The Survey Environment and Crisis Handling
Was our Staff Courteous?
As a soldier, there are countless portals and customer service options for checking anything from pay issues to medical issues. Additionally, my Army email account is assaulted daily with customer service surveys. Bureaucracy has taken over the Army. As an example, when a soldier experiences a pay problem, the soldier can go online and submit a ticket or call customer service. The online sight boast that one can check the status online and once one places a phone call to the customer service, the soldier has the opportunity to create an online account and check the status. The only status one may check, however, is the status of the submitted ticket, not the actual problem.
Just as the Army is bogged down with bureaucracy, it is all the same for all of the government agencies. After one submits a ticket, one can expect an email with a survey. Of course that survey will not ask anything that you wish to address. It is design to make a bureaucrat justify his or hers existence and make them feel better about being a tax burden and a part of the slow-moving government. The problem you had may not be solved, but as long as you feel better because we have the concern, that is all that matters.
Now when it comes to my Army pay, I need it when I need it. I have no tolerance for someone botching or losing the paperwork involved, then trying to make me feel better for nothing being resolved. The surveys will always ask if the customer service representative was courteous or not. Who cares? Give me my money and you can call me everything but a child of God if you want. I want the problem solved and my money. I am not concerned about a bureaucrat’s warm fuzzy feeling about wasting my tax dollars.
This attitude seems to be the norm for our current administration. Two incidents come to mind. Most recently is the outrage that is being expressed over the TSA’s unreasonable searches. TSA chief John Pistole has expressed his concerns over the outcry but added that it will not change anything without a directive from the President. The President has expressed that he understands everyone’s frustration, but… The abuses are being broadcast every day. The President has said on TV that he understands, so that makes it all better. We have gotten a big group hug from our government and everything is hunky dory!
The other situation would be the Gulf oil spill crisis. Weeks passed before any attempt was made by our administration to do anything. Not that the administration DID do anything. The news should President Obama walking along the beach and picking up pebbles, studying them intently. WOW, way to DO SOMETHING! Then President Obama assured the public that they have been on the crisis since day one. The citizens of the Gulf Coast had nothing to worry about then! While President Obama was busy yelling “Just plug the damn hole”, he refused to allow foreign ships in the Gulf to help collect the spill. Crisis management at its finest!
I can’t help but wonder how many surveys were spit out by the government to the people on the Gulf Coast. I am sure they would ask if everyone was courteous or not. I am sure all the oil workers, out of work because of the pointless moratorium had a big, warm fuzzy glow of happiness surrounding them. Call me an *sshole if you want to, just clean up the damn oil!
