Categories: uncategorized
Date: 27 February 2006 16:18:38
What are hard, stressful day I've had.
Arriving at the office for 11:30. Going out to lunch at 13:30 and getting back in at 15:30, then only because we were evicted from the pub. Thankfully it was all in aid of business and increasing the company's profitability. Tomorrow sees more of the same.
The odd thing is that we are not very busy with my main customer at present. I can go for 2 days a week without any serious work to do. Thankfully my other customer seems to plug the gaps.
My boss is onre of those reasonable people who is always happy when the money is roling in and we are making a good profit. He fails to understand, however, that if the customer is quiet then we are quiet too. The only time I really hear from him is when we're chasing payment or I make a large profit on a shipment.
Its never: "Hello, how are you? How is your mother in law?" It's always: "When are we getting the next payment? Do you know how much under budget we could be if you don't generate more work?" Very occasionally I'll have a conversation like last week. "Hi, I've just seen that you made a £3000 profit on this shipment. Is this correct? Oh, great. Just checking."
As I get older, I'm getting more and more annoyed at this attitude to things. Customer service is not as important as making a few extra quid profit. We're told that the customer service is our number one strength. It is important that we keep them happy but even more important if we can use it as an opportunity to leech a few more quid out of them.
As we strive to increase sales and profits we are promised personal rewards for the staff. Maybe that's why we've only had 1 year in 5 when we've actually be given a share via the staff incentive scheme. It was 11 months last year before we were told that there were to be no bonuses. Instead of being honest and telling us that they hadn't sorted out the incentive scheme, we were told that becuae the UK performances was not up to standards we wouldn't get anything. The fact that the branch I work at made over £1m profit meant nothing.
If money is to be the sole motivation for business today, then the lesat they could do is reward the people who actually do the work. However, that isn't in the best interests of the company. Yet they tell us that their staff are their no. 1 asset.