You are not Hired to Think!

NCH pointed out that ISO9000 is not environmentally-friendly because it forces you to waste paper. ISO's also makes the staff brainless. It trains and requires staff to just follow procedures even though the procedures are downright stupid. Don't follow the rules and you lose your ISO certification.

This is not my first encounter with Maxis' red tape. Went with my wife to switch my line to her Family Plan line (you can call family members for free). My wife is right in front of them and they have to fill in a form, get her to sign and then photocopy her IC. Straight forward, right? Bureaucratic but not too bad. Then I told the staff, "make sure you keep my international roaming". "Oh, in that case I need your passport", she looked at my wife. That's when I got really annoyed. I said you fellas are worst then a government department (offence intended). She repeated and continued with the response she was trained to give. "This is procedure. I am just doing my job". I said, "I have been a customer for 11 years and WITH international roaming". My wife also has international roaming. Why do you need a copy of her passport. "Oh, now we allow you to fax the passport to us", she said. I said that is not the point. Note that they are not asking for MY passport but my wife's - oh, didn't I say she already has international roaming for 11 years? The clerk stood her ground and say, "you go to any company also it is the same".

I asked to see her superior. I think she was trained to try to resolve the issue herself. She ignored me and repeated the standard response - "this is procedure". I think I asked three times before she brought her senior officer. The officer came and click around the screen. I asked if she can see my 11 years of unbroken record of prompt payment using my credit card. I doubt they have those information on demand. The senior repeated that it is a requirement. I repeated that they are worst then a government department. And I said if they don't want my business, I am happy to take it elsewhere. She mumbled something, disappeared behind the door, came back a few minutes later and instructed the counter staff to activate the account. She must have consulted HER superior.

What does that tell you? We don't allow the staff to think. We don't train them to think. We don't empower them so that there can be a higher authority who supposedly do all the thinking. So, down the line, they just follow instruction and then all hell breaks loose like what happen with the "uploading" of the list of successful applicants to USM. We don't make them part of the decision-making. "You tell me to upload, I upload. I am not required, or allowed, to ask whether it is the correct list. Someone else is responsible for making sure it is the correct list. I just upload. I don't have to think." And like me at the Maxis office, the customers get bloody mad.