136 August 2012 BTM I rang, repeatedly; then checked the number with superiors, and I rang again. For three days I rang. The deadline hung around my neck like a tightening noose. On day four the person answered. “Where have you been?” I asked a little pretentiously. “In training meetings for three days,” came back the reply. “To learn what, dare I ask?” The response: “To improve communication skills with our customers.” Mon Dieu! Sadly, this is not an isolated case. Call any management between 8am and 11am and they are invariably in meetings, every single one of them, every single day! I understand training. But if all management are off the floor at the same time, if noone answers the phone for three days, if questions cannot be asked when needed, then, honestly, you deserve to have your business go broke. I’d love to work in some of these places. Everyone enjoys the freedom to do as they please when the bosses are not looking. Staff must go crazy during management training; they must all know the secret, that management is indisposed and un-contactable. Back when I was young, people were employed for their knowledge, skills and efficiency. They brought something to the table, elevated an institution by being there. Then, people seemed to be employed to fill the ranks. These days they seem to be employed to simply give them something to do. Another example comes via text to me from a PR friend, “Don’t call, I’m in a meeting with the general manager, every day, between 9am and 12 noon.” I agree the training of staff helps to retain them. I agree that management need to discuss important matters, budgets, maintenance, so on. But daily! For three hours! That’s 18 hours a week. Where I work we have a saying, “If I don’t need you for 18 hours a week, I don’t need you!” Doesn’t business evolve around the customer? Training, is that not secondary to customers’ needs? It would seem customers have become the annoyance, not the desire of businesses. Management meetings have their place, to solve problems and to disseminate information to the hoards, without the top people having to talk to each and every staff member. Information goes to department heads and departmentally the information can go out to the hungry ears of workers. But even that has become like Chinese whispers. I worked with management who stated after meetings, “I am noone’s messenger.” They felt it below them to pass the information along. So, what on Earth are meetings about and why do we bother with training, if management come away from such events feeling so empowered, so arrogant that they are beyond doing their job? My local bank kept telling me that my branch manager was in customer relations meetings; I could call him later. Surely if the meetings were worth a grain of salt they would have taught to return customers’ calls and apologise for not being available. If I headed up a training school, I would teach like the old days — customers first! No customers! No business! No job! Is that such a hard premise to understand or is money being made so easily these days that customers are really a burden to a business? I need a training course myself now; on patience, resilience and understanding of the way this world is heading. For three decades I held the highest position I could in my career. I was lucky to be given the chance as a youth and entrusted with the position I held ever since. This, though, has not stopped me from continuing to learn. I understand training like few others. If I don’t continue to learn, then I suffer dearly at the hands of younger, smarter, more out-of-the-box thinking staff members. Training is essential to my survival. That’s what I thought anyway! You see, my first career was in hospitality. Thirty years ago we were taught that the customer is always right. They are, after all, paying the bills and salaries of staff via their room or food bills. I have also worked around the world, in the same industry, and am fully aware that customers have taken advantage of this statement and have tried to milk it for all it’s worth. But if we turn our back on customers then what is the point of being in business? No customers, no sales, no income, no job, no business. Simple math! I recently rang to speak to management at a hotel for an interview, to appear in a local newspaper. Deadline loomed large in my second, journalistic career; importance and ego loomed large in theirs! The interview was, in effect, to be about them. JAMES CLAIRE When training takes us away from the very people who are the subject of our learning, are we not training for our own demise? lastword Training Day Great place for a meeting: no phones and no customers!
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy Mjk0MTkxMQ==