So as you probably have noticed around you, the “Made in the USA” stamp doesn’t appear on a lot of things these days. Sure there are those in manufacturing and textiles that are proud to put that stamp seal of approval hoping to latch onto hopeful Americanism–something that seems to have cropped up in a post-911 epidemic. You know what I’m talking about, the flags that you see everywhere, the bumper stickers and ribbon campaigns to “Support the Troops” and “Proud to be an American”, or the wrist bands, the pins on blazers, everywhere you look these days, people seem to be jumping on this bandwagon.

But that’s not the issue today (gives me an idea though for a future article!), the issue at hand is why is it that American’s don’t seem to be making things anymore, we invent or discover, and then ship that overseas or to another company who then ships it oversees, to have the product constructed or fabricated elsewhere. And that’s not to say that it’s made in Taiwan, but simply to say it’s not made on our mother land–America.

Why is that? I think one of the reasons for this is that American’s have become an entirely service oriented country, meaning we like to manage, we like to create, but we don’t like to get our hands dirty anymore. It’s this pre-Victorian view of things where the nobles and lords don’t get their hands dirty–they would rather pay the cheap labor of someone less fortunate who they know will take the work, and laugh with their other rich buddies how they are living the good life, not having to do any of the hard and degrading manual labor.

But wait, what does that do to our over-all social understandings? Does this enrich our understanding of the work and make us more humble? Or does this harden us because now we are competing not with quality, but quantity. Who can do more, faster, and louder. Why do I say this, because nobody cares about spending a lot of time anymore and doing paper work (now it’s computer work) in the proper way. Deadlines are now shorter, results are higher, revenue potentials and results are bigger and bolder. What has changed–the expectation of more at a lesser cost seems to be the driving force that we see nowadays.

Why would you say that expectations are not managed anymore? Well let’s look around us. People think that if they can get away with something, they will take advantage of that next time. Let’s look at a popular situation that we all have heard happen to someone we know or a friend of a friend. You are someone who has purchased a good from a store, but realize when you get home that it’s the wrong item. Unfortunately at this point in time, you have thrown away your receipts and because of a vacation that you had planned out, you aren’t able to return the item in the 14 days that the store has as far as their return policy. Also you have opened the item already and some of the original packaging has been lost/thrown away. So you come back from your trip, you go into the store with your head hanging low, and quietly explain your situation and request that they please take the return. The person that you interact with takes sympathy on your situation, understands where you are coming from, and against better judgment bends the rules and refunds your money.

Now look at the domino effect. This person perks up, and instead of thanking the almighty that there is still good and decency in the world these days, they do something similar, but this time instead of unintentionally throwing away the receipt or losing some of the original packaging, you do it carelessly because in the back of your mind you are thinking to yourself, well if it happens again I’ll do the same thing and expect that the same type of service will be presented. Well guess what, when you try and pull that off, you get someone who is a by the books individual, and they say no. And you know what, they have ever right to say no! You broke the rules, you didn’t follow the directions, you decided that the system was too good for you and that you “are” the system. Now a situation escalates, not because the store did anything wrong, but because your expectations on the situation were skewed to begin with.

Now this can be applied to many things, but the service industry has become more and more tough these days, because we are demanding and expecting more and more. People are looking into ways to cheat the system, similar to taxes. I can never understand why people do this, because if 1 person does it, they will tell 2 people, and they will tell 2 people, and sooner or later a whole lot of people think that they can get away with this grand idea, but in fact it is the honest ones who don’t bark and scream, who are left holding the bill at the end of the day. Is that fair?

Absolutely not. What about expectations in terms of your servicing company or vendors? Are they realistic? Are you in a business that relies on the business of other organizations or companies to sustain itself? Well back in the days, companies understood each other. Mistakes could happen, and people could talk calmly through it because they didn’t feel like they were being cheated, they felt like they were talking with a real person and not a sleezy wheeling dealing individual, and that their issues would be dealt with appropriately, even though they know that some of their complaints are just that–complaints. Sometimes you win, sometimes you loose, but it’s how you play the game. But if you can’t play the game and take the heat, well then get out of the kitchen I say!

What does that mean? It means that if you aren’t willing to admit that you are wrong, and to be civil to the other person on the phone or the other person across the table, then you are reinforcing this concept that began with very innocent beginnings and has now exploded into something that is out of control and you just do you very best to stay as far out of the damage path as you can. Funny thing is that if you do manage to stay out of the damage path, you again think you beat the system, and now you go back twice as determined to get twice as much thinking you will again cheat death. In reality isn’t that what it comes down to. The idea that you can pull one over on someone else and get something for nothing? What about if you are in a situation where you know that the company did something wrong, and they properly admit to it, and then fix it. Do you give the company the benefit of the doubt the next time something goes wrong, or do you hold it over their heads like a scarlet A and demand that they fix it because they failed in a previous instance. I’m sad to say that it’s probably going to be the later and not the more noble and honorable way out.

Companies do this to each other. Vendors do their best to provide goods and services, but you know what, mistakes will happen, delays will occur, pressure will be put on one side, and instead of dealing with that, everyone tends to do a slash redirect to point that energy to someone else. Put their balls in a vice grip and just squeeze is an appropriate example of this. Gratefulness is a thing of the past folks, and we think to ourselves or remind ourselves periodically how chivalry is dead–well I got news, that is the least of our worries! Who cares if we hold the door open for a lady, equal rights, and that means that men and women are playing on a level playing field. This goes the same for interactions between individuals in a service based economy. We have to be civil with each other, and learn to cope with the fact that we don’t get our way and just because we don’t doesn’t make you a lesser person. In fact I think this may be the root of all evils because it just pushes you to make yourself puff out like a bird who is trying to intimidate a larger animal because your instincts tell you that if you make yourself “seem” larger than you are, they will back down. Who said this was a predator/prey situation? I know I certainly don’t think of it in that way. But what compels people to think this way?

Personally I think it’s a lack of self awareness and self worth. You think that you are lower than people or have been treated badly in the past, you come at situations twice as aggressive and twice as determined to make the scales tip in your favor. This is the problem in the world and why managing expectations has become increasingly that much harder–nobody wants to feel like they got the short end of the stick. Well you can’t both have the big end, each should have 50% of the stick–nothing more, nothing less. You pay for what you get, and sometimes you pay more to get more. But the scales of economy don’t slide in your favor just because. In fact there is no favor so get that thought out of your mind completely. Do an honest days work, feel good about yourself, stop judging others, learn to look at yourself in the same way that you look at others, treat yourself like you treat others. I think if more people starting attacking themselves as they attack other people, the world just might be that much more humble.