Bastard Traffic wardens, Journalist scum, evil bankers etc.

Tiplodocus · 22 February, 2009, 11:05:24 PM

As I work in a Bank (and so does my wife), I've been unpleasantly suprised by the amount of vitriol directed towards *ALL* bankers recently.

I am now coming to realise what it's like to be a Traffic Warden or a Journalist where people have spent years using a lazy stereotype to blanket all the people that ply a particular trade.

That's all.

Roger Godpleton · 22 February, 2009, 11:14:08 PM

It's okay. We still love you.

I, Cosh · 22 February, 2009, 11:59:07 PM

It's the fact that everyone who works for a bank is suddenly a banker that I'm bemused by.

COMMANDO FORCES · 23 February, 2009, 04:52:51 AM

You want to feel what it's like being a squaddie or ex-squaddie. Now there's a group that are stereotyped, especially on the telly.
Although saying that it is getting better these days.

By the way 99 times out of a 100 the first question I am asked when people find out what I did is.................can anyone guess...................."Have you shot anyone?"

As I say stereotyped!

Bouwel · 23 February, 2009, 08:45:18 AM

Oh, I know your banker pain. I work for Marks & Spencers and I can guarantee that in any week I will get at least one of the following:

"You're not doing very well at the moment, are you?" (Said with a smirk)

"You haven't got <small item out of 6,000 food lines that we sell>. Are you closing?"

"Oh, the store's not like it used to be in <pick any pre-1970's date>"

"Have you got <item>. I bought it last week?" (Said item hasn't been sold by us since the early 1980's. Customer refuses to believe otherwise)

I could go on...and on...and on.......

-Bouwel-

TheEdge · 23 February, 2009, 09:13:06 AM

Quote from: "Tiplodocus"As I work in a Bank (and so does my wife), I've been unpleasantly suprised by the amount of vitriol directed towards *ALL* bankers recently.

I am now coming to realise what it's like to be a Traffic Warden or a Journalist where people have spent years using a lazy stereotype to blanket all the people that ply a particular trade.

That's all.

what do you Do in the bank and where.

I dont have big issues with Banks in general, i just have a problem with THE SYSTEM ( CONSPIRACY I TELL YA) and Investiment Bankers in london, they are GENERALLY arrogant pricks who think they are above everybody else because they earn more money than most.

Richmond Clements · 23 February, 2009, 10:02:10 AM

I know the feeling...
I work for the council- so anytime I go to a community meeting, or interact with the public- everything is MY FAULT.

I so much want to go off on a rant here... but dammit I can't!

johnnystress · 23 February, 2009, 10:37:37 AM

Quote from: "Tiplodocus"As I work in a Bank (and so does my wife), I've been unpleasantly suprised by the amount of vitriol directed towards *ALL* bankers recently.

I am now coming to realise what it's like to be a Traffic Warden or a Journalist where people have spent years using a lazy stereotype to blanket all the people that ply a particular trade.

That's all.

I bet you drive a BMW too

you monster!

worldshown · 23 February, 2009, 11:50:25 AM

I used to work in motor insurance, so I'm getting a kick out of these replies.

The last day of every month, 50% of calls we took were of the "I went to get my car tax today but you haven't sent me my certificate of insurance. I'm now going to be fined for having no tax...AND IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!!! Are you going to pay the fines for me? I didn't think so. What type of company treats it's customers this way. You can forget sending me my renewal, I'll be going with Admiral/Chirchill/Direct Line/Budget (delete as applicable) AND I'll be telling all my friends about this. And the Omnibusman (sic)." Angry, stupid people tend not to know what an Ombudsman is, but know it sounds vaguely threatening.

What every insurance clerk is thinking at this point is "Listen pal, your certificate of insurance was sent three weeks after you took the policy out. You do the same shit every six months when your tax is due. You get car tax reminder two weeks before it's due. That's two whole weeks to check that you've got all the documents you need and contact us if you are genuinely missing your certificate. So it's not my fault or my company's fault that you cannot look after a piece of paper sent out in an envelope marked "Important Documents: Please Keep Safe". No, we will not pay your fines, and as for your friends, I'm fairly safe in the assumption that the voices in your head don't have cars to insure."

Of course, what we have to say is "I'm terribly sorry Sir. I'll send a covernote out today and the certificate will follow. Now as part of our continuing study of our customers needs, would you say this conversation was very beneficial, beneficial, neutral or unhelpful?" because HR will be monitoring the call to weed out dangerous signs of individuality.

Footnote: I used to work in motor finance as well. It is not a good idea for me to engage in conversation with Taxi drivers.

SuperSurfer · 23 February, 2009, 11:57:20 AM

This is weird. I thought everyone else's job was easy apart from mine.

House of Usher · 23 February, 2009, 12:23:21 PM

I don't really hold the job they do against anybody. I do resent poor customer service, because most of it comes from the low intelligence and limited imagination of frontline staff. I also know it's pointless arguing with them because their comprehension is so limited. Often they don't even know their own organization's customer service policies, the law regarding refunds and exchanges, or the importance of good customer relations. So I just put up with this crap, hopeful of the day when I finally get a job that pays anything commensurate with my qualifications and gives me the opportunity to use anything like my full range of skills to anything like their full potential, because then I should be living life so much to the full that these petty annoyances wouldn't bother me.

I do a get a bit steamed at the employment situation in higher education. They now expect the lowliest research associate for a fixed-term contract to be far better qualified than many senior lecturers sitting on a cushy job for life, simply because of an accident of timing. Lecturing jobs were piss-easy to come by 10 years ago, but since then they've moved the goal posts. I know several people who almost failed their Ph.D.s 10 years ago, and had to do major corrections and even collect supplementary data because their first submission was so lacking, who are now employed as permanent lecturing staff. At the same time I can't even get a bloody interview, simply because the selection criteria have been narrowed since I got my Ph.D. - the quality of which is neither here nor there, because that's not university employers' major concern.

So the moral is: if you want to be a university lecturer, either qualify and get the job before 2000 (a bit late now), or don't worry about doing a good Ph.D., just publish as much half-baked, poor quality crap as you can in academic journals, because that impresses the interview panel. Never mind the quality; feel the width.

It's a pity they don't have a Stalinist purge of lecturing staff who got in when the bar was set low but who wouldn't get their jobs if they were applying for them now. I'd have half a chance of a job if they did that!
:evil:

The Legendary Shark · 23 February, 2009, 12:54:11 PM

It is easier (or more convenient) to hate a stereotype than understand a person. The ruling elite know this and so foster the compartmentalisation of people into groups like firemen and bankers, doctors and hoodies, asylum seekers and migrant workers by way of the mainstream media. Divide and conquer - oldest trick in the book. (and anybody who thinks that the media is never manipulated for political or financial purposes should take a look at this: //http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/15/1570.asp )

God forbid any of us learning that hoodies are people just like everyone else. If we all start to look at each other as human beings and not stereotypes, we might start to ask questions about why our society is so fractured in the first place - and that would never do, would it?

Governments only have power (the power to issue ID cards, install video cameras all over the country, the power to change the law so that police can arrest Anybody for Any Thing including littering, the power to send troops into illegal wars etc, etc, etc) because we give it to them. That power belongs to us and they're abusing it, but we're allowing them to abuse it. Why are we allowing it? Because we're all too busy being distracted by hoodies, bankers and terrorists to notice. We're at each other's throats. Big Brother doesn't need to watch us any more, he's got us watching each other.

Call me a conspiracy theorist if you want, but don't blame me when the One World Bank comes along, then the One World Currency, the One World Government, One World Army, One World Religion and a jackboot at the throat of your children.

We are all just people; good, bad or indifferent, so hating a stereotype is not only mindless but also very dangerous.

Credits have been deducted from your Wage Allowance to compensate for the time you have taken to read this post. You may now return to your Assigned Work Tasks. :twisted:

SuperSurfer · 23 February, 2009, 12:54:51 PM

I don't hold anyone's job against them. But I am amazed how some people can run their own business and be completely indifferent or downright unfriendly or rude to their customers. There is a local shop to me with two incredibly cold and unfriendly owners. I recently found a local web forum on which there were countless moans about these two owners. A few people wrote to say that they refuse to shop there because of the bad attitude. How can someone have a nice shop, with nice luxury products, all nicely displayed, think about every aspect of their shop and then completely ignore the customer service factor?

I have spent good money in that shop in the past. The Mrs and me were browsing in there recently and later on in the day I was sitting next to one of the owners on the tube and said owner was reading, doing the very common London rude trick of sticking her elbow in my ribs FFS!

This recession is going to separate the wheat from the chaff and businesses are going to have to try to get every aspect of their business right. They can ignore customer service at their peril.

Rant over.

Roger Godpleton · 23 February, 2009, 02:02:21 PM

QuoteIt is easier (or more convenient) to hate a stereotype than understand a person. The ruling elite know this and so foster the compartmentalisation of people into groups like firemen and bankers, doctors and hoodies, asylum seekers and migrant workers by way of the mainstream media.

This doesn't change the fact that stereotypes are funny.

Mikey · 23 February, 2009, 04:00:25 PM

QuoteI work for the council- so anytime I go to a community meeting, or interact with the public- everything is MY FAULT.

Ah, the joys of Public Service! Let me guess...you also need to have an encyclopaedic knowledge of all Government Departments, other Councils and What The Police Can Do About It? Plus, you're obviously on a Permanent Secretary's wage for doing sod all while real people have to work very hard for a mere pittance!

No one seems to think you might actually choose public service. I've listened to so much utter shite, abuse and total lack of understanding over the years...some people think the entire democratic system and the entirety of organised society SHOULD NEVER APPLY TO THEM unless it's directly to their benefit. It.Does.My.Bonce.In.

That cover it Rac?

:angry:

M.