End the War -- on Thanksgiving

Now that's the epitome of customer service.

 

When I talked about my work experience on Thanksgiving (in a restaurant, which is more or less part of the retail sector), my added point was that shifts were scheduled so employees didn't have to work a full eight-hour shift and have at least some time to spend with families.

I would hope the businesses that choose to be open Thanksgiving would do the same. The way you read about retail employees having to work Thanksgiving, it's as if they are told to be there all day long.

But is that really the case?

 

Dude needed to check his calendar to determine if Thanksgiving was on a Monday or Tuesday?

He might be dumber than you.

He's going to be disappointing this spring when he finds out neither Good Friday nor Easter Sunday falls on a Monday or Tuesday either. But, you'll be able to cheer him up by telling him he has Memorial Day off.

 

Aren't you worried that, if you don't come out, somebody else will, and you'll lose their business because your client may have major problems if they can't serve their customers?

 

People will still be dead and houses will still be burned the next day.

For those who rail so hard about exploitation, I'd think working on holidays would be a big issue.

 

Several newspapers I worked, we would split up the holidays among the staff. If you worked Thanksgiving, you were off Christmas and New Year's. All of those days were skeleton crews anyway (very rarely was there a local event, so it was features and wire stuff in the section), so the rotation sort of kept everyone happy.

 

Most of my accounts would be closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas, and so will my competitors. National chain restaurants will be closed, and so will corporate cafeterias/coffee shops and college shops.

That leaves hospitals and hotels. Most of those accounts will have multiple coffee brewers, so that's not a problem. (And, at the ones that brew coffee from a major, national roaster, I only take care of their espresso machines.)

They can get by a day without espresso.

If they think it's critical, they'd have built in redundancy, and have two espresso machines. (And, some do.)

The other thing is, if they are on a preventative maintenance program, and changing (or having me change) their water softening filters, they are very unlikely to break down. This service is available to them. So, if they break down on a holiday, and they haven't been doing that, then they haven't made it a priority.

As for worrying about other companies, no. I don't worry. On the rare occasion I've had to refer a customer to someone else because I was out of town, or something, it's only made them appreciate me more.

I actually am really good at what I do. I get out there right away. I have the parts and tools necessary to fix their machine, and I know how to do it.

Other companies are not always as good. They take a day to get out there and/or they don't have the parts and have to make a second trip.

And, despite what Bodie might think of my opinion of myself, there are no real espresso emergencies. People might be cranky if they can't get a caramel latte, and my customers might lose some revenue, but no one is going to die.

But, they also can't have the machine down for days. So, the business is going to be there.

 

Always wondered why such gifts were not considered a violation of the extra benefit rule.

 

I could not tell you what day of the week Christmas falls on without checking a calendar.

 

Strangely enough, and, even though this is a bit of a threadjack, it's because the bowl games aren't sanctioned by the NCAA, who are quite willing to overlook their members playing non-sanctioned events in this case.

 

Sure. Christmas is on a specific date, so it's a different day of the week every year. I'd understand having to check the calendar, especially a couple months out.

Thanksgiving is, obviously, always on a Thursday. You shouldn't need a calendar to figure out it's not a Monday or Tuesday this year -- or any year.

 

Go back and read the post again.

We're told when informed he was off Mondays and Tuesdays, he would have to check the calendar to verify which on which days the holidays fell.

You assumed it was because he'd have to check for each holiday, but that isn't what it says. It just says he was told once to check.

If you asked me to give you the answers to both 2+2 and the square root of 3,475,558,241,575 I would need to use a calculator, but that doesn't mean I don't know what 2+2 is.