10 January 2010

What ever happened to the "us" in Service?

I went to a grocery store recently and when I got to the checkout I had to pack my own bags.  Another time I was trying to find a full-serve gas station to fill up, but there was nothing to be found.  I had to wonder what do people with physical limitations do when they need to get gas?

I remember when self-serve gas stations first started.  The men loved it because they could get out and pump their own gas.  The incentive was you saved .002 cents a litre.  That was never enough to get me out of the car!  Now, there doesn't seem to be a difference in price at all, it is just common practice that we have to do it ourselves.  I travel far to try and find a full-serve station, but they are becoming extinct.

Recently, I bought a new laptop.  It was expensive,but when I brought it home I had to do all the work to get it up and running.  What is wrong with this picture?

The list can go on, but I think you get my drift.  What about in the office, are we asking our bosses to self-serve or are we providing quality administrative services?  Some of the younger bosses are certainly qualified and know how to do some things administratively, but is it an efficient use of their time and is it good job security for us?

One young boss told me that he was self-sufficient and didn't need assistance, but what I saw was someone doing more than they needed to.  I of course ignored him and went about providing the best service I could.  He loved it and I believe ended up doing his job better because of it.  We need to be assertive and show our bosses how much better they can function if the administrative jobs are taken care of by us.

Something to think about...

2 comments:

Jodith said...

That's a great point, Patricia. Many young executives have never had an assistant before and are so used to not having one, that they don't know how to utilize one. It's up to us to educate them on the benefits of an assistant. They won't know what we're capable of if we don't tell them, nor will they realize that letting us do some of the work actually saves the company money in the long run.

Anonymous said...

I completely agree with you on this one Patricia. When I first started the job I am in now, my boss had never had administrative support before. I could see him looking after himself, trying to organise his diary and all his emails etc, and he wasn't sure what to give me. It took me only a couple of days to go into his office and say, ok, ground rules!! We have these now and he's reliant on me to take these off of him to give him more time to focus on his job. He's found having a PA a great thing now and says he wouldn't be without one again!!