Posted On: Monday - February 13th 2023 8:18AM MST
In Topics: Political Correctness Feminism Big-Biz Stupidity Customer Care
Part of our job at Peak Stupidity is to follow up on our older writing to make sure we are correct on the stupidity levels. This 1st point is regarding a small bit of stupidity related to Feminism, this one having been mostly relegated to the back shelf due to being overwhelmed by the newer stuff. The 2nd one is regarding a "Customer Care" experience and simply backs up our one data poing.
1) Over 6 years back, Peak Stupidity came out with our First post on Feminism - starting off at a low stupidity level. That one was about the use of the pronouns "they" "them", and "their" in cases of unknown-sex 3rd person. This goes WAY, WAY back. It's from Feminism, going back to the 1970s, I'm pretty sure. Now it's been superseded by the higher level stupidity of the genderbender nonsense. (Peak Stupidity covered this with a comparison to the Chinese language in Fun with Pronouns.)
I've used this form myself. It's so ingrained in most Americans now. However, I've been making a successful effort, both verbally and in writing, to go back to proper English.
I think that this site has mentioned since that early post that Big Biz promotes this erroneous and confusing English. It's not only that the confusing terminology is in manuals that involve safety, but the introductions themselves even state plainly that this form will be used. The reader is to interpret somehow whether they (the words) are to be taken as singular or plural. Many of the subjects involve more than one employee, and many involve a single employee. What I take from this is that safety is NOT ACTUALLY top priority. I can guess what is.
For this follow-up, I will note that I just read one instruction guide for software, written by either employees or someone from that subcontracted-out software company that has a "his" in there. That was quite refreshing. However, I think it was a mistake, as further down in the document, the usual confusing form was used. I did have a thought in my head that "hey, is someone finally pushing back on this?"
This manual was not written by the company - they are the customer paying for it. Is it possible one could get away with fighting Big Biz on this by telling them: "OK, we will use your style, BUT, we need you to sign these consent forms then. No worries - they are just a small thing our lawyers want. They give us immunity from any physical harm that occurs due to confusion over the language in this document. Yeah, sign, right ... on this line ... here ...hey ... why come you don't wanna sign?...."
2) More recently, last summer, (that long? Seems like yesterday) we noted a most miserable "customer care" experience in the Big Biz world in our post Next: •Indian IT help v Shortwave Radio. If you haven't read that post, you may not get this part so easily.
As I sat working hard on a company computer (reading Unz Review comments), I heard from a few feet away around a corner one side of a phone call by a lady employee. (It was like the old Bob Newhart TV show, but not really so funny, not "haha funny", at least.) "OK, I didn't get that last part." "No, that didn't work." "What?" "I can't understand you. Can you tell me that again, please." "OK." "I'm having a hard time hearing you." "No, it's not working."
This went round and round a few times before I finally was sure: "You're on the phone with an Indian IT lady, right?" I thought she was on hold, but she'd actually hung up, so she told me "yes, that's it." "I've been trying to take care of this for over a week. I bet I've spent 10 hours on the phone!" I told her about my simple password request and my take on the accents, the lack of understanding, and the possible use of an undersea cable that sharks had nibbled on over the years. Her problem was not about a password but that all her apps had wiped themselves off a company piece of iCrap. The company had done its part, but IT was to reset something. A week or so gone down, the iCrap has no apps, and that employee is frustrated and had given up for that day, at least.
Now, some bright Chief Financial Officer may look into the outsourcing of IT to people with heavy accents and a lack of real English understanding, along with the use of really bad voice-over-IP communication. He might want to calculate how much extra IT Customer Care employee time is used per type of request vs the same in an American call center. That's not so hard to calculate, given the call data. He might also want to calculate how much of the company's OWN EMPLOYEE time is being wasted on the calls. Well, they'd be surfing the internet otherwise anyway (on the Peak Stupidity blog probably), so, uhhh, that's a wash, maybe ... How about the frustration and stress level of the employees? "Well, these last things are too difficult to calculate, so we won't." - CFO
Comments:
SafeNow
Monday - February 13th 2023 6:01PM MST
PS
Here in The OC, a Vietnamese (born there)-American fellow I knew took an accent-elimination course. It was not that lengthy or expensive, and it worked wonders. I am always surprised more people who interact with the public do not do this. I don’t know if it is laziness, cheapness, or an
attitude of “the heck with you.” They are Peak Stupidity because they would further their own careers by taking a course.
Here in The OC, a Vietnamese (born there)-American fellow I knew took an accent-elimination course. It was not that lengthy or expensive, and it worked wonders. I am always surprised more people who interact with the public do not do this. I don’t know if it is laziness, cheapness, or an
attitude of “the heck with you.” They are Peak Stupidity because they would further their own careers by taking a course.
Jesus Meets the STupids 1987
Monday - February 13th 2023 5:57PM MST
PS Update the stupidity lexicon!
I hope the bombs and munitions have the proper pronoun graffiti, wouldn't want anyone to be blown up and offended.
The best way to trick tech support is to repeat everything back or if they say a name, you ask if that is their name over and over.
Had to play some Enigma and chill, the stupidity was starting to get to me.
I hope the bombs and munitions have the proper pronoun graffiti, wouldn't want anyone to be blown up and offended.
The best way to trick tech support is to repeat everything back or if they say a name, you ask if that is their name over and over.
Had to play some Enigma and chill, the stupidity was starting to get to me.
Moderator
Monday - February 13th 2023 4:47PM MST
PS: "Third person plural pronouns are used even when the sex of the subject is established. “ John Johnson loaded their suitcase in the boot and….” You are right, Mr. Blanc. (I may add something to the post.) I first thought you meant his and his wife's one suitcase, in which case, of course, no problem. Yes, that's done too, which can't really be due to Feminism, but I guess the trend got started.
I've seen this originally-Feminist-driven phrasing get augmented by the new genderbender stuff too. "Anyone having their period is excused from gym class." (Not for the movie "Carrie", but it would be now.) You don't want to just assume only women have periods, right?
I've seen this originally-Feminist-driven phrasing get augmented by the new genderbender stuff too. "Anyone having their period is excused from gym class." (Not for the movie "Carrie", but it would be now.) You don't want to just assume only women have periods, right?
Moderator
Monday - February 13th 2023 4:39PM MST
PS: Alarmist, I get that most of them don't give a rat's ass about our experience. You'd think that they'd get how much time is wasted, on both ends of the phone calls.
MBlanc46
Monday - February 13th 2023 1:18PM MST
PS Third person plural pronouns are used even when the sex of the subject is established. “John Johnson loaded their suitcase in the boot and….” I first noted it in the 1980s, although it probably began in the 1970s in Leftist claptrap that I didn’t read. It drives me up the wall. .Indian tech support is also an abomination, especially since my hearing isn’t what it once was, and I sometimes have trouble with native speakers of white English. Once I had to ask to speak to someone else, as I just could not understand what the first one was saying. We need to take our country back, or at least those parts of it that can be salvaged.
The Alarmist
Monday - February 13th 2023 10:06AM MST
PS
Back in the ‘90s, I worked for a major financial firm whose CTO did not have a computer, and still largely transacted/communicated by fax. The CFO and CEO both had computers in their offices, but only because they liked to keep abreast of their net worth and that of their rivals.
Don’t kid yourself that anyone in the C-Suite gives a rats bottom about the user experience of the Slave class.
Back in the ‘90s, I worked for a major financial firm whose CTO did not have a computer, and still largely transacted/communicated by fax. The CFO and CEO both had computers in their offices, but only because they liked to keep abreast of their net worth and that of their rivals.
Don’t kid yourself that anyone in the C-Suite gives a rats bottom about the user experience of the Slave class.
One of the metrics that drives executive compensation is the number of employees a company has. Profits are better for shareholders than for executives, who will tolerate some degree of unprofitable waste as long ad it supports their personal profit in the form of higher compensation.