STANDARDS
Lately, I find myself thinking a lot about standards. Whenever I watch television or a movie or observe service personnel I think we are slowly but inexorably lowering our standards. I see television shows and movies which have no plot, no characterizations, nothing to lift my spirits or educate me. I read newspaper articles, magazine stories and books which don't make me think. I see service personnel who obviously aren't interested in me as a customer or in their jobs. I see professionals, people who are highly trained and capable of doing great things, who have lost all desire to please or satisfy themselves or others. I know this sounds like the ravings of an old man but I can't help myself. Maybe the lowering of standards is so slow that it takes age to notice it. Maybe the lowering of standards crops up in so many contexts that we become used to it and cease to notice it.
How many times do we complain of slow or rude service in a restaurant or shop? How often do we need multiple follow-up calls to obtain delivery of a product? Are we confident appointments will be kept? Do we believe that maintenance of our cars or appliances will be properly performed? And how do we respond if we are forced to complain, to make the calls, to bear unkept appointments, to fear poor maintenance? Do we become jaded, angry, withdrawn, nervous or, sadly, accepting?
` The cost of lower standards is small in each individual instance but repeated instances bring a high cost if they cause cynicism, fearfulness, stress, mistrust. These negative feelings begin to affect everything we do: we begin to mistrust our friends and co-workers, our families, doctors, all of the people we should value and respect.
I have concluded that higher standards are worth fighting for, that acceptance of lower standards hurts everyone. It has negative effects on the recipient of a service or product but most importantly it hurts the service givers, the helpers, the makers of products, all the people we interact with. Acceptance of lower standards means lower expectations, it means we don't value good work, it means that we don't think the people we deal with are capable of doing a good job. It means we don't respect others and it diminishes their self-respect.
I urge that we begin to turn this around: Let's have high expectations of ourselves and others and let's let everyone know. Let's refuse to accept less than the best we can do and refuse to apply a different standard to others. Let's also value a good job and let others know we expect a good job from them. Then standards will be raised and we'll all feel better about our work, our hobbies, our friendships, our family relations, our very lives. As I've written before, [Expectations] if we expect the best we will get it and everyone will benefit.
1-10-00
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