I’ve been dealing with the phone company for over a week trying to get a problem with my business line resolved. After rearranging my schedule to accommodate theirs for the past five days, listening to their lame excuses, and giving them more than their fair share of chances, I am about to terminate my service. Because there are plenty of other carriers out there who would love to have my business. And because I have choices. Here are the reasons I am firing my phone company.
- Not showing up for work. I was promised a service call on Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday. The one day I wasn’t promised a call and was told was not an option was Wednesday…a day when I was unavailable and the only day I received a call that they were on their way.
- Coming to work unprepared. The first technician that came to look at my phone line over a week ago failed to troubleshoot all of the technical issues he should have, which is why I am now waiting for another service call.
- Blaming others for the team’s errors. The next representative that contacted me was quick to point out all the errors the first technician had made and assigned blame rather than focusing on resolving the issue.
- Not communicating with others. Since my phone fiasco started I have received phone calls about my issue from at least six different company representatives. Each of them knows that my phone isn’t working properly, but none of them have any documentation on the history of my issue or the series of bumbling mistakes that each company representative has made.
- Telling the boss (me) you couldn’t get a project done because it was understaffed. The next representative I spoke to told me that the reason that the technician didn’t get to my ticket yet was that they had so many other jobs to take care of and were severely understaffed.
- Asking for a raise before you have proved your value. In the midst of all this, I have received not one but two calls from this phone carrier asking me if I want to upgrade my services.
I know you all realize that any of these mistakes could get you fired from a job and I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know. It’s funny how my phone company hasn’t made the connection yet between their poor performance and my decision to terminate them.
I do think however, that many employees have been coasting in their positions for years. And I’m wondering if the free ride is going to end soon. According to CareerBuilder’s 2010 Jobs Forecast a trend for 2010 may very well be replacing lower performing employees and taking advantage of the large percentage of top talent in the labor force to strengthen their work force. Because in this economy, employers have choices…and there are plenty of job seekers out there that would love to be employed by them.
GREAT post, Barbara! I saw someone tweet on Monday … this morning there are those who don’t want to go to work and those who aren’t working who wish they were heading to work. It is SO true. Those who are in jobs (or own businesses) and are underperforming, shirking responsibility, or pointing the finger are in jeopardy of being fired. I just read a post about Netflix “only” hiring A-players. It’s time for all of us to evaluate whether we’re C-players (skating by), B-players (giving it our full 50% effort), or the highly-coveted A-players.
Cindy,
And if the employee doesn’t evaluate what type of player they are, the employer might do it for them and give them the boot. Thanks for reading!
As always you are spot on Barbara. There are a lot of “hungry” job seekers out there who are very happy to “step up”. Those that have been working have had to pull a lot of weight to cover downsizings or right sizings. The economy might be coming back, but it will be a while before companies are comfortable enough to beef up staff. They want the people who can heal their pain – if you are causing more they will happily replace you with someone who will do the job with enthusiasm and drive. As Cindy said – keep your A game going – you will benefit in the long run and so will the company.
Sabrina,
So true. And after reviewing some surveys done by the top HR compensation consulting firms, it appears that employers are retooling their merit budgets to make sure that their top performers are rewarded as well as possible, given the fact that the merit budgets they have to work with are quite sparse for 2010…which means that B and C performers may end up with very low increases or none at all. Thanks for reading!
Yes, Barbara, another well-written post and you’re also right, we were thinking alike. I could have used a phone company / internet provider in my post too. Just yesterday, I resolved a bill that took much shorter, only 3 personnel. The first one didn’t speak English well enough for me to understand him and he dropped the call, the second one spoke limited English but sort of understood what I wanted and the last one solved the problem. I was double-billed $30 for installation that was free in the package that I bought and the service wasn’t working right either. I feel your pain… but like you, Cindy, and Sabrina, I think there is a bigger problem.