, including my parents, die and there are more people that I know or am acquainted with that have reached that final door that must be passed through when ones existence on this earth is over.

I have seen the good, the indifferent and the bad over my lifetime and hopefully we are headed back into a good period although at this point in time Congress is making no effort to really help anyone.

Technorati Tags: recent history,personal experiences,60s,70s,80s,90s,00s,10s

Why Overall Customer Service Sucks At Most Companies!

 

I am apparently not qualified to be a Customer Service Supervisor. This post is not just to moan about not getting the position. My concerns are with the reasoning and I suspect this reasoning is being used at many companies. Just look at Customer Satisfaction scores overall. Not a whole lot of companies with stellar scores although there are some.

I have worked call center jobs of various kinds for many years. I have done Observational Quality Assessments. I have trained Reps, Q/As and Supervisors. I have done process improvements and saved corporations money and I have always, always, always had customers very pleased with me or with people that I have trained.

I am very concerned with the reasons for my not moving forward. I have Call Center experience as I stated but I also have experience physically doing work in customers homes and I, unlike many supervisors and in some cases reps, I actually completely understand how this stuff works behind the scenes and can explain it if need be to just about anyone.

The reasons for my not getting the Supervisor position?

They agree that I bring a wealth of experience to the position. Their concern is that I am too direct in my manner of speaking and also I am too friendly?

I am direct because I will not blow smoke up someone's ass. I am friendly because not being friendly makes people automatically assume that you are an asshole and will never work well with them.

Their are some surveys that puts my employers customer satisfaction scores as the worst in the country.

Anyone that has customer satisfaction scores they are unhappy with and wants to change that contact me. Given the opportunity, some time to dig into details and see the problem and the appropriate authority to make changes, I can have your company getting customer satisfaction scores that place you among the top in the entire world!

Technorati Tags: customer satisfaction,hiring practices,supervisor requirements

Gun Control?

As of today we have yet another shooting. I am not at all against guns. We have the 2nd amendment which I agree with although I believe there are many who have perverted it. I believe many cases (not all) the problem is the media.

As soon as there is a horrible firearm related crime, the media covers it to the point od absurdity. The public certainly has the right to know what is going on but the level of detail is ridiculous. We have had a number of shootings since the horrible day in Connecticut and I believe that the follow-up shooting were at least in part caused by the media.

Right after these shootings, because of the coverage, many people go right out and buy as many weapons as they can afford because they assume from the news coverage that it will happen local to them next and people then see anything as a problem that could be life threatening and they break out the weapons.

One thing I am absolutely against is high capacity magazines in civilian settings. I was a hunter for years. I would have been terribly embarrassed  by needing more than 2 MAYBE 3 rounds when hunting. If you need a 30 or more round magazine then you suck as a hunter and you should not be allowed to even touch a weapon because is you need that many rounds when hunting then you have no idea where your rounds are going downrange and I sure as hell don’t want to be out in the woods with someone like you doing the spray and pray thing hoping to perhaps kill something edible.

Technorati Tags: Control,guns,amendment,media,firearm,crime,shootings,Connecticut,coverage,news,life,magazines,civilian,settings,hunter,MAYBE,magazine,weapon,hell,woods

Independence Day

On this July 4th I truly hope those of my compatriots that work for the company I do and are working today have a slow day and the ability to stay in the shade or air conditioning as much as possible. Please also make sure you are drinking plenty of fluids.

I am fortunate to be off today but I will be back out tomorrow.

To those who are not working, enjoy the holiday and take precautions should you be making use of any fireworks no matter how low level they may be.

Technorati Tags: compatriots,fireworks,air conditioning

Law Office

Guest post by Jewel Cole

My dad and my two brothers are all attorneys and they have been in practice together for a really long time. I have worked as their legal secretary for almost twenty years. They have had several different offices over the past twenty years or so, and they recently moved to another new office. The rent is much cheaper at the new office. They are sharing the office with another law firm, so most of the utilities were already set up. My brother asked one of the other lawyers what they use for phone and internet service because he was impressed with how fast it was. He said they went to t1.xo.com to set everything up. My brother told him that he wished he had known about this service when they were at their old office. As their secretary, I wish I had known about it too. Faster internet and better phone service would have definitely made my job easier. It looks like there is more than one perk to moving to a new office and I think we are all going to be very happy at the new office.