I received a phone call from a doctor's office about an $18 co-pay that remained open on my account. After a few minutes of oh, let's say discussing, the issue I said I would come over with my receipt showing full payment.
Got in my car, drove to the doctor's office and asked to speak to Diane, the billing clerk. She showed me the computer screen that indicated the date I was in and the $18 charge that was unpaid. I showed her the receipt that was dated that same day for the amount of $18. She was unmoved. "The computer says you owe it." I stared at her and said the computer is right and the receipt is wrong? Yep, she said.
At that very moment I realized Diane had been hired exactly to have that mindset. All she had to do was rely on the computer and no thinking outside that was required or even encouraged. It's a good way to keep workers at that office at $8 or $9 an hour. Thinking jobs pay more.
For the first time in years I thought about The Castrati.
I was introduced to
The Castrati in a book by Anne Rice. It was an eye opener to say the least. It's amazing to think several thousand boys a year were castrated because it was a road to economic stability for them and women were not permitted to sing in churches.
How are these two topics related? It's astounding what people will a) do to survive and b) accept as perfectly normal. Like the castrati who were reduced to permanent boyhood low paying customer service jobs are taken by people who have limited choices. The second part is we have become so immune to poor service that we accept it as normal and tell a million people when we are actually treated well!
In a world increasingly divided not between the haves and the have-nots but by the thinkers and the non-thinkers this cannot continue!
What are the solutions? I'm not sure. What do you think?
