Needed: An Orientation Toward Service
Profunksticated has finished a grueling first full week at the new gig with the Maryland IT firm. I’m back in NJ now as I write this, and I’m chilling.
This week has been chock-full of after-hours meetings, ‘cause the folks who have to write one of the proposals I’m helping on are billable to a client during the day, and cannot work on the project. Evenings are the only time they can discuss it. So there’s been a status meeting (via conference call) every evening night this week.
This firm, by the way, graduated from SBA 8(a) status about a year ago.
Meanwhile, I’m thinking of a discussion about a statement Hostess made in one of her recent posts. She mentioned how one of her favorite haunts was diminished with the invasion of the “administrative assistants.”
I initially believed that AA=ghetto. But I’ve thought further about the matter and concluded that many AAs tend to be young, minority and have not-so-great attitudes toward their work. I say that because AA is a support position, much like what I do in proposals. Desktop publishers and graphic artists fall into the proposal development category as well.
I’ve dealt with DPs and GAs who would openly complain when their workloads got too heavy, or if the internal clients made repeated changes to text or graphics. Hey, I’d want to tell them, I’m not happy either, but I’m not gonna complain, at least not within earshot of colleagues. I’ve also heard such folks talk about what they would or wouldn’t do in a given situation or how they could not or would not stay late to get the job done.
I’ve worked with both black and white DPs and GAs and have seen the surly attitudes. Granted, the upper-level types who are our internal clients, usually project managers or VPs, can be overbearing. But as a general rule, they didn’t get where they are by being overly nice. And they’re under a fair amount of pressure also — to bring in the business. In one of my last gigs, my immediate supervisor criticized me for bending over too far backwards to accommodate internal clients.
If I ran a company and had to hire support staff, be they AAs or other lower-level support, I’d be sure they were ready for what they have to face. I’d question them as to their mindsets. I would tell them that to be in a corporate support position requires, I believe, an orientation toward service and maybe even a level of spirituality. I’d also try to give them the big picture of how they fit in, how their contribution helps the organization’s bottom line.
I thought about this topic also because I met a graphic artist on my new job who is always smiling and as pleasant as she can be. She’s also an Indian, like many of my new colleagues. I’m not sure if her ethnicity makes that much difference, but I can honestly say I’m looking forward to working with her. She seems to be a far cry from what I’ve encountered in the past.
This also dovetails with a statement my sister once made about blacks in business. She said black folk aren’t successful in business because they don’t have a customer service orientation. In other words, she said, we’re quick to cop an attitude when a customer complains, even when the customer is right. Yes, her statement was a gross generalization, but therein lies a grain of truth.
Any thoughts, ya’ll?
Peace.
Hey! Good you have a nice week!
AA: The ones I’m talking about usually have/do at least three of the following:
a kid or three, sans husband, paint their nails at their desk, screw any penis in the building if they have the opportunity, complain, have a nasty attitude at 8, talk on the phone airing their personal business loudly, pop gum, have neck tattoos, and burgundy hair.
These chicks are often the shyt in their ‘hood because they went and got an office job. *sigh* Then they get to work and walk around like they ARE the shyt. No ma’am! Go somewhere, sit down, shut up, and send out those memos and packages like I told you!
Oh and I tend to agree with your sister.
Thanks, Hostess!! Damn, you got me LO really Looooouuuudddd!!! Neck tattoos! That is so true. So how the hell do they even get hired?
BTW, there were two DPs I sat next to in my last gig, both female — one black, the other latino, both in their early 30s — who talked loudly and incessantly about their personal lives and husbands.
Then there was the half-black Cuban/half Italian gum-popping DP, again early 30s, who was hired as a temp in my NJ gig who immediately placed photos of her not-yet-year-old kid and baby daddy in her cubicle, announcing to all they were just living together. I about gagged. But initially we got along, I liked her work. But we fell out later over her lashing out at me because her workload suddenly increased. She couldn’t lash out at the white woman — my counterpart — who was giving her most of the work, so she decided to accuse me of getting stuff to her late. And this was after I lobbied the department supervisor to hire her full time, which they did, despite her initial attendance problems.
I could see you and my sister talking on similar wavelengths. She’s pretty much no-nonsense when it comes to work.
Comment by Hostess — July 19, 2008 @ 7:00 pm
i think to a certain extend, we tend to be that way, we can be very defensive, because at times we can’t take off our black hats, and be just professionals. we always think someone is challenging us as black people, even when they are right, and have valid reasons for complaining. Because of how we have been viewed and treated by society. We tend to quickly jump into to the defence, and can be branded for our ‘attitude’ types, but like u said, this is a generalisation.
I wish there were a course for non-blacks on “why black Americans act the way they do.” Defensiveness would be one of the topics.
Comment by Shazza — July 21, 2008 @ 9:42 am