Tamra R. Heathershaw-Hart wrote:
>
> So we're sending off a package via Federal Express today, and we decided to
> call ahead and find out what it's going to cost us.
>
> Them: "How much does it weight?"
> Us: "9.5 ounces."
> Them: "Um...is that more than a pound?"
> Us (disbelieving): "I believe a pound is 16 ounces."
> Them (huffy): "Well, *I* wouldn't know that."
>
> Hmmm...what's wrong with this picture?
*chuckle* Company I previously worked for developed, among other
things, tests for basic workplace skills. The pyschologists used to
struggle over this with employers . . . employers didn't need people who
knew the entire weights and measure system, but simply to know the
difference between over a pound and under a pound. It was hard to
convince them they *really* needed to hire people that knew more by
testing for it, as a lot more depended upon common sense and reasoning
ability than most cost-benefit analyses accounted for.
A common analogy from their perspective: If you need a computer to open
and close a door (a simple yes/no decision), you don't hire one that can
design doors as well (perform complex logic) because it would be too
expensive and unneeded.
The other side: The computer that opens the door could be more cost
effective if it also monitored for cold air leaks, knew when it *should*
be open or closed, refused to open when it would cause injury, etc.
Anymore, businesses look at people on the other end of the phone as
interchangeable parts -- the less knowledge their jobs requires (i.e.,
the more knowledge that can be aggregated into existing paid positions),
the more fault-tolerant the lower end of the pay scale is (i.e., anyone
who can speak can be trained to do the job cheaply, handy in times of
strikes and low wages, and guarantees a nice long term low wage for an
entire category of operations).
Guess this is what happens when a bunch of people who specialized in
something in college take their narrow views to a world where
specialization is rewarded and create new systems of specialization.
:P I think the whole process is making our brains collectively smaller
and less capable of real thought (so convenient that it's a society-wide
process).
:P
Here's to all us curmudgeony old Rennaisance Folks *cheers* ;)
B
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