a- Try calling for a missed newspaper delivery? First, you'll get a recording..."Let's see...punch in your telephone #"...after listening to the list of 7 options, have you forgotten the one you think you want? Next, "we're sorry, but our automatic system this morning is not working...please yell, in Spanish or English, what do you need?...sorry, we cannot understand your reply...please speak slowly and enunciate clearly....sorry, we still cannot understand your request. Please hang up and try again next week!" This message is coming from India. Dumbing down?
b- It's Friday evening...usually that means eating out for me, and a sit down restaurant is just too costly and time consuming. That left, for the first time in many months, a trip to Dave's place, for chili, a small salad and a baked potato. After sitting down, with only three other diners in the entire dining room, on a Friday evening, I began to notice the food selected. Let's see...the lid came off the chili to find a mass of thick goo (OLD!). The sealed two-pack of crackers were Ok. Off the cover for a small salad found a handful of green leaves lining down on the bottom of the plastic container...my salad? And the baked potato?...also goo, burnt potato stuck to peel! I liked the small cup of iced water. Dave, I sure wish you were still around to clean up this dumbing down of our American society of eateries. In the meantime, NO MORE dining at Dave's.
c- My last time having business at a DMV: "Ma'am, I would like to explain what I need...", I politely said to the woman everyone has to 'go through' for anything at the DMV front desk.
"I don't have time to sit here and listen to you...I'm busy...."
I sent a letter back to the DMV "Customer Service" in Richmond, Va. Two weeks later received a reply, stating that "they" checked with that person at the front desk and that nothing like that occurred!...hmmm. By the way, a letter is being sent to the Governor's office!
d- "Tell him that I'm in a meeting." That was a LIE! I had stopped to ask someone in charge of a construction project when a certain feature would be hoisted on top of a building and overhead that person say that to a secretary down the hall. That was a dumbing-down offense! That was an insult and, again, a lie. I, instead, went to another source later in the week and got an answer.
e- So, squire has created a new term...ADEPTING-UP!, making it the opposite of dumbing-down. When I, you, observe someone conscientiously going the extra kilometer and adroiting, too, please pause a moment in time to thank them in person or write a LETTER to a CEO or e-mail with praise of their character. Here's where I'll mention Whitney, a cashier at the Williamsburg, Va. Walmart*. I did write a letter of praise to the manager there and to a CEO at the corporate office in Arkansas!
For the record, this sociologist creates words when the one in the dictionary is not available...therefore, 'ADEPTING-UP' was created to mean moving up with highly skilled abilities!
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