My very good friend from the Hie'lans of Scotland, the lovely Lizzy remarked the other day about the legacy some of today's society are leaving our children...our indifference and pass-the-buck mindset, our consumerism and distorted sense of entitlement. It seems to both Lizzy and I that qualities like civility, accountability, nobility, class (as in elegance not social division) are no longer virtues worth striving for.
What bothers me now is the image more than substance way of the world - we're fed an almost continual diet of spin, spin, spin. Companies now have business plans and corporate strategies and people have to be seen to be doing the right thing - even when it's obvious they wouldn't know the right thing if it bit them on the nose. But in these days of rising unemployment and recession, those of us lucky to have jobs know we have to comply to projecting the right image or risk losing our livelihood. Imagery at least means civility is still part of 'the business plan' although there are times when this is stretched to the limit. Working in the field of Human Resources, I have to field unsolicited telephone calls on a daily basis from companies trying to sell us a service we don't want. These can illicit replies listed below - but how I yearn to say what I really mean...
Caller: Hello, let me introduce myself, I'm Joe Bloggs from Bloggs, Bloggs and Bloggs and I wondered if you could spare me a moment of your time...?
Me: Yes, no problem, how may I help
Jesus, how the hell did this clown get past the switchboard?
Caller: Good morning Mr Smith, how are you today?
Me: I'm very well thank you - and you?
Shit, she's asking me how I am. This means half an hour on the phone talking gibberish.
Caller: I see you have a job placed in today's Scotsman newspaper. We can offer you a special deal on our website as one of our advertisers has pulled out and for a specially discounted rate we can place your advert for hugely reduced rate.
Me: Well, that's very kind of you but we have already spent our advertising budget on this post.
Discounted rate my arse. If you think we're going to advertise in your greasy rag, think again pal.
Caller: I'm pleased to say your company's name has come out of the hat and you've won a big box of chocolates, free gratis and with no catch. Can a colleague and I come over to deliver the chocolates and have five minutes with you to discuss what we can offer?
Me: Oh, thanks very much but I don't have the time or the resources to chat with you at this moment in time. But perhaps in a few weeks -meantime, you can just leave the chocolates at reception.
Aye, right - name out the hat indeed. You're extracting the urine, pal - and it'll be a box of cheapo choccies from Poundstretcher...
Me: Thank you, dear reader, for reading my latest post. Your visit to this site is important to me.
You: Away and talk p**h, man - dinnae think I'm visiting this site again...
4 comments:
Delighted to have spent time with you this evening Mike. I enjoyed it immensely. We must do this again sometime.
Aye right!
I agree with you Mike there does seem to be this yearning for these types of qualities... my question is, will we give people who display these types of qualities a chance? It seems to me that even if someone has these types of qualities that there is so much cynacism (probably because of the types of calls that you talk about, the types of advertising that we see all the time, the types of people that we deal with)... that people that have these qualities might not even be taken seriously. The cycle feeds the cycle...
That is so true Mike. Some of the phone calls I get from people, or just people I meet at different offices...it makes me lose faith in the human race. It's very sad and I shudder to think they are reproducing children that will probably act like they do...
Totally with you. Its not spin its Bulls**t and being a con artist. My Scottish ex was superb at it. Ethics and decency never rated. Sell, sell sell with an aim to rip someone off. As for Legacy well some things never change. I went to the hopsital to visit my Dad and the guy across the way was unmistakably a Scotsman. There on his bedside table was a bottle of Irn Bru (not an Aussie drink of choice). He came from Glasgow 47 years ago. Made me smile.
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