I tell you, you tell me.
Jul. 21st, 2006 11:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mrissa1. Whether you are a magazine, a bank, an insurance company, a grocery store, or some other business entirely: "That's our policy!" does not constitute an explanation. "That's our policy, and if you don't like it, you can go somewhere else!" is often true. It is not, however, informative. It doesn't answer the question, "Why do you do it that way?" This is a good thing to notice when that's the question someone has asked.
If you are not at the top levels of management, feel free to say, "You know, I really don't know. I'm not in charge of those decisions." If you want to be a really good customer service provider, you can offer to register the customer's dissatisfaction, to pass them along to someone who is in charge of those decisions, or to find an alternate solution. But at the very least, acknowledging that the question has been asked and that an answer has not been provided is a good idea.
2.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
truepenny invited people to tell her something about themselves. What I said was: I have a birthmark on my right wrist, a little squiggly brown mark, and when I was little I pretended that it was a map of the island where we were really from, and someday we would go back there and wade through the snow to retake our castle, which was made of light grey stone and had big fires burning in the hearths all the time. (It is, incidentally, proof that my body does have melanin in it somewhere. It's capable of producing melanin. It's just sulking in the corner on this topic, has been for nearly 28 years now.)
I'm going to repeat the invitation: tell me something about yourself. Or about your older brother Noel who has lived in the closet (literally) since birth, or about the island on my wrist. Your call, really.
More things I've said in the comments ontruepenny's entry:
I keep thinking the snow and the fires are going to stay entirely out of some book I write someday.
I should stop thinking that, because even in the book that takes place above the Arctic Circle in June, they're implied.
And: Also, the freckles and moles on my legs are star maps. And the reason they're leg-shaped is that space is curved. And all sorts of interesting things would happen to me if only I got into the region of space my leg freckles describe.
I only think to tell people these things now because I have realized that not everybody had these childhood convictions.
When I was 4, it occurred to me to be profoundly sorry for black people, because they couldn't see their star maps, so how would they know how to navigate if the computer went out in their spaceships? Then when I was a little older, I met my first black person with freckles, and I was relieved: it was merely a personal limitation rather than an ethnic one. (No extremely lewd comments on this, please; this is at least sort of a family journal.)
If you are not at the top levels of management, feel free to say, "You know, I really don't know. I'm not in charge of those decisions." If you want to be a really good customer service provider, you can offer to register the customer's dissatisfaction, to pass them along to someone who is in charge of those decisions, or to find an alternate solution. But at the very least, acknowledging that the question has been asked and that an answer has not been provided is a good idea.
2.
truepenny invited people to tell her something about themselves. What I said was: I have a birthmark on my right wrist, a little squiggly brown mark, and when I was little I pretended that it was a map of the island where we were really from, and someday we would go back there and wade through the snow to retake our castle, which was made of light grey stone and had big fires burning in the hearths all the time. (It is, incidentally, proof that my body does have melanin in it somewhere. It's capable of producing melanin. It's just sulking in the corner on this topic, has been for nearly 28 years now.)I'm going to repeat the invitation: tell me something about yourself. Or about your older brother Noel who has lived in the closet (literally) since birth, or about the island on my wrist. Your call, really.
More things I've said in the comments on
truepenny's entry:I keep thinking the snow and the fires are going to stay entirely out of some book I write someday.
I should stop thinking that, because even in the book that takes place above the Arctic Circle in June, they're implied.
And: Also, the freckles and moles on my legs are star maps. And the reason they're leg-shaped is that space is curved. And all sorts of interesting things would happen to me if only I got into the region of space my leg freckles describe.
I only think to tell people these things now because I have realized that not everybody had these childhood convictions.
When I was 4, it occurred to me to be profoundly sorry for black people, because they couldn't see their star maps, so how would they know how to navigate if the computer went out in their spaceships? Then when I was a little older, I met my first black person with freckles, and I was relieved: it was merely a personal limitation rather than an ethnic one. (No extremely lewd comments on this, please; this is at least sort of a family journal.)
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no subject
Date: 2006-07-21 04:21 pm (UTC)And during the wallet-replacement panic or the job-quitting panic or something I totally forgot to contact you re. Bay Area. D'oh.
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Date: 2006-07-21 04:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-21 04:38 pm (UTC)Mine was an island, and I put my seriously overexercised D&D map-making skills to good use in generating the visual aids. I was absolutely convinced that the rest of my group weren't doing enough and we were going to fail.
We ended up being one of only two group who didn't more or less copy the World Book entry on some other country and replace the name.
That was one of my favorite school projects, though I'd have killed to be able to do it myself or at least pick my group.
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Date: 2006-07-21 04:52 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:about myself
Date: 2006-07-21 04:38 pm (UTC)Like this:
Re: about myself
Date: 2006-07-21 04:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-21 04:44 pm (UTC)Now I'm much better about sunscreen, though the sun is so strong here I get some color anyway. And either because I'm older or because I tend to be out rarely but for very long periods (regattas) I have freckles and speckles like my mom's on my shoulders and arms. (I do still tan more than she does, though. I'm not thrilled about this development, but thinking of them as star maps may help.
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Date: 2006-07-21 04:55 pm (UTC)I am perfectly able to think with the conscious grown-up brain that this is made-up and nonsense, but I am equally able to come forth with rationales for why something should go this way or that using the child-brain for whom this is all very natural to think about logically.
Or maybe it's that you used to know where you're going, and now you don't.
Hmmmmm. Probably it depends on the character, and at that point they're not being
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From:(no subject)
From:to continue your freckle theme:
Date: 2006-07-21 04:45 pm (UTC)1. I have freckles in places I am reasonably sure the sun has never reached.
2. Little black children often ask me if they can touch my freckles, thinking they will wipe off. One of them once said to me solemnly: "You look like a leopard."
3. I am not only the oldest child in my family, but the oldest grandchild on both sides. And the oldest great-grandchild on all four sides.
Re: to continue your freckle theme:
Date: 2006-07-21 04:51 pm (UTC)Doesn't everybody?Oh, I see. Or rather I don't see.2. That's fabulous. When I was little, I had very pale blonde curly hair, and all the Japanese tourists at Disneyland wanted to touch it. Unfortunately, my freckles are not even very good at melanin, so after a year and a half of pretty good friendship, one of my good friends was arguing with me in a dark restaurant about whether I had them at all. Sigh.
3. Neat! I am an only child and an only grandchild on side. On the other I have two cousins, both of whom arrived (via different routes into the same family) when I was 14. I am nowhere near the oldest great-grandchild: my mother has 52 first cousins, of whom the oldest is six months younger than Grandma and the oldest is three months older than me.
Re: to continue your freckle theme:
From:Re: to continue your freckle theme:
From:Re: to continue your freckle theme:
From:no subject
Date: 2006-07-21 05:08 pm (UTC)It looks pretty much like a mole now, and I worry that I have skin cancer growing between my eye and my nose. It's a scar, but it's heavy on the melanin and bubbly. It's a mole, but it was caused by a black cat. Or it's a star map, and I'm heading straight for a new sun.
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Date: 2006-07-22 05:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2006-07-21 05:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-21 06:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-21 05:12 pm (UTC)I have no idea why this is. Perhaps I was the woman in "Porphyria's Lover" in a previous, fictional life.
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Date: 2006-07-21 05:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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From:no subject
Date: 2006-07-21 05:15 pm (UTC)I used to pretend that a certain cloud shape was a secret island in the sky and when I could spot it, I could go there and have adventures with the various beings that lived on the cloud island. I got there by flying on my very own winged horse that lived in a clear bouncy ball with sparkles in it.
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Date: 2006-07-22 05:23 pm (UTC)Winged! bouncy! sparkly! oh my. The trifecta!
okay, a really random story
Date: 2006-07-21 05:23 pm (UTC)Re: okay, a really random story
Date: 2006-07-22 03:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-21 05:27 pm (UTC)My hair is still not white, but I am beginning to have quite grandmotherly forearms with regard to freckles.
P.
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Date: 2006-07-22 05:24 pm (UTC)I'm not sure which of us this says something about.
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Date: 2006-07-21 05:53 pm (UTC)I for one am always exponentially more pleased to hear a sincere "I don't know" than a BS "Here's why..."
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Date: 2006-07-21 08:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2006-07-21 05:56 pm (UTC)When I worked for the Northwestern National Bank (which became Norwest and is now Wells Fargo) I was on The Task Force For Corporate Culture. Reagan had deregulated banking by (among other things) removing Prohibition-era banking laws limiting the number of banks that could be owned by a single entity. Various Northwestern National Banks (having been grandfathered in back then, but were now more) wanted to become one entity, eventually called Norwest. My task force was supposed to tell Upper Management how to integrate a large, amorphous group into one company with a unified vision. It was a high-powered group, with four Senior Vice Presidents, several managers, other officers, and a guy from the mailroom (me).
We had loads of fun. Even the Sr. VPs were leery of rocking the boat too far. Indeed, we were the Seventh task force. One of our biggest complaints, and one of our most effective things we did, was to get Upper Management to implement suggestions from the previous task forces. (On, for example, privacy.)
I came up with a page of suggestions. Things the bank could do that would change the corporate climate for the better. (I have to make that qualification: For the better.) I don't remember what they were, though I may still have my notes around here in a box. But when it came to The Big Meeting, I knew I had my chance to make one (1) good suggestion.
The thing that would change the corporate climate of the new corporation the most, for the better. was: Eliminate the passive voice in memos. Not "it has been decided" or "the new policy is" but "as VP in Charge of Data Processing I am implementing the following" or "after much discussion and input from many segments of the banking industry, the Proof Team is directing the tellers to".
I'm not sure this directly addresses your complaint in 1., but I think it would have led to a greater degree of understanding and communication. Everyone should be on the same page. And that's a little something about myself.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-22 05:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2006-07-21 06:14 pm (UTC)In their "Inventory Control Department". I was responsible for one of the Alaskan pipelines, from pipeline origin point to the barges that floated down the river, and was expected to reconcile to within 1 barrel's worth of crude, daily.
The power quite went to my head. (When you call up other departments to find out where that last six hundred barrels of crude went, and you say you're "inventory control", people quake in their boots.) Sadly, when I left I had to turn the job over to a permanent employee who probably took less glee in answering the phone, "Inventory CONTROL."
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Date: 2006-07-22 05:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-21 06:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-22 05:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-21 06:27 pm (UTC)However, the freckle doesn't bother me, so I don't bother it, and we get along fine.
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Date: 2006-07-22 05:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-21 06:59 pm (UTC)My grandmother has an even larger but paler one pretty high up on her chest, too. It made me feel a little better, to know it was there. Because she didn't care who could see it.
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Date: 2006-07-22 05:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-21 07:31 pm (UTC)This entry makes my creative mind salivate at the possibilities to inspire prose taht brings epiphany to the writer or the reader... But then, as I sit here, encouraged, I suddenly cannot think of what to tell you.
What about me would be interesting enough to tell you, enrapture your own imagination? My fictional writing endeavours really are what gives me excitement, since my characters live what I wish I could, where I wish I could, at any given moment.
To write is to take your life and make it magical, perhaps that is something about me I can tell you. That I, in some way, like living in my writing world, through my characters (when I can, r eality is such a B***H) and the rest of the time I drone technical user manual diddley out through my fingers into the pages of perfect bound books shipped with big electronic doohickeys.
Ahhh being an adult is fun. Thank you for the inspiration, despite my inability to effectively get it onto the page. But! It got me diverted enough from specification sheets that I feel more relaxed. Danke!
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Date: 2006-07-22 05:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-21 07:35 pm (UTC)I've got huge green eyes that are always bloodshot due to my contact lenses. So bloodshot, apparently, that a co-worker informed me years later that he was sure I was a drug user. Uh, that would be a big no. He was disappointed.
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Date: 2006-07-21 08:18 pm (UTC)When I was a little girl, my older sisters used to dress me up in their full petticoats and pretend I was Shirley Temple because my hair is naturally curly, falling in ringlets, and was about the same color at the time. As I grew older, my hair darkened and I was able to escape dress-up and my sisters.
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Date: 2006-07-22 05:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-21 09:05 pm (UTC)I've always had very dry skin, especially on my arms. When I was younger, I thought there was some sort of basic maintenance routine that I wasn't doing. Moisturizer helps for a while, but mostly it's not worth the bother.
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Date: 2006-07-21 10:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-22 05:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-22 01:16 am (UTC)The first time I grew a beard (at 26, I think), I was startled to see patches of gray.
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Date: 2006-07-22 05:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-22 01:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-22 05:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-22 04:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-22 05:37 pm (UTC)