Customer Service & Bad Economy

I think I've been hearing less about the economy, but with unemployment still high, it's obvious that we haven't recovered. As a student in a graduate program, I'm not only a graduate assistant in my school's music department, but I'm working in retail. Again.

This time around, I'm actually enjoying it more than in my younger years. I was a book slave at Barnes & Noble for almost five years in four cities. Let's just say it's a nicer place to go to rather than be employed with. It's not the company, but the customers aren't exactly the most pleasant. Surprising, huh?

So you would think with such a bad economy, customer service would be the priority of companies and employees. Both desiring to make money, right? I was surprised to see that it's not necessarily the case. I work for a small, local consignment store where the people I work with are great, as are the customers and when they're not; we do everything we can to make it right.

I can also say that at Barnes & Noble, Best Buy and Starbuck's (amongst others) I have received exceptional customer service. There's a reason certain places are still in business. It's probably a combination of service, product and happiness of the employees themselves.

I walked into a certain department store that has been around for decades. It's not JC Penney's and it's not Macy's, but a similar retailer (I'm sure many can deduce which one) that I think has been struggling in this economy. Well, I thought I was buying two towels at $5.99 a pop. So I told the cashier...she was tired, but walked over to the section and did in fact find a stack next to the sign.

She said she couldn't do anything so I asked for the manager and explained to him that I should not be penalized for their mistake. Not only did he mumble about how I couldn't "read the sign" (I have a Bachelor of Arts in English and am pursuing an MFA in Writing), but he also said "whatever" when I said he had to validate the posted price.

I got my wish, but what was the cost? Do bad economy and bad customer service go hand in hand? And is it always the fault of the company or is it sometimes the fault of management and employees?

Broken American Dreams

Whether you want to blame the economy, politicians, war or price of oil; everyone agrees the American landscape has changed in the last few years. As a formerly full-time employed worker who has been on unemployment in the past, I can say from experience things aren't what I expected once I graduated college.

People across the country from all socio-economic backgrounds are facing the same struggles with earning and spending money. Some of us can hide out for a time in grad school, but what are we going to see when we finally get out of the protection of school?

I just heard a story about a young professor I work with who was beat out for a tenure position to a sixty-something professor who should be ready for retirement, but apparently had the connections to get the job. The scale seems unbalanced to me.

Everyone has heard of the American Dream: Get married, find a stable job, buy a house and have 2.5 kids. But is that still happening? What are the changes that are coming with the advent of social media and jobs being redistributed overseas? Are we working more for less money?

I've found in the last few years that I've been having to do several projects just to have what would be considered a normal "salary". Is this the norm these days? What's the opinion out there?