Saturday, November 7, 2015

My View Of The View

It saddens me that I just watched a report about Carly Fiorina's appearance on The View.

I do not know when the "demented" statement was made, nor do I know who made the comment because I didn't care. For that matter, I still don't. So, these grown women started bullying a presidential candidate when we all have serious issues to address.

Carly Fiorina challenged these ladies and snagged an appearance on the show. The ladies hosting the show were not necessarily kind to their guest when they probably should have been. I have been told that their ratings are dropping and this was probably an opportunity to correct that problem.

Instead of honoring Barbara Walters' legacy of informative, interesting reporting we watched grown women defend their childish behavior in a way that was very similar to any verbal fight that most of us witnessed in the cafeteria in junior high school.

When Barbara Walters first started The View in 1997, I was pleased. She was giving women the opportunity to express their opinion about everything and anything, including political issues. Yes, Barbara Walters could see that our world was changing and that women had an important role in its development. Not everybody had noticed, but Barbara recognized it, pushed for the show and broke ground for women to step up and be noticed. Thank you, Barbara.

Now putting politics aside, not all women fail to see and act on ideal opportunities. Many women seek ideal opportunities out and behave in a professional manner. I'm sorry, Barbara.

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

That's Nice.

I was at the grocery store and had a discounted item in my order. I know I didn't need the toy, but I had picked it up anyway since it was a bargain. As the woman processed my order I noticed that the discounted item did not reflect the reduced price so I pointed it out to her. She glanced at the monitor and replied, "You will have to go to customer service. I'm new and they never showed me how to do anything like that."

I inhaled deeply as she continued on about how it wasn't her problem and I had a dozen thoughts run through my mind. She continued to ramble about something and  I heard her say, "It's not my fault." I looked her directly in the eye and clearly replied, "That's nice!"

At that very moment, I wanted to completely go off the deep end and give her every bit of what I had built up over the past week. It was nobody's fault that my pharmacy didn't have their employee trained last week, but I was patient and walked the young man through the entire process over the phone. It wasn't anybody's fault that a side effect from my new medication was not printed on the insert that I received, but I was understanding of the oversight. It surely wasn't that girl's fault at the drive through window when two drinks were missing from my order and I know that because she told me so.

Somebody is at fault.

At the grocery store, the young lady that was working bagging my order spoke up and said, "It might show the reduced price when the order is totaled. If it doesn't show the markdown I will go over to customer service with you and we will get it fixed." All of my concern and built up frustration was immediately gone. Neither she nor I cared about who was at fault, but as a customer I now had a team!

The woman totaled my order. Sure enough, the reduced price showed up. I pointed it out to the cashier because she didn't notice even though I'm sure she would tell me that it wasn't her fault that she wasn't paying any attention. In a way, I feel guilty about my next action but in a way I don't. It's a fault of mine that I will rethink and reconsider every scenario.

I turned to the woman and said, "You need to listen to this young lady because she knows what she is doing and she is not afraid to take corrective action."

I'm still on the fence about my little comment but, it does occur to me that I could have made a scene to find out exactly who was at fault.

Do you allow your employees to admit fault and take corrective action?