Professionalism in the work place....WHERE has it gone?

its an american thing . havent had that problem dealing with companies here .
here theyd be fired for behaving like that .

(Good to see you OP!)

You want to talk professionalism? Oh Boy. While at the company I work for, we are allowed to wear jeans, but of course we have to be clean and neat. We don't see customers but maybe once every six months, then of course we dress to the 9's. But since we have been bought?
Let's see. My boss, is sleeping with the CEO. We have no training on their daily procedures. If you don't kiss ass with the plant manager, you get wrote up.
And customer service? We were taught, that you answer the phone, by the second ring, and no matter what kind of day you are having, you answer that phone with a smile. The customer is the most important thing in your world.

Now? LOL who cares if you answer the phone? We actually have one girl who hangs up on customers, intentionally, and claims it is an accident.
Customers are idiots. We don't have time for their bs.

And they wonder why sales are down.

Man I would love to adore the company I work for, but I have see what happens to the over achievers in my department. They are given useless but impressive sounding titles with no increased compensation. The company sees an eager, hungry individual and proceeds to abuse the snot out of them. After about 2-3 years the overachievers have finally burnt out and with the knowledge and certifications they gained, leave the company for double the pay at minimum.

I would love to offer the company everything I have and accelerate our profits but at some point you have to be true to yourself. It is so demoralizing to see my coworkers abused simply for going above and beyond.

Don't get me wrong, I love what I do. I earn my paycheck and give the company everything they ask for at my current position and pay. I feel a strong sense of responsibility to give up to the level that I am compensated at. It would just be nice to see appreciation that even minutely looked past the cost of employees and how to reduce those costs regardless of the consequences.

It is a good thing that we have captured customers.

a reply to: mblahnikluver

oh my god the horror of yoga pants in public
christ jesus what are we to do?

lighten up

a reply to: TinySickTears

Depends on the style of yoga pants and the size of the caboose they're on.

For your reading pleasure, the worst Bosses of 2016. I'd of used a newer list but these were the most appalling.
www.askamanager.org...

a reply to: mblahnikluver

I agree, it's now a thing of the past.

For today's highlights I watched two co-workers toss chunks of wood at each other. One fake-sweep up an area another worker had already swept ( usually he just leans on the broom while he chit-chats) an for the topper, one team lead walked behind the Boss on the production floor imitating him like Pop-Eye an waving so everyone looked.

Why I haven't stroked out yet is anyones guess.

originally posted by: Gothmog
All companies are shedding their seasoned veterans for cheaper fresh out of school/college employees and outsourcing overseas. The bottom line now is stock value. No , not customers or professionalism , just stock value. They (the companies) use the money "saved" to buy back their "floating" shares in an attempt to gain value . Once the rookies get a bit of experience and have things a bit back on track (i.e. at raise time) they are shed as well leaving no time whatsoever to get the work ethics and experience in.
These businesses are actually losing customers (if there is any options at all) .
Its a brand new (messed up) world.

That's what happened in my "business". The governor broke the back of the state union. Everyone with time retired, which left rookies running the place.

Complete. Disaster.

But, hey, they saved the taxpayer a couple of bucks.

originally posted by: Lurker1

originally posted by: Gothmog
All companies are shedding their seasoned veterans for cheaper fresh out of school/college employees and outsourcing overseas. The bottom line now is stock value. No , not customers or professionalism , just stock value. They (the companies) use the money "saved" to buy back their "floating" shares in an attempt to gain value . Once the rookies get a bit of experience and have things a bit back on track (i.e. at raise time) they are shed as well leaving no time whatsoever to get the work ethics and experience in.
These businesses are actually losing customers (if there is any options at all) .
Its a brand new (messed up) world.

That's what happened in my "business". The governor broke the back of the state union. Everyone with time retired, which left rookies running the place.

Complete. Disaster.

But, hey, they saved the taxpayer a couple of bucks.

This has nothing to do with Unions. If a company want to let go folks , they just need to start the deliberations with the Union off with these words " Due to the needs of the business..." and any Union is powerless .
Shop Steward for 8 years with a Major Union

a reply to: mblahnikluver

This isn't a rant but an observation I've noticed in my last two jobs that I didn't experience pre bar days. Professionalism was a good thing and was something everyone worked towards. I actually had my boss recently tell me I was too nice because I help customers too much. I looked at him and said "That's not being too nice, that is my job." I have worked in customer service for 20 years. I earned awards from companies like Sprint, HSBC, Fleet Bank, First Union (now WellsFargo), Verizon all for CS! What happened to it?!

Casual is the new mainstream everyday fashion, for everything. Personally I don't prefer to wear causal clothes, especially in a work environment. I receive the frequent question "Is there something special going on?"

Ten plus years ago pajama flannels were common here but the rest of the country seems to affected now. Now there's no flannel bottoms, instead yoga pants with a short flannel shirt.

a reply to: mblahnikluver

Its not new. Our parents would come home daily complaining about the same people.

Im the finance and hr presence for my job. "The watchdog". Ive learned to pick my battles, and how/when to present suggestions to steer the team rather than pushing them. I call "self preservation of sanity"

a reply to: dreamingawake

One of the upgrades for me is not wearing a suit. Its now acceptable for me to wear jeans, sneakers, and a polo.

Ive even been wearing a hoodie.

Times are changing.

originally posted by: ClovenSky
When the large corporations and companies starting treating their employees as simple numbers, this is the end result. It does appear to be all about the bottom line instead of taking pride in the product itself.

It's not just large corporations, it is the small ones. I work for a small local insurance company and they talk about sales and what's best for the client yet when I was trained, which I really wasn't, it was mostly on the selling of the products. I basically taught myself how to use the various systems I use.

No BOA oh they treat their employees like crap! You are just a number to them. We had weekly meetings on sales goals and it was laughable because the goals were so unrealistic! They would run one teller and have lines to the door and expect you to sell people to go wait in another even longer line. It was crazy! If you didn't they threatened your job on a weekly basis. I remember one mortgage dept employee who missed her bonus goal by one, they wrote her up! Yet the 99% close rate she had meant nothing to them. She was so upset and eventually left the bank.

This is the direct result of how these corporations treat others. I can't really blame them for treating the company exactly like they are treated themselves. Also management should be one of the toughest jobs out there if done right. I rarely see it being done right anymore, imho. It is all about the status and title and not about the enormous amount of work the position requires.

OH agreed, management today sucks! It's nothing like it was even ten years ago when I myself was in management. People tend to abuse their power in that position now and it's sad. I see all too often.

a reply to: stormcell

Oh in banking that's all they care about! The manager would tell me I need more sales referrals and I would laugh. I am not pushing more debt on someone who has maxed out cards, mortgage debt and a home equity line of credit. You know what they wanted you to do? They wanted the customer to put it all together for a lower rate, for one year, all so they could get bonus bucks. I'm sorry but to the working class they don't care about that crap! It drove me nuts. I mean I could see people's bank accounts and know the LAST thing they needed was another debt!

originally posted by: NarcolepticBuddha
a reply to: mblahnikluver

In my experience it's the opposite. Everybody is a shy namby-pampy now.

Where's all the balls and grit??

NB!!! Hey long time no chat!

HA! In my experience if you are like me and do your job right and follow the rules they way they are meant to be followed your labeled a snob or a kiss arse. I don't see how doing your job the correct way is a bad thing?

It's a good thing i basically work alone even though I work with 3 other people. I am not a sales agent so I just do my own thing and work all day. I am always the first one at the office and i never take a lunch even though I am docked for it. I love my job I just don't like doing other people's job.

originally posted by: intrptr
Just try and cross the childish adult and see what happens. They got the position thru deceit, manipulation and back stabbing.

Oh I know! The only reason she got the job is because he friend was hiring manager. One day she started to just harass me and talk down to me about a check list, well the older banker that had been there for years stepped in and gave her a verbal lashing. It was great! It didn't stop her from being a snot to me but I finally left to another location that wasn't as drama filled.

[qutoe]Ever wonder how a WE wrestling promoter that did business with the MOB in NewYork became a billionaire and the President? Haha I had to read this a couple times to get it. He was an WE promoter.

originally posted by: olaru12
a reply to: mblahnikluver

Professionalism in the work place....WHERE has it gone?

When you pretend to pay your employees, they will pretend to work.

The entertainment biz is cooking along nicely but we're Union.

Union proud, Union Strong....


www.iatse.net...

www.sagaftra.org...

I kind of think that's an excuse. I made good money working for BOA, what job starts with zero experience and no degree at $15//hour? None around her but banking. Yes treat you like crap but does that make it ok to not do your job? I guess i was raised differently. I was raised to do your job the way it should be done. I don't give two craps about the companies I work for or the people who run or work in them. What i do care about are the clients I deal with, they are my number one priority. They are the reason I come to work, it's my job to make sure they are taken care of. So I should slack off because the pay sucks?

Very few companies are union around here and the ones that are all I hear about are the fees they have to pay. Why do you pay fees? I'm curious as I don't really know all that much about unions.

originally posted by: bluechevytree
in 1950 there were about 650 life insurance companies in the U.S. and the population was about 152 million people
in 2017 there were about 750 life insurance companies in the U.S. and the population was about 323 million people

in 1950 those 650 companies had to act professional and treat their customers right because they were competing for the business of only 152 million people.
in 2017 there were only 750 companies "competing" for the business of 323 million people.

auto and health insurance are now mandatory by law so companies don`t even have to compete for those customers, customers will come to them no matter how unprofessional they act.
I think most people only want cheap insurance so they don`t care about how unprofessional their insurance agent is.

Do you work in insurance? Again I think this is a cop-out. I know that when I get insurance or any PAID service I expect the person who does it to do it right and not mess up my account. How would you like it if someone signed you up for insurance the wrong way and when it came time to have a claim it wouldn't pay out because YOUR agent did it wrong? This is what I see at my job and I don't like it. It's not fair to the client who is trusting the agent to put them in the right spot. We also only write certain types of policies, meaning if you only want state requirement insurance we won't write you and will suggest another agency. We have a set of limits for home and auto we go by.

I get what you are saying but when it's someone HOUSE and it's not done right well to me that becomes a problem.

For example writing a home as a homeowners primary residency policy vs a homeowners RENTAL property is a huge difference and if something were to happen to the home and the company found out it was always a rental they will NOT pay out! Why? Because it should have been written as a rental property to begin with. Now from what I see especially with one agent, she will write it the wrong way because it's a higher premium and not even care that it's a rental. I've had to re-write 3 policies this week and clients were not happy especially when they told the agent it was a rental. Of course the agent always blames the customer, it's her go to phrase. I swear I want to put a sign on her desk listing all the excuses she uses.

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: bluechevytree

I think in large part professionalism is about respect and regard for one another, and generally speaking, we have less of that overall.

Exactly! Respect and regard for one another.

The place I work I swear I feel like I"m back in high school and I'm not part of the cool kids crowd. The owner is an arrogant adult child. He picks on everyone and if you aren't part of the "in" crowd then look out. There is a young girl here and he is always picking on her. I made a comment yesterday about how people should just leave her alone and my boss said "oh it will make her do more." I then said no it wont it will only make her feel more uncomfortable and less likely to speak out since every time she does everyone picks on her. I feel bad for her, they make millennial jokes and tease her non stop. I said adult bullying isn't fair to anyone and doesn't motive a person to do better it just brings them down.

It's funny how I had more respect working in a strip club from co-workers than I do in a so called professional environment. It's crazy to me! I was only out of the normal working world for 6 years but boy things seem to have changed.

I am working on my own Etsy shop and hopefully one day I can work for myself but until then I will sit at my little desk and just do my job because I honestly love my job and my clients. It's just the people I work with and for who make me question the entire working world latley!

a reply to: mblahnikluver

I finally left to another location that wasn't as drama filled.

Good for you. I always preferred to work at smaller companies. In larger corporations, the further up you go, the crazier the management food chain becomes.

a reply to: mblahnikluver

That's one of the big shockers in every job you go to..not many have a good work ethic.

It's not easy being that backbone. Hang in there!