Jump to content
Objectivism Online Forum

Honest day's work for a questionable company?

Rate this topic


pam

Recommended Posts

Hi,

My current job is doing telephone customer service for a mail order company. I do not feel I am servicing the customers well at all because I am not provided the information they need when they call-why hasnt my order shipped? when will it be shipped ? etc

My supervisors tell me to tell the caller I cant provide them with that information they need to wait for an email saying their order has been shipped-if they ask for a supervisor I have to tell them none is available. The only options I can give them is wait or cancel.

Needless to say it leaves me aggravated and the caller angrier than when they started.

I need the job and am looking for another but for now there seems to be nothing so I am stuck here-how can I rectify this in my mind within the ideas of Objectivism? I am just not seeing how...

Thanks for reading if you did.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I need the job and am looking for another but for now there seems to be nothing so I am stuck here-how can I rectify this in my mind within the ideas of Objectivism? I am just not seeing how...

The philosophy of Objectivism is one in which individuals act on their rational self interest.

Earning a living is in your rational self interest.

Feeling good about the work you do is also in your rational self interest.

You are doing one while trying to accomplish the other.

There is no conflict or contradiction here as far as Objectivism goes.

If you are feeling bad about the small lie they are having you repeat "there is no supervisor here" I suggest you change the wording for "here" to "available".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, here is my perspective.

It sounds like your job sucks, and you definitely are right to be looking for another, but philosophically there isn't any problem with what you're doing. Your employer is the company you work for, not the customers. If you're worried that you're not engaged in a proper value-for-value transaction because you can't give the customers anything, the fact is that you're providing the company with value. You're fielding the customer service calls that come in, and although you can't give the customers anything, you're still giving the company something of value, and that's what they pay you for. It's the company's job to make sure that they're providing value to customers, not yours. On a personal level, however, it sounds very intellectually unsatisfying and indeed frustrating, and the company may indeed be questionable (or it may not, every company is going to have shipping errors and delays)

Edited by Dante
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think understanding that you don't have some kind of special responsibility to the customers (because you work for the company, not the customers) might help you go through this less than ideal experience a little better. The company seems to have hired you to pacify those customers the best you can, and to process their cancellations if they want to cancel, not to keep them informed of whatever it is they want to know. That's what you should do.

If the clients don't like it, tough. It's not like mail order businesses go around promising full customer service and guaranteed delivery to clients. I would think they all have very clear disclaimers about the possibility of various types of mishaps, and not having fancy client relations when it happens helps keep the costs low. I see nothing wrong with any of that. Unfortunately, it also makes your life difficult, at least until you can find a better job (one with fewer interactions with angry people, for starters).

P.S. Great, I basically just repeated Dante's post. In my defense, I didn't know it was there when I clicked to answer.

Edited by Jake_Ellison
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 9 months later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...