FOLKS BEING RUDE! UNCARING! DEMANDING! All Becoming More Common?
FROM CUSTOMER SERVICE TO COLLEGE CAMPUSES, PEOPLE WANT IMMEDIATE RESPONSE, AND OFTEN BRISTLE WHEN THEY DON'T GET IT!
The Internet! Wasn't it supposed to make life easier? Give everyone more information, whenever they needed it? More leisure time, perhaps? And help us become more . . . well, civil?
For some, the wealth of information, all in an instant, has had an opposite effect. People now take instant gratification for granted. No immediate call back to a web inquiry, to an email, to an instant message, to a text - it's already too late!
All cell phones have Caller ID now. When you call someone, they immediately have your most private, personal number. And many feel they have a right to use it - any time, day or night, weekday or weekend.
Tell the caller you are with your family - it makes no difference. They want an answer NOW! Instant access, of a nature we couldn't even contemplate as little as ten years ago, has brought on its own problems.
Not that I am big on formality, mind you, but callers are often casual. Trying to talk like they know you for years and years. And act as if they expect a complete answer, on any question, from the hip - right away!
An article in today's Chicago Tribune by reporter Lisa Black focuses on how college students are casual to their professors and instructors. And, often times, the student's parents are just as demanding, and often rude.
But the same can be said of clients and customers in any sales or consulting business, especially one dealing with the general public. Beck and call today means 24/7 - and that can be stressful . . . yes?
Set your boundaries today, on Labor Day, 2009! You are taking time off, aren't you?
Stay away from that cell phone - and give Facebook and Twitter a rest.
Until tomorrow, anyway!
DEAN MOSS & DEAN'S TEAM CHICAGO
