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TMCNet: OPINION: Chris Peck: By all means, sweat the small stuff

[September 05, 2010]

OPINION: Chris Peck: By all means, sweat the small stuff

Sep 05, 2010 (The Commercial Appeal - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Just before Labor Day I went to the dentist.

My dentist's highly professional, well-organized staff read me warnings about drugs, outlined some health risks of the procedure and detailed the cost of services. And the guy with the drill was a real pro.

But my visit wasn't flawless. Somehow, the dentist's computer had my name wrong. Pat Peck they called me.

The dentist called me Pat. The computer knew me as Pat. My billing files, until they are fixed, all will be indexed under Pat.

Should I change my name? That thought ran through my mind as I encountered again the often mystifying proclivities of the Greater Memphis work force.

Is it just me or does living in Memphis require running a gantlet of everyday snafus that should easily fixable? Days before the dentist, I visited a well-known Memphis bank to get a cashier's check. Everyone was so nice.

But when the check came back, it had two problems: Both of the names on the check were wrong.

When I inquired of the pleasant bank teller what to do, she responded, "Don't worry about it. As long as the people sign their names as they appear on the check, it will be fine." In other parts of the world, that fix might get you written up. Yet I felt I had little choice but to meekly leave the bank with the two wrong names on the bank check and chalk it up as one more example of the Memphis way.

Days later, I was sitting with a lawyer who had prepared a contract for my daughter's purchase of a house. "Here's the paperwork," he said, handing me a fat sheaf of documents. I began to read.

Turns out it wasn't my daughter's house contract. No. It was the contract for someone else, who paid more, in a different neighborhood.

Finally, I had to speak up. The sheepish attorney, who has a fine reputation, apologized profusely and could only say, "That's never happened before." But stuff like this does happen all the time in daily Memphis life.

The loosey-goosey Memphis attitude toward getting the little things right made me wonder about the state of our competitiveness as a city.

Does Memphis have work-force problem? The answer, of course, is yes. And it goes way back.

When Memphis employers were asked in 1999 to describe the strengths and weaknesses of the local work force, a large percentage of employers said most applicants were ill-prepared. Too many lacked basic reading and writing skills, too many had a bad attitude, too many simply didn't have the problem-solving skills employers need.

A decade later, Memphis still counts plenty of inexperienced, uninterested, and ill-prepared sales help and support staff. And it worries me to see this culture of ineptitude seeping into workplaces where there really should be no excuse -- like banks, dentists and lawyers.

Here's a theory of why. In Memphis, a great many people do bring a good attitude and good skills to the job. But their numbers are pretty much matched by an equal number of people in the region who don't have a job, don't have a good work history and don't have a clue about what it takes to get either one.

It's kind of shocking when you look at the numbers. The most current workplace survey conducted by the Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce shows that urban Memphis employs 550,000 workers. But the survey also shows that urban Memphis has just about that many people who are either out of a job and hoping to find work (355,000) or classified as underemployed (135,000), meaning they are doing something that can't really support a household.

As a result, a kind of cultural gridlock sometimes sets in between people who work and people who don't. Work is good and all. But not working or half-working at something you don't know how to do is as much a part of the Memphis culture as having a job and learning what's needed to keep it.

Such a culture cannot help but lead some employers and workers to lower their expectations for job performance. As years go by, this culture constructed around a half-baked work force begins to corrode even the best workplace habits. It happens in even the best workplaces. It certainly has happened here at this newspaper from time to time. We're not perfect in our efforts. Far from it.

Part of the gritty joy of Memphis life is learning how to not sweat this small stuff -- to laugh at it, shrug it off and get right with the idea that people are doing the best they can.

But the success of a business or a neighborhood or a city still comes down, in large part, to whether people at every level of society can get their jobs done.

There's plenty of work to be done in Memphis to make this an even better city. And we'll stand a better chance of success over time if we all sweated more to get the little stuff right.

Chris Peck is editor of The Commercial Appeal. Contact him at 901-529-2390 or e-mail peck@commercialappeal.com.

To see more of The Commercial Appeal or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.commercialappeal.com. Copyright (c) 2010, The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com, e-mail services@mctinfoservices.com, or call 866-280-5210 (outside the United States, call +1 312-222-4544).

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