A Nerd and a Blog.
Archive for March, 2010
New Project: NewsStats.org
Almost as a curiosity I’ve decided to try to start a new project called NewsStats.org. The site will work as a collaborative site of individuals who are news/commentary junkies who are willing to spend a little time fact checking the news/commentators or even news makers to see who is spouting absolute BS and who is reasonably authentic. The rules will be simple:
- Researchers must remain neutral no matter their political leanings. If they’re conservative and prove a lefty right, report it, same is true if a lefty proves a conservative to be correct.
- Academic standards for research.
- No opinions, just: Fact, False, Half-and-Half, and sources.
That is pretty much it. I’m not yet ready to begin launching the site but if anyone is interested please stay tuned. You can begin at anytime and simply just keep your records, include Name of Show, Broadcast date/time, story name, and link to video if possible in addition to the basic criteria.
If anyone has questions, contact me.
Death and Taxes
704 days
by Brad
in Commentary
How often do you use public services like Transit or Parks?
- Frequently (2 - 3 times a week) (100%, 1 Votes)
- Consistently (Daily) (0%, 0 Votes)
- Often (4-5 times a week) (0%, 0 Votes)
- Occasionally (4 times in a month) (0%, 0 Votes)
- Rarely (Average of 1 time a year) (0%, 0 Votes)
- Never (0%, 0 Votes)
Total Voters: 1
Loading ...I enjoyed listening to the most recent edition of Consider This by local commentator and former Chelan County PUD Commissioner Werner Janssen on KOHO 101.1 FM Leavenworth (streaming online worldwide if you’re interested in some great music). I almost always agree with Mr. Janssen’s positions, and this week is no exception.
Taxes is a subject of great heated debate. No one likes paying taxes, not even I do. It is the interesting part of living in a civilized American Republic, and somewhat of a burden similar to Jury Duty. We must all pay taxes, and when called, we must serve our country on a Jury. In other countries, people don’t have the luxury of trial-by-jury. Also in other countries, people don’t have the other luxuries we have all but taken for granted. I don’t enjoy paying taxes just as much as most people don’t enjoy getting a root canal at the dentists office. However, I have lived in communities with significant taxes and seen the benefits.
Arizona has sales tax, property tax, and an income tax (some call a “State Tax”), which is a percentage of your Federal Income Tax. Sales taxes include state sales tax, county sales tax, and municipal sales tax. Not to mention there are property taxes. While some parts of Arizona are veritable crapholes, and others are havens of upper class white society, I lived in a unique town. Tempe is a suburb of Phoenix, and is completely landlocked, meaning other cities and towns have annexed all the land around the city making it impossible to grow. The city is host to Arizona State University, and is smack in the middle of a giant “interchange” of sorts with five freeways passing through it’s boundaries surrounding most of the city in a big square of freeways. It’s not the wealthiest city by far, that might fall upon Scottsdale to the north. It’s not even the newest and shiniest, which arguably is Chandler to the south. It’s not the State Capitol, which is Phoenix to the West, nor is it the quazi-native reservation town of Guadalupe also to it’s west, and it certainly isn’t Mesa, with all it’s Mesa-ness (if you’ve ever lived or been through there, you know what I’m talking about). It’s Tempe. It’s the blue stain on an otherwise red state. It is one of the only Democratic areas of the state (our Representative to Congress is one of the only Dems from Arizona). It also has some of the higher taxes in the state.
Yet I loved living there. Why?
The streets were for the most part well kept (a few problems here or there). I never felt afraid walking around at night, as there were cops all over the place. For comparison, I now live in a very conservative area of Washington that is a newly forming metropolitan area (they’re up around 100,000 people now), and I can drive through the city at any hour of the day on any day of the week and maybe see 1 patrol car. I couldn’t go 3 miles without seeing one in Tempe. The Police reacted well and fast, as did the Fire Department. They are right on the Light Rail line, the only one in the Phoenix area. Even without that, they have one of the best bus services in the Valley Metro network (Tempe In Motion, the city Transit Authority working with Valley Metro), having both fixed Valley Metro routes, more local routes, and a system of free shuttles. Their library, which they were remodeling when I moved north, is one of the better ones in the area. They also have an Adult Rec Center, an Arts Center, a larger Performing Arts Center on the banks of Tempe Town Lake, an impressive system of parks and trails, the list goes on-and-on of available services. They even have some of the best public schools in the state.
The point I am making is living in this part of Arizona made me realize that taxes, although a part of life that everyone dislikes, are not the problem. My slogan is “Not just taxes, but the right taxes“.
Do Government bodies everywhere need to take a good hard look at their expenditures, separating the priorities from the ‘nice-to-have’ services? Yes, and not just ‘yes’, but HELL YES. Parks are a priority, but commissioning new public art to go there is a ‘nice-to-have’ sort of expenditure, just for an example. Those type of programs can be set aside for sunnier days ahead.
However, we in this land need to really stop the “I’m taxed enough and mad as hell!” attitude. Most people don’t even pay their fair share of taxes, instead looking for whatever loophole or credit will allow them to shave off a few bucks. People complain about paying taxes to support a mass transit that, and I paraphrase from many people ‘run empty all the time and I never use’. Why don’t you ever use it? Ever wanted to go downtown window shopping for the day? Take the bus, it’s cheaper and safer than finding a place to park. Going to the game? Take the bus and don’t worry about only having just one brew (although don’t over do it).
Tax payers are always pissed off about taxes because THEY don’t see value in it for THEM. What does a well staffed fire department do for me? I never have a fire! Why should I pay to have a county sheriff? I have my trusty guns! I don’t have children, so why do I have to pay school taxes? I’m not dead, why do I have to pay cemetery taxes? Don’t hospital bills cover all the cost of running the hospital? What is this Hospital District bull?
- The Fire District helps you because a well trained group of individuals stands ready not because you may be a fire waiting to happen, but because accidents happen: electrical wires short out, ovens stay on, candles get knocked over, or, your idiot neighbor IS a fire hazard and you want some one to put it out before it takes down your home too. Not to mention most, if not all, are also EMS.
- Police/Sheriff should be a no brainier here. Honestly.
- Everyone pays taxes to the School District because the pool of educated individuals pumped out by Public Schools keeps the community with someone to fill jobs, open new businesses, or after a lot of education, return to be doctors, lawyers, or teachers. Get over the fact you don’t have children and accept the fact that you are investing in the sustainability of your community.
- Cemetery districts pay to keep the public cemetery from being a weed infested fire hazard. This should be simple to understand as well.
- Parks beautify the city, create open spaces to promote a stable environment, provide places for citizens recreate, and break up the otherwise bland landscape of homes and buildings. Parks attract businesses, which create jobs, which creates prosperity.
- Public Transit ensures that low-income individuals as well as students and commuters can get to and from work and their shopping. Without Public Transit, some people would not be able to patronize businesses, which means lost revenue. There would be increased traffic congestion from more people commuting by car.
I could try to explain every single thing most Governments do and how they benefit everyone not just those that use the services, but I really don’t have the time. If you honestly cannot see how something benefits you, you’re looking at the situation very plainly, black and white instead of colors. The world isn’t monochrome.
I encourage people to look at government services and ask: why am I not using something I’m paying for? It is there for you to use, so go ahead! Besides, a trip to the park would do the belt sizes of some Americans (mine included) some good. Remember, it is not how much you pay in taxes you should be worried about, but instead how best those are being used.
Just my opinion, and thankfully I can have one.
Fixing Symptoms instead of Fixing Problems
On Sunday nights since there is not much else to do I usually end up sitting through Undercover Boss on CBS, right after The Amazing Race. If you haven’t seen this show, it is a reality series following Executive level management, CEO or President, as they go undercover in their own organizations. Sounds like a dream come true, right?
It is… sort of.
I’ll skip over the fact this show seems to look for feel good moments instead of actual business innovation, and just go to the episode tonight covering GSI Commerce and their CEO Michael Ruben.
One of the things that I took notice of immediately is his visit to a call center and specifically working on the Level III escalation line. Third level of service for upset customers. Mr. Ruben works with two employees, one named Adam who is amazing, and Danielle, who is not so much. I’m going to focus on this last interaction, because I think it underscores some of the issues facing call center environments today.
Danielle encountered a call in which a customer was promised a price and through a fault of the company was not able to receive that price. Since the sale ended, the only option is to purchase at full price and then issue a rebate. As predicted, this did not sit well with the customer, as it rightfully should not.
The problem is Mr. Ruben, at least in how the show aired (I will give the benefit of the doubt and say things may have happened that were not shown), is that Mr. Ruben identified the symptom rather than the problem.
Symptom: Employee is rude to a customer because the customer will not accept the offer given.
That is a symptom. The real problem:
Problem: The system only allows employees to follow very tight protocols that do not line up with customer expectations.
See, for CEOs, Presidents, and any other executive level managers out there, many do not see the problem, only the symptom, and they treat the symptom. The employee was retrained and eventually no longer worked there.
Mr. Ruben identified the symptom, treated the symptom, and then found the symptom working its way back. Why?
THE PROBLEM STILL EXISTED!
Most people who work in middle to upper-middle management, in my humble opinion, are either clueless or controlling. They either cannot see problems right in front of them, or, they see them but they do not care: operations will continue the way the feel they should go.
The solution to the problem was not to retrain the individual, but to identify what is preventing that individual working in a tier three support level from fixing the issue. In this case it was a company mistake that kept a customer from receiving a promised sale price. At tier three, if the operator cannot override the price then a huge problem exists: a lack of empowerment.
Call Centers in general suck for two reasons: there is no empowerment, and, there is overkill on metrics. Employees cannot solve customer problems if they are not capable of actually fixing the customer problems (and not saying “Call corporate because I can’t help you”, which is unfortunately the truth in many cases). A customer cannot receive a published sale price due to a company problem? Override the price, apologize, and eat the shipping. Instead of dancing around a rebate. This is endemic of every call center I have ever worked at: no empowerment. I won’t even get into the overkill on metrics tonight.
The point is I really wish people in any sort of management role would get it through their thick skulls that restricting an employees ability to solve issues does nothing but hasten burn out and cause customer turnover. Losing customers and employees is something that should be seen with disgust by anyone in executive management. Instead it is an acceptable part of business to many.
Any time a business loses a customer, the business has failed in a way that is unacceptable, regardless of the reason. Yes, the customer may have been so demanding and uncooperative that seeing them walk feels like a blessing, but a real hard look needs to be taken to find out why that customer had any reason to be that way. Sure, some times it is absolutely impossible to meet customer demands (like not having to navigate a phone tree at all), but it is possible to lessen the impact (having only two levels of a phone tree, or one).
Same goes with losing an employee. Is the workforce management scheduling set up in such a way that there is no breathing room? Is it set up to only allow one person out of 500 to be off sick or vacation at any time? Is the system working against the employee? Do they not have the empowerment and decision making latitude to actually solve problems? Are they measured on a plethora of KPIs? Is the environment designed to be both hostile and stressful? If a manager can answer yes to any of the above questions, they have committed epic fail and need to rectify the situation immediately.
Business management, while seen as this incredibly difficult task that only someone with a degree can understand, is not all that difficult. It is only as difficult as a manager or executive makes it. The right recruiting, the right training, the right empowerment, the right structure, the right workforce management, the right benefit and compensation package, and the right work environment can all work together to create a perfect storm of success. However if any one of those items is off, the business will trudge through. They may make a profit, they may increase sales, but at what cost?
It is asinine that after working in several different environments I have yet to find someone in management with an BSB or MBM that understands this concept, or, are humble enough to take suggestions from those who work with them and for them.
American businesses will continue to struggle until managers and executives get away from the idea that winning today is the only battle, and move towards winning long term being the battle worth focusing on. Anyone can get through today, however, can you set the operations of your business or division to be able to succeed not 5, 10, or 15 years from now, but 100 years from now? Can you lay groundwork that will allow exponential growth, mimimal employee and customer turnover, and a stress free environment? If you can’t, the degree you earned isn’t worth anything and it would be a good idea to find a new career in something else.
Just the opinion of a former low level supervisor that had zero employee turnover and clear stable growth for his entire tenure.