Tuesday 2 June 2009

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.

7 comments:

PJ said...

I had a similar problem at HSBC KL. I had to apply for visa and needed them to certify my HSBC UK bank account. Its easy isn't it. Just check their online records and sign. But they said UK is UK, KL is KL, they are not allowed to certify. ZS was there with me and he said he has rarely seen me so furious. Maybe it was because of the long wait and unhelpful staff. I demanded to see the manager and would not leave until he certified it. The Manager did it in the end. I don't think its not that they don't think, they just don't care and all that rubbish about being a global bank. Enough said.

Abe said...

stupidity without comprehend!
im switching!

Vivian Lee said...

does this mean I get to call you for free now?

:D heheh

you know, I was thinking that when I was younger I got scolded by you for being 'so rigid' about some school thing. Can't remember what it was exactly about, but I guess I was pretty worked up about doing it just like the teacher specified, and you said something like 'why do you have to follow it so exactly'...

My point being, good students always do what they're told to do (you sometimes get punished if you don't), I blame the school system for making us all uncreative unthinking robots, and maybe we should have more pity/patience for those who don't know any better. I mean, not everyone is as lucky to get parents like you guys;)

will be home soon. lalalalalalala

msleepyhead said...

It's pretty much the same at USM when you wish to do postgraduate studies at IPS.

Even for USM's own students to apply to do Master's after getting their Bachelor's from USM, they still need to go through the complete process of submitting the copies of SPM, Bachelor's, etc. certificates.

And the process repeats after you have obtained your Masters from USM, they treat you as if they've no record of you and you need to submit all those forms again.

And why SPM certificates at all government departments when you already have a Bachelor's from any government universities?

Anonymous said...

hye..

wei-chiat said...

well i would have to say that you're absolutely right.
All companies would train their staff on a "need to know" basis. All they were trained for was just for the survival of the business. That is why they are not hired to think. They are only the hired to execute orders given by the higher authorities.

anyways,
its time to change (DIGI)

YM said...

ms sleepyhead, if you think IPS is bad, HR is worse. I have been working here for 10 years and the officer is still asking for copies of my degrees...after I have submitted copies upon copies of it during my ten years here (for all sorts of purposes and applications).