Have you ever purchased a train ticket in Belgium or a bottle of rum in Cuba?
by Cliverton
We ‘wild boys’ at Barbados Free Press may have had a drink or three yesterday because it was Friday and because, it was Friday.
Usually by the time the level in the bottle reaches a certain mark on the label we are able to solve huge problems in the world. Two weeks ago we solved the Israel-Muslim conflict in the Middle East. Last Friday we solved the energy crisis in Britain.
Unfortunately though, the details of our solutions seem to vanish the next morning after we sober up, but in the late hours of Friday they sure look viable!
Alas, I hesitate to report that even in our usual state we were stumped last night when we tried to find a solution to the sullen and outright rude persons on this island who are “employed” in positions of service. I say “employed” because so many are drawing their breath and paycheque but do little else.
Robert started the discussion by recounting how things are done in Belgium and a story of what happened to him when he broke the normal convention for manners.
Several years ago Robert was a little groggy one morning, not having slept all night, when he arrived at the Brussels-Central train station. He stepped up to the wicket and said, “I’d like a fare to Schiphol” (the station for the big airport in The Netherlands.)
The clerk looked at him, frowned, and said nothing.
“And then I remembered my manners for Belgium” said Robert. So he apologised saying he was a little sleepy and started the ritual. As he described it..
Robert “Good morning.”
Clerk “Good morning. How are you today?”
Robert “I am fine, thank you. And you?”
Clerk “Today everything is the best. How can I assist you?”
Robert “I would like a ticket to Amsterdam, please.”
… and so the conversation continued until Robert left with the ticket and the clerk said, “Enjoy your journey. Goodbye”
“Enjoy your journey. Goodbye”… can you imagine that being said by a Barbados clerk?
According to Robert it is the social convention in Belgium and in the Netherlands too that all people are to be treated with formal respect no matter which side of the counter they stand on – customer or the person providing the service. Although the verbal dance is “formal”, it is based upon a cultural norm that demands respect for all in social interactions. One does not violate that norm without getting the message that you should have better manners.
Cuba, where I have some experience, is another place where everything is friendly, but instead of being formalised like Belgium there is genuine warmth and respect between strangers. When tourists talk about the “warmth” of the Cuban people they are not mouthing what was said in some tourist brochure. It’s the real thing.
In Cuba, like Belgium, the way customers are treated is inseparable from the cultural conventions of social interactions. What I mean is that how customers are treated in the shops and other businesses is not an artificial layer placed there for business purposes, it is reflective of a general cultural standard of how people treat each other in all situations.
Contrast Cuba and Belgium with how you are treated at most shops and government offices in Bridgetown.
By the curt ‘conversation’ and slowness of service, you’d think that you the customer should have to beg to be allowed to make a purchase.
But is that something that only happens in a customer service environment, or is it reflective of something deeper across our society? Is the government’s “NISE” initiative too shallow? Do we need to start teaching our children right from the start in school and at home to be “NISE”?
I think so. I also think that we have to plan where we want our culture and our national character to go just as we try and plan roads, housing developments and water mains. Because if you don’t plan your journey, you might end up somewhere that you don’t want to be.
Examples set by our Leaders
Dr. David Estwick
And then there is the matter of example at the highest levels of leadership. It’s one thing to bash a politician in the media or Parliament. That’s all part of the thrust and parry of politics.
But it’s another thing altogether when a Minister of Government pulls a gun in Parliament on a fellow member (or displays the weapon – it’s really the same thing) and it is tolerated, excused and explained away by the gun owner’s political party.
In my opinion the sullen clerks in the Bridgetown stores and the gun pulling incident involving David Estwick are related.
It all goes back to the fact that our culture is going someplace without a plan for the journey… and we may not like our destination when we arrive.
Further Reading at The Nation
Good service not servitude
THE RESULTS of the recent politeness test survey conducted by the National Initiative for Service Excellence (NISE) found that Barbadians still have a long way to go in terms of service excellence. This should come as no surprise to those who deal with the many public and private sector entities in this country. One only has to listen to the call-in programmes to hear of the horror and uncouth behaviour meted out to the public doing legitimate business with these businesses.
One could be forgiven for thinking that in the 21st Century it would not be necessary to have to teach people to greet customers with a simple “good morning” or “thank you”, but unfortunately this is the exception rather than the rule.
According to the survey, Barbados fell down badly on the service test. Only 57 per cent of the times were customers thanked for their purchase. This is a simple courtesy that should be a condition reflex and is a serious indictment on our country as a services destination…
… continue reading the Nation article Good service not servitude
Barbados Free Press 
This is why I keep asking – what’s this thing we call ‘education’ ? ? ? – does it mean— how to be arrogant, ungracious, insensitive, disrespectful ? ? ?
According to the survey, Barbados fell down badly on the service test. Only 57 per cent of the times were customers thanked for their purchase.
I am not surprised, but thankfully there are some exceptions to the rule. I had to conduct some business in the Central Bank in Bridgetown the other day, and the young lady fielding inquiries and managing the front desk in the lobby just inside the main doors truly impressed me with her extremely pleasant, efficient and helpful attitude.
In the great scheme of things, it might not seem like very much. If I had to deal with an unpleasant, brusque or unhelpful individual, I am sure I would have eventually got done whatever it was I came to do, but this lady’s pleasant demeanor and helpful attitude really rubbed off on me and I left the Central Bank thinking positive thoughts and in a good mood, rather than irritated or frustrated and thinking to myself, “What a bunch of ignorant ‘brass bowls’ does work ’bout this place, though.”
It is really too bad that the sour-faced, surly, doan’-humbug- me-you- cyan’ -see- I -hear- talkin- pun- de- phone types don’t appear to be going away any time soon.
Don’t expect people who were brought up tooth-and-nail in de Orleans to be civil and pleasant
like those who were brought up in South Ridge!
Ain’t gonna happen.
Bajans come from vastly-diverse backgrounds and social circles.
We are NOT “born equal”, so you’d better get used to that.
Entitled to equal rights and opportunities,yes
but NOT equal, sorry to burst your bubble!
If you were dragged-up in a house full of the lower classes,
sleeping crossways five to a bed
you might not be too civil yourself.
An environment like that
simply has to influence your outlook on life,
where/when you compare your crappy domestic circumstances as a child unto age 12
with those refined individuals you deal with
who seem superior, mainly because they are.
You need to get into a few small blackman shacks and see whuh go on fer real, then you might understand why some pigs are the way they are.
Not ervy-body en grow up in a ‘wall’ house, with internet en ting.
These are people who can’t even hold a pen correctly.
They can’t handle a knife and fork properly!
You expect them to handle human customers properly?
____________________________
Education has little to do with it.
Upbringing and being taught Social Skills has much more to do with it.
And how, might I ask, would you expect parents
(if there is indeed a Mummy and a Daddy in the home)
to teach their children social skills,
when they themselves do not possess those skills in order to pass them on??
Bajans want a job but dont want to work.
Lotta truth in what you said Apples and Oranges however Bajans were not ALWAYS unmannerly, I’d like to say something which I know will rile a lot of you – but here goes…
There was a definite noticable change in attitudes that started the day after we became ‘independent.’
I could write a sermon on this…
And ‘education’ nowadays is SUPPOSED to be part of the correcting mechanism….
BTW – what ever happened with the Govt. NICE program????
Maybe if you are polite and nice to the clerks, they too will reciprocate (aka Robert), so…
‘Guh mahning, sweetness, yuh looking good tuhday’, or
‘Wassup dahling, tings good tuhday?’, or
‘My frien, I come tuh look fuh someting, how you is?’,
These are openers that may open the friendliness of the clerk to you.
But be careful (if you are a guy), not to use them to a fella, you may get a surprising answer.
Dont leave out immigration, customs and security gurds at the airport they make gas station attendants look like champions of manners. I contend airport workers have turned off many a tourist from returning to Barbados. Never have I come across such a disagreeable, unsmiling bunch. Who trains these little dictators? They go to out of their way to embarass their own Barbadian people.
Aye BFP, the postle, who is a Johnny is back, after a few months with my baby in Germany. So how are things on the site and how is our little island of never ending smiles? Will read up on a few topics before I start my Johnny talk. Talk to ya later got to go and do some unpacking
I find a smile and a warm greeting always gets a similar response, in Barbados, New York, Miami..anywhere.I dont really expect Immigration or Customs people, or Police to be “friendly”, because of the nature of their job, but I still find that I get a decent response with a smile and greeting to them.
Life is a two way street.
With regards to persons in the public sector, especially clerks (with whom the system is extensively overwhelmed), I have found that the vast majority are extremely arrogant, and self serving. I also have to wonder how some of these persons get into Government in the first place. As far as I know the Personnel and Administration division is supposed to monitor/undertake this process. Alas, this is yet another example of a Government department that has failed. I know of numerous persons, well-mannered, aptly qualified, and know when and where to use their Bajan tongue, and accompanying mannerisms, and when to use ‘proper English’.
It is high time that persons in authority stop giving away jobs to their friends and family members, just for the sake of it. We need a FUNCTIONING body, that can actively assess the performance and contribution(s) of Government employees, either the put out, or get kicked out.
Alas, I totally forgot about the Unions, who will kick, and bite, cause a storm, and shut down the whole country just to get one delinquent worker
back on the Government pay.
(shakes head and sighs, what a shame)
As a visitor, Barbadians that you come across in the hotels, around the streets, beaches, tourist spots etc. are generally very polite, but shop workers – well, that is another matter entirely!
I do not believe in ‘the customer is always right’ as there should be politeness both ways. Workers should not be subservient and have a ridiculous smile plastered on their face all day, but neither should they be rude to people as a matter of course.
I’ve walked out of many a shop because I don’t see why I should give my money to rude people. We get the same nonsense in the UK in Caribbean fast food businesses.
Nor will I shop in stores that rudely expect me to hand over MY bag on entering. I won’t be treated like a thief.
I don’t think it is about ‘class’ or being raised in a ‘shack’. There have always been poor people in Barbados, doesn’t mean that they’re rude and uncouth.
This situation indicates a lack of training and/or poor management in the work place.
Bad service is all over in this little island, in my own little circle i have encounters a large number of grumpy persons who are employed in a service delivery position. Whenever i approach them i always greet them with good morning/ good afternoon etc. almost every time i’m met with very little or no response at all. However i did notice that going to the same locations time and again persons do get get accustom to you and a few will actually respond, but others are totally unwilling to even unpick their teeth even when i wish them a good day after i have completed my transaction. There is a countrywide epidemic where simple manners is lacking. As a boy, my father would always say ” we are creating a world we won’t want to live in ” everyday i see his words coming through. Sad but true.
@Bajan
Right. Here’s a classic example I’d never forget from Planet Barbados….
* Why It’s Just About Impossible to Rent a DVD in Barbados
Posted by Jane Shattuck Hoyos | in My Life in Barbados on June 13th, 2009
http://planetbarbadosblog.com/2009/06/why-its-just-about-impossible-to-rent-a-dvd-in-barbados/