Taking

[OnBackground]

So does it matter that the waiter at the restaurant is slow and surly, the stewardess on my flight isn’t helpful, or the person at the register in my local supermarket barely more than grunts at me? Should that matter whether or how much I care about their rights? And does it?

I believe in the rights of workers and have opposed automation of every last job in the world for years. I think that “efficiency” is going too far as it whittles away at our jobs, and takes the human touch out of human interaction in the marketplace and, indeed, most kinds of work.

I have been an active member of unions, and strongly support the rights of working people. I avoided the self checking machines when the first came into my grocery and my library, pressed the button to speak to an operator when I called an airline or an electronic helpline, and was aghast when I found out years ago that (at the time) Japanese automatic teller machines were only generally open when the bank was because people just used them to avoid having to deal with tellers.

But the truth is so many people in customer service are rude, uninterested in service, or at least aloof. Now I know from experience that many of them are probably that way because they have to deal with rude, demanding customers for minimal pay and few benefits, are often forced to work in difficult situations and are treated with little respect by their employers and customers. And the fear that their jobs may be automated or outsourced is surely not doing anything for morale!

But if the staff at a restaurant, clothing store, car dealership, or coffee shop is rude, unhelpful, or just ineffective, I may not come back. The service is part of the package of what I’m buying.

In the same way, if the checker at the market is rude then maybe I tend to opt into the self check line. But should I? After all, when I run my own groceries through the scanner, buy my plane tickets online, or play with the automatic operator help system, I am taking a job away from someone. And while it might be more efficient for the company to build a machine than pay a worker, and it may even speed up my exit and cut through the hassle, isn’t it probable that the market understaffs checkers and operators to encourage me to do it online and to save themselves money?

What do you think?

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. In some ways some of those jobs

will go away, regeardless of what we do

But most of the problem that I see are the pressures from all sides on labor. You have been active in labor, hence you know how much they have taken away from labor...

Some jobs will be gone, regardless of what we do.. others will be here, but the question is... with what rights

Now a general comment is that our society has become ever increasintly more rude... and uncaring... but that is a symtom of where we are going as a society, and it is NOT a nice place, by the way

[oppositionmember]

2. I almost never bus my own tray.

Somebody might lose their job.

[FormerDittoHead]

3. A responsive government should set the rules...

and then we should be left to make economic decisions directly.

I believe government should end monopolies, curb olgopolies, encourage competition, tax wealth, institute stiff tarrifs, enact affirmative action, and more. (in other words, all the stuff it's not doing now)

I believe we should have *MORE* unions, starting with retail clerks (Walmart!)

After that, however, you should be on your own to prove your worth in a free economy.

In other words, if you're a lousy waitress, YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO EXPECT A GOOD TIP! As you indicated, they provide a SERVICE. If they honestly don't want to do the job, (as it seemed) why should they get rewarded for it? If I don't do MY job, *I* don't get paid for it!

If you're a company producing a product inferior and more expensive to one imported from another country that otherwise treats its workers well and isn't 'flooding our market', selling below their cost to put our companies out of business, YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO EXPECT PROTECTION FROM THE GOVERNMENT!

IMO, the government should make the 'playing field' FAIR, using the tools it already has, and then we can left to go about our business without having to worry about what this manufacturer does overseas, what that retailer did in Mississippi, etc etc.

[Kenneth ken]

4. I almost never get bad service

anywhere. I always try to treat the people I deal with the way I would like to be treated. I know most of the people at my grocery, because I go there two or three times a week. I tend to go back to the same businesses for my needs, so I become recognizable. But I don't actually buy a lot, so I have fewer overall encounters than some other people might have.

Plus, due to my work schedule, I tend to shop at off-peak hours, so I probably encounter people when they're less-stressed than other might.

I do tend to avoid automation, and have only used the self-scan at the grocery once, mostly to see what it was like. I have more respect for checkers now. They're much better at finding bar codes than I am. :)