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Oh, get what the Super says: This is to make a statement about what we value in the district. !
So, they value obfuscation and verbosity, apparently...see "executive director for elementary schools and excelling teaching and learning," .
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Well, clearly the verbosity's open to ridicule. But is the underlying intention?
I know for a fact that the single most consistent customer service failing I have to address with clients is the failure of managers to appreciate that the front line staff - those often poorly paid and unrecognised stalwarts - ARE the company to most customers! Their abilities (and shortcomings) tend to define the whole experience for many customers. Worth trying to focus some more attention on the public-facing elements of those jobs? ~ I'd say a thousand times yes.
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And just when did excel become a transitive verb????
It's crap like this that leads to a rise in home schooling. As far as I am concerned the person who came up with this needs to get a life and a new job.
TEd
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"It sounds so important. Everyone wants to be important."
There you have it in a nutshell. Literally.
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Today, at the grocer's, I noticed that one of the checkers was wearing a new, larger name tag. Under her Christian name, there appeared a new job title: "FRONT END COORDINATOR". Knowing her rather well, I innocently inquired, "Does your back end remain uncoordinated?"
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Pooh-Bah
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 !! Innocently my (uncoordinated) foot.
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Feigning innocence is one of my most studied accomplishments!
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"It sounds so important. Everyone wants to be important."
There you have it in a nutshell. Literally.
But it's a fake importance and only fools the person who values the title. Everybody else knows she's a receptionist.
Those who treat everybody with respect, will treat her with respect whether she has a trumped-up title or not. Those who look down on receptionists, thinking they are of no importance, will only laugh inwardly at this person's pride in her title.
These types of titles also serve to confuse people.
We have a supplier who's sales people are now called sales ambassadors. They get laughed at a lot.
And now, loads of retailers are calling their floor staff "associates" which is a misnomer since they are not associates, but employees since they have absolutely no real status as associates.
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What Bel says is true. But I still get in a lot of trouble when I refer to a stewardess as a stewardess rather than a "flight attendant."
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… when I refer to a stewardess as a stewardess rather than a "flight attendant."
It doesn't bother you that "flight attendant" describes the job better than does "stewardess"?
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It doesn't bother you that "flight attendant" describes the job better than does "stewardess"?
Does it really? What do you think that they mostly do?
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> describes the job better hey, don't go and confuse a perfectly good set of prejudices with boring old facts!  Some customer service facts from a report I am just drafting, for the record: • Only 4% of dissatisfied customers complain • 96% just slip quietly away, and 91% never come back! • 68% quit because of an attitude of indifference by contact • Unhappy customers tell 8-10 people on average • 1 in 5 dissatisfied customers tell 20 other people about their bad experience – what a powerful advert! • 70% complainers can be won round, rising to… • 95% if settled on the spot • A resolved dispute creates a more committed customer • Low service companies typically lose 2% market share • High service companies typically gain 6% market share • Retention @ 90% = customer life of 10 years on average • Retention @ 95% = customer life of 20 years on average! • High retention = Good ‘word of mouth’ recommendation
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having been one of these front end 'people'--it depressing to find, companies pay lip service to front end /first contact employees--they are charged with a lot of responsibilty, but are often (USUALLY) the worst compensated employees in the company.
They are held responsible for customer satisfaction --but when its there, and there is customer loyalty, its the managment, not the actual customer service provider that reaps the monitary rewards!
the janitorial staff is more likely to be organized into a union than the 'sales clerks' and get more a higher compensation-- the less contact an employee has with actual customer, the more they get paid...
so providing 'customer service' is valued (by lip service), but customer avoidence is rewarded by money.. hmm.. interesting.
-------------------------------------------------------
my own personal story about customer dissatisfaction:
i am (or have been) a dissatified customer (of Macy's department store)--30 years ago, when i had a toddler and infant, (in tow!) i walked (because there was no good public transportation to) almost 2 miles to 'local' Macy's store to make a purchase --i had a newpaper ad, featuring the item i wanted, and the ad noted the item was not avail at every Macy's store, (BUT was available in the local one)
so off i went.
when i got to the store, i looked, couldn't find the item, or any sales help. so waited on a long slow line (there was no help on the floor but at the cash register) asked were to find the item, and was told "We don't stock that." (NEXT)
i walked out angery as all get out.
i didn't shop in macy's (again) for over 20 years.
i have a large range of stores (NYC is a bit of shopping mecca) i had a choice--i exersized my choice. with 2 incomes, 2 kids (and 2 homes purchased during my marriage) i spend a lot of money--clothing, sheet, curtains, furnature, gifts--over the next 20 years. and not one dime went to macy's. i still don't shop at macy's..mostly now out of habit. (i don't know their stores, or stock or layouts, so it more inconvenient to shop there, so i tend to go to stores i am more familiar with...)
one clerk, with a few words, turned me into a lifetime macy's avoider.
once when i told this story, a long time macy's shopper said "she didn't offer to have it shipped to you? they can do that easy enough." --and i realize, if the clerk had followed up, "i sorry the ad stated we stocked the item, but i can order for you, and have it shipped to your home, would you like that?" i would have jumped at the chance. i ended up buying the item mail order anyway.. and i would have thought, "what a nice idea". certainly it wasn't an idea i thought of. (my parents were poor,and never would have paid the extra cost for shipping.. but i was middle class (econamically) enough that the small extra charge wouldn't have mattered.
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"flight attendant" describes the job better than does "stewardess"
Without doing the research (I gotta leave for court in a few minutes), I suspect that stewardess was derived from steward when a whole set of nautical terms were imported into the airline industry. If I am correct, and if one understands the role of a steward on an ocean liner, then the term stewardess is a perfect job description.
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re: I suspect that stewardess was derived from steward when a whole set of nautical terms were imported into the airline industry. If I am correct, and if one understands the role of a steward on an ocean liner,
then the term stewardess is a perfect job description.
[rant]
why wouldn't steward still be the correct term? OH, yeah, they are women mostly (or were exclusively at first)
and they weren't quite stewards, they were a little less.. (how do we know? cause they got the 'feminized/diminutive ' term--stewardess.
call them stewards. or flight attendants. now that they come in both male and female varieties..
cabin steward is fine term. stewardess, is not.
and lets not forget, the first flight attendents, (on Pam Am for sure, and many other airlines as well) had to be RN's, and to meet specific qualification on height and weight.
now weight was an issue on flights in the past (i remember in the 1960's it was normal to for the ticket/check in clerk to ask your weight, and to weigh all of your luggage, (carry ons as well as stowed bags) and they were very strict about weight limits on luggage.
so, it makes sense to be concerned about flight attendants weight too.
but, there were no heigh or weight requirements on the pilot, co pilot, navigator or engineer (or other 'command' personel.) Hmm. i guess their weight didn't effect the plane/flying the way the flight attendents weight did. or maybe it just wasn't part of their job requirement to be eye candy. It wasn't enough to qualified (ie an RN).
[/rant]
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<<i guess their weight didn't effect>>
Without disputing the likelihood of sexism, another market consideration was probably at play: the size of the pool of workers with qualifications and the likelihood that persons trained as pilots (by the military) met weight qualifications. Of course, since civilian aviation probably really took off after WWII, when there were many highly qualified female pilots, I might want to shut my mouth. [/coverin all bases]
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Helen, do I have my blinders on, or what? I see stewardess as simply the feminine form of the word, nothing more (or less). As somebody posted on an other thread, different doesn't automatically equal inferior. But how stewards and stewardesses are treated is not something I really know about, so I'll shut up on that, now!
I was fascinated to read your Macy's story; I had a similar experience at Sears. Although I didn't have any difficulty getting to the store, I stood at the cash register holding a--one--pair of socks out, as the lady carried on a phone conversation. It should have been a snap for her to have rung up my single purchase while she talked, but she didn't; and then walked away without a single word to me. And I haven't shopped at Sears for three decades.
It occurred to me later that possibly my lady wasn't a checkout clerk or that maybe that wasn't her register...or something; but she could have TOLD me something. And your lady was likely thinking only of getting rid of the long line; it may never have occurred to her to wonder whether any of the customers might have had a hard time getting there; but she COULD certainly have been more helpful!!
mav, your statistics are correct as far as my experience goes: high customer satisfaction = high customer retention.
And I reckon one good way to give high customer satisfaction would be to have satisfied employees; not ones whose main characteristic is griping about their low wages.
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> not griping about low wages
True. But feeling properly valued, and empowered to take appropriate action in response to the customers you are serving (which also necessitates proper investment in training by the company) all count for just as much, imho.
OK, most of the terms suggested in FS's story don't merit much more than a smile - but yours and oftroy's stories are dramatic (yet entirely typical) examples of what happens when companies don't respect their employees. And the savvy customers quite rightly draw the message that the company therefore does not respect them either...!
So people feeling important in their job is maybe not something to sneer at too lightly. Doesn't mean you are pretending to be a heart surgeon.
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I remember hearing that patients (I work in health care) tend to sue for malpractice not when a mistake has been made, but when they feel like the professional doesn't care about the mistake.
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one of my aunts (eye candy in her day) got a job working for PanAm right after WWII (in dublin)
eye candy was a job requirement.
she wanted to be a stewardess, but back then PAA(as it was called in dublin) required stewaress to be RN's.
so she got relatives here to sponser her (and got a job)ie, transfered to NY office of PAA, and started in nursing school.
where she met a handsome young man, and married. and so dashed her plans for being a stewaress, since they were required to be unmarried! she continued to work as ticket agent, but was forced out when she became pregnant, (as they did in those dark days of the past.)
back then (right up to mid to late 1960's, stewardess had to be under 35, thin, trained and qualified as RN (back then, 2 years of college and 2 years of 'internship' before getting RN licence, and unmarried.
they had to look attractive (and look available.. no wedding rings permitted)
(and yeah, no air line was willing to take any of the military qualifed women on as pilots post WWII-- they were all basicly forced into retirement.. or to open their own businesses, or to work as stunt pilots in air shows. )
IF the job was for safety (as it is supposed to be by FAA regulations) then why the eye candy requirement? (under 35, thin, unmarried, and attractive. --really, attractive was an important part of the job 'qualifications' )--so, too, was 'under 35' as a job requirement.. (did pilots get booted at 35? did ship stewards? no. did pilots have to weigh in, (and get grounded if they gained 10 lbs?) no..
to me, stewardess is the whole 'coffee tea or me' required to be sex object, but also required to be skilled--the real job requirement by FAA standards were for safety, etc..
flight attendent now can work till they retire. (no age requirements) can work after they get married, and can work while pregnant --as long as doctor approves..their doctor, not company doctor! and flight attendend are sometime men, and men and woman earn the same salary..
its not so long ago none of that was true.
so yeah, i see the term as connoting very different ideas!
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> i see the term as connoting very different ideas!
I agree. And although we'll soon be in dispute about chicken and eggs, I would guess many can see a correlation between re-labelling a job and forcing a reappraisal of what the role is supposed to be about. Do you ever er, encounter a male receptionist, as a matter of interest?
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In my mumble-mumble years in sales, I've only met two male receptionists, one of which was only a temp covering for the regular receptionist that was on vacation.
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>a male receptionist
only when the security guy sits in during her break.
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the term stewardess is a perfect job description.
I ain' never seen no pigs on no airplane I ever been on.
Seriously, the term steward (nemmine that you ain' gone call no guy a stewardess) is extremely sloppy. The stewards on Navy ships take care of the officers. A wine steward keeps track of the wine in a restaurant. A shop steward is in charge of union affairs. The list goes on. And dinner calls.
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I doubt very much the suggestion that steward derives from "sty-weard" and originally meant a keeper of pigs. I know that this folk etymology has been suggested but it is not supported by the best evidence, methinks.
Better is the notion that steward derives from "stiweard" in which sti refers to a great hall in a lord's home and weard refers to the person in charge of it. A steward in medieval times was entrusted with the running of the lord's property.
E.g.
"Apart from a very complete staff of servants there were only four of us in the household. These were Miss Witherton, who was at that time four-and-twenty and as pretty--well, as pretty as Mrs. Colmore is now--myself, Frank Colmore, aged thirty, Mrs. Stevens, the housekeeper, a dry, silent woman, and Mr. Richards, a tall military-looking man, who acted as steward to the Bollamore estates. We four always had our meals together, but Sir John had his usually alone in the library."
~from "The Japanned Box" in Six Tales of Mystery by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
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refers to the person in charge of it
Well, there you go. The stewardess flies the plane. The pilot is only there for take-offs and landings.
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