To think that since covid happened some businesses have 'got lazy and stayed lazy'

[Ilovechocolate87]

DH and i used to have an expression a couple of years back 'because covid' which we used when we thought a company was just using the virus as an excuse for not doing something properly or making unnecessary cutbacks.

But even now it seems that this is STILL continuing, but for no legitimate reason!

Some examples include;
-Our local bank shutting at 3pm...every day of the week.Crap for 9-5 working people like DH!

• No fireworks display at center parcs, which is a shame as it was really good and atmospheric over the lake.
• Soft play at our local sealife centre sitting there unused and wasted...such a shame as there is nothing wrong with it.
• Fitting rooms have been scrapped at sainsburys and asda (maybe elsewhere too?) so there is nowhere to try on clothes, resulting in either having to order online and have the expense and bother of posting it back if its not right (which it often isn't) or travelling to return it, neither of which are very good for the environment either, with all that plastic packaging and fuel!)

Has anyone else noticed that it just seems like SOME businesses/companies 'can't be bothered' anymore and are just doing the minimum possible? And the most frustrating thing is that as usual, they make the cutbacks, but the prices keep on going up!!

@lovelyweathertoday
That's nonsense. Working from home doesn't mean you can't take calls!

Errr it does when the only number provided is the office telephone number which is currently unmanned.

You see, I can remember thread after thread on here during the pandemic full of posts of “can’t wait to ret urn to normal” if you so much as mentioned things would never return to how they were you were shot down in flames, variously labelled a lock down lover, A drama llama, pessimist etc etc,

But what did people expect? It’s acted as a catalyst all the problems that have been brewing are suddenly of age. People had time to consider their lives, had glimpses into alternate realities off the hamster wheel/commuter train. People re-prioritised. Many changed their own needs and expectations yet are angry when others do too. People who excelled in life before covid suddenly find themselves in a landscape they can’t navigate quite as well.

What is boils down to is people are scared and frustrated. The level of anger in the world is beyond measure but people don’t know where to direct their anger so it gets attached to commonly agreed targets. People feel life is outside their control, rules of cause and effect no longer work as well as before, it’s disorientating. Mental health for those unable or unwilling to adapt to the Brave New World is just going to get worse.

many things we took for granted just aren’t there any more and you know what, for some people that’s going to be shit,like really shit.,The only way we can really cope is learning to navigate in this new landscape.

As another poster mentioned, it’s going to be about personal responsibility, more people taking care of their health to free up medical services for those that can’t, it’s going to be about changing the way we use limited resources (all the people claiming they couldn’t turn their thermostat down below 28 as they liked wearing t-shirts and shorts just a couple of years ago, where are you now, wearing a jumper yet?). It’s going to be about educating ourselves on how to mend things, create things. Many of the skills lost to the general population will need to be rediscovered. It’s going to be about using technology to our real advantage, shopping will need to be necessity rather than a pastime. multi generation living is going to prob have to become the norm again, so be nice to your kids.

On the plus side, many of these changes will benefit the planet, maybe we should start listening to the earth do she doesn’t have to keep shouting louder and louder!

Management are also good at alienating the occasional long-serving colleagues who they consistently fail to value.

Sue, aged 59, who has worked there forever, knows the computer systems like the back of her hand, can diagnose that someone's problem which has baffled the IT department for months is due to a long-forgotten event in 1997, serves as an unofficial procedural manual for the whole office and for whom the Mr and Mrs Angries have long since been like water off a duck's back.

But then, Mr New Manager comes in and wants her to change her working pattern that she's had since the year dot, and suddenly she has to performatively justify herself under some shiny new appraisal system and complete a 30 hour 'Learning Programme' on the topic of How to Suck Eggs.

Sue decides she's had enough, opts for semi-retirement, takes a reduced pension and goes to work part time at the garden centre down the road.

LOL!

Sorry I don't this is nothing to do with lazy covid but some workplaces do pull stat/productivity reports you know. Like not all people have distractions at home.

I sat in a physical workplace on Wednesday, from 11am until 5pm the internet wouldn't cooperate for me being last in on the day due to the way our stagged shifts work, I spent my last hour magically after everyone else had left the office for the day, when the internet suddenly got very fast indeed, working very hard to catch up. I was so frustrated to sit in a workplace like this in 2022. None of my 'team' colleagues cared because we are all targeted against each other.

I actually went home and said to my family, how does this happen in a business setting.

Another time this year, I sat in a physical workplace, on the phones with a child being less than quiet (not mine and I was waiting for the contractor to have a jab about me working from home, when they would truly be mistaken) shouting away in the background where is has become normal in some places to bring the little darlings into work. It did make me think how do parents cope wfm and in this situation.

I think this is also part of the problem. It's all very well telling people to wfh but employers still haven't put seamless communications in place nearly 3 years on. I've had software on my laptop that allows me to switch my office landline to my mobile without the need for anyone to have my personal mobile number and I've had this for years.

Prebooking, not always convenient for me, I need the flexibility therefore as soon as I see prebook necessary I don’t bother.

GP - when I book online requesting a GP appointment and GP insists on a phone appointment but won’t stipulate a time. Wasted so much time and have been misdiagnosed due this awful new system.

A little story of failed customer service "because covid" from last week - DH wanted to order from a supplier for his business, but their website had a glitch, so he rang to make a phone order. "Oh no you need the sales dept" (some time on hold) "Sales dept, how can I help, oh no we can't actually take orders over the phone now, we're all working from home so we can't". So what do you do all day?! "Well, we can talk you through making an online order, but not today as the website is down"

Yes this is spot on - at some point we created a job of telling others how to do the job better even if you have never done it (largely taken up by later millennials and Gen Z who will run to HR unless you validate their Feelz), I only work in firms now where there are no diversity champions, these normally equate to losing many lunch times to complete self soothing drivel by some self proclaimed victim, or even worse you have to sort through email after email asking you to be one of their allies. No one wants to work with these people.

hours of appraisal forms to see if you met your smart objectives last year and setting new ones. Complete shit shows of new ways of working full of acronyms (average life span - until the creator gets their promotion/leaves only to be replaced by another such shit show as a new wannabe endeavours to meet a smart objective).

People who just want to do the job are treated like shit

Obviously if they can earn more elsewhere they should, but realistically people shouldn’t expect to get paid £20/hour to serve coffee.

The annoying thing about lack of changing rooms is that I don't want to spend money on something that might not fit, wait for it to arrive for it to then not fit, spend another lot on a size that might fit better, before getting money back for the original because I have to prat about sending it.
The other option is to buy two sizes. I don't feel comfortable spending all that money at once when I'll only want one.

Obv talking about online ordering. Otherwise it's messing about going back to the shop and buying another size before refund is processed.

Missing the point .....

How much?? Where do you live, what does it cover??

So who here is willing to pay more for good service? To pay more for food or for its delivery in exchange for it bring brought into the house for you? To go for a more expensive rather than a cheaper flight in return for being able to get a real, live human being on the end of a phone? To stay in a hotel rather than an air b&b for an 11am check out and no cleaning?

What I see everywhere is people panicking because of price inflation. Not saying "why yes I will pay more for utilities because company x has a great helpline."

Not saying "why yes I will pay more for utilities because company x has a great helpline."

Unfortunately I had to deal with a utility company who owed me money because of their mistake and it was virtually impossible to contact them. I had paid them plenty.

It was in the presses. If you bothered to watch.

Google a news article on them...

Actually it’s just a money saving exercise. Dd works at a gym which also still closes an hour earlier than it did pre covid. They have just as many staff available to work and don’t struggle to recruit but are busy cutting hours left right and centre.

There were also threads that discussed this at length.

This is what pees me off.

People saying "they never told me" , when you belated on about it on MN for ages. And got ignored.

And then you are supposed to do more work spoon feeding once again.

It’s going to be about educating ourselves on how to mend things, create things. Many of the skills lost to the general population will need to be rediscovered. It’s going to be about using technology to our real advantage, shopping will need to be necessity rather than a pastime. multi generation living is going to prob have to become the norm again, so be nice to your kids

This is pure fantasy

So you can do your job? You are saving on transport and second lines are not expensive

Not everyone saves on transport if they WFH - if you walked or cycled, or it was on the way for your DP to drop you off, you save nothing by WFH.

My local hospital trust. I see a consultant every six months for an ongoing health condition. This started just after coming out of lockdown and I was allocated an appointment at a hospital two and half hours by public transport from me. The consultant when we met told me he also saw patients at my local hospital and gave instructions that all future appointments should be made there for me. Has that happened, has it hell. When I rang and queried it with the appointments office all I got was Soz Covid. Every time I see the consultant he comments on this as the travel leaves me exhausted and ill the next day. I have considered contacting PALS about it but don't want to be seen as 'that patient'

In my organisation, we’re finding it incredibly difficult to recruit people which does then impact on the service we can provide. Wages are on the generous side of decent and it’s considered a good employer on Glass Door etc but the applicants just aren’t there to offer jobs to. Some forms are forced to cut corners because they cannot become/remain fully staffed.

Well a fiver is what the supermarket charges and I'm not just paying a fiver - I have less choice and am restricted in the items I buy so presumably the supermarket has done its sums and decided that that together with the extra fiver makes sense for them.

And yes I do expect my shopping to be picked, packed and delivered - that is what home delivery is.

Prior to covid the drivers would bring it to my door - I was able to help them when it was in bags. Now it's in crates, they don't come into the building and I have to go through this ridiculous rigmarole of taking plastic bags downstairs to put each item into them and carry it up, which they sometimes help with and sometimes not. So effectively I am partially packing and delivering, which previously wasn't the case.

Agree. It's reminiscent of that lousy poem about people "staying home" that was everywhere at the start of covid.

There were also threads that discussed this at length.
This is what pees me off.
People saying "they never told me" , when you belated on about it on MN for ages. And got ignored.
And then you are supposed to do more work spoon feeding once again.

I can't tell if that was a reply to me or not? I wasn't on MN in early 2020, if you spelled it all out at the time then great but ideally it should be someone in authority doing that rather than an MNer!

And I've never seen anyone in authority spell out to the population exactly what the tradeoffs were going to be and the reality that we were going to be choosing between a lot of bad options. The closest anyone has got is the people will die speech on 11th March, which not only isn't that but was also too late.