Cantousent

This is undoubtedly true. In fact, I don't think we should hold it against Gore that he consumes a lot of energy. He's a celebrity with a certain status in society. However, whether it should or not, hypocrisy does detract from the message. There's no getting around that fact. That's because, no matter how much we try to be objective, the message will be associated with the person. If this were a tv evengelist who said that we should be kind to our neighbors and charitable to the poor, do you honestly think we wouldn't have every anti-religious member making the charge of base hypocrisy. Now that it's a liberal, we should stop concentrating on the person and start concentrating on his message? It hasn't worked for Christians yet. ...But, in fact, I don't disagree with Gore's message of conservation. No matter where you stand on the issue of global warming, conservation is good. It has proved to be insufficient, by itself, to curtain our consumption of oil. We cannot conserve our way out of the problem. Anyhow, back to hypocrisy, I've often said, even on these boards, that the charge of hypocrisy is thrown out too quickly. ...And it undoubtedly is here as well. However, when folks on these boards make the charge of Christian hypocrisy, level against an entire group of people no less, I didn't see you, LadyCrimson, jumping up to the defense of Christians because all humans are hypocrits at one time or another. It would be my pleasure for you to cite the example that proves me wrong. In the meantime, Al Gore is a specific individual. His hypocrisy comes because he has placed himself on display and has a very public message. This isn't some gross generalization. We have the man. We have his actions. You were right. You're a hypocrit just like the rest of us. Meanwhile, I would have to say that Al Gore deserves the ridicule he's getting right now. On the other hand, he deserves to live past this incident because we all deserve a chance to live past the incidents in our lives. So, the guy preaches conservation while consuming a small countries worth every day (or whatever). Haha. Great joke. Funny. Look at poor Al Gore with egg on his face. Now let's move on with our lives. He'll keep preaching conservation. He'll also keep sounding a little bit fringe while he does so. He'll keep consuming. Conservatives will jump at the chance to attack a perceived threat. It was ever thus.

Of course, and I meant no slight. :D

I'm edging closer to buying one of these beasts. Give us the rundown on Mass Effect when you get it. No spoilers, you swine!

That's okay, Walsh. I'm sure the ends justify the means.

Ouch, meta, you swine. That was a defect in the lens, not my face. Anyhow, Cats is so played out. You should try something other than animals as a theme. How about a real friendly looking guy in a business suit. he's standing next to a well dressed kid in a school uniform. The guy has his hand on the kid's shoulder and they're both smiling. The kid has a fast food bag in his/her hand. The caption underneath reads, "Do you know where your child is?"

I love jalapenos on my pizza. Banana peppers are for salads and sandwhiches. However, jalapenos in my tuna salad sounds pretty tempting.

What I get from a lot of folks in this thread is that the customers suck. Fellow employees pretty much suck also. The boss really sucks. Parents suck. School sucks. ex-girl friends... well, they used to suck, which only makes it worse now, because current girl-friends don't. Except in the metaphysical sense. In that case, they suck also. I mean, get a grip, folks.

Hey, I've got feelings too, ya know! Even jerks need some love.

and then in the next frame I'm standing there looking guilty!

Cut that out before I report you. I'm a loyal customer around here, and I demand respect, even from the other customers! :Cant's GRRRR icon:

Yeah, that's just not a nice word. I know there's irony involved in the situation (incongruity, whatever), but the base charge of 'liar' is pretty vicious on a message board where our words are ourselves. Hey, that was clever, wasn't it? I'm one cool customer.

Hey, maybe it should be: "Half empty.... or half full?"

I've been around long enough to know the customer is not always right. :Cant's grinning icon:

Here, I'll give you cause for your happy dance. :D I agree with this statement completely. Your job is to make the boss happy. However, your boss probably wants to make the customer happy. There are very few industries where they can take the customer for granted, and none where they can take the customer for granted forever. That's why you've got call monitoring even in government agencies. The point, for me, is that it's not healthy to view the customer as an enemy. Sure, specific customers, but not every one. I mean, Vol, you've never had a nice customer? Once? Where the hell do you work? I've taught literally hundreds of customer service seminars and I always try to impart the idea that our customers aren't the enemy. We have a partnership with them. That doesn't mean I'm going to fire an employee because some nut is angry because he doesn't like her brand of perfume. On their end, they receive something that we provide. They can also expect friendly service. We should be able to expect payment and respectful treatment. It doesn't always work out exactly as planned, but that's the idea nonetheless. Even in fast food, with its bad reputation, I've had friendly exchanges with the employees. Joked or laughed about something that happened while I was in the line. In fact, most of the time, I have a pretty uneventful visit to the fast food joint. I go in, make an order, pay for it, get the bags, and leave. Even then, the cashier and I almost always exchange at least one smile somewhere in there. Yeah, I've had surly cashiers. I've also been damned angry about something else when I entered the joint and undoubtedly sounded unfriendly. That's how it works, but not very often, really. Okay, time for a funny story. I was in a mcdonald's on the way to Las Vegas with my wife about a year ago. Some lady comes in with a problem regarding her order. It turns out that some of the items in the order are wrong. So, she's talking to the manager, telling him the stuff she wants in the order. She ends by saying she wants two hamburgers. The manager asks, "Do you want cheese on those?" The lady says firmly, "No, I don't want cheese." The cashier says, "If she'd wanted cheese on her hamburger, she'd've ordered a cheeseburger." Okay, okay, you had to be there, but we were all busting up. I just hope the cashier didn't get herself written up for the quip.

It does undermine his message, however. I mean, Pop really did hit it on the nose. "I don't expect Al Gore to make any sacrifices that I wouldn't be willing to make." Apparently Al Gore expects you to make sacrifices he isn't willing to make. Furthermore, it's undoubtedly underhanded that the guy's bills were made public knowledge. If they can determine who intruded on his privacy, that person should be prosecuted. However, this is nothing new in politics. What about the fiasco several years ago when the Democrats managed to listen in on a wireless conversation between house Republicans. It was wrong, but folks talked about it anyhow. Frankly, I don't care where Al Gore lives. He has the right to live within the laws of his country and community. All of this is just a side show. He's found his niche. Lucky him.

Total comedy. As for the article, I really don't care. Al Gore has gone more and more towards Michael Moorism. To be fair, I think he believes more in what he says, but he comes accross as a nut these days.

I thought my idea was excellent. ...But I get no love. Only emo.

The final decision doesn't even end with the boss. After all, if your business goes under for lack of customers, then you lose your job. Your boss can want to keep you, but the job ends when the customers stop buying. That doesn't just go for customer service, either. It can be salary demands or quality of goods. For example, employees can demand so much compensation that the product won't carry enough prophet (call it a sudden epiphany) or the product might be shoddy and folks won't want to buy it. For example, US steel workers or GM factory workers of a decade or two back. A lot of businesses go under every year, and the decision that an employee loses his job when the business goes under does not come from the boss. It's comes from the customer.

I can't imagine firing someone for a single complaint unless it is something truly bad. However, if you can't treat the customer with respect, we'll probably have a problem. ...But I figure more employees are fired for stealing than being rude to the customer. That's because you can dance on the line in terms of customers without actually stepping over it. With all things being equal, I'm going to believe my employee before any single customer. However, if enough customers complain, then I'll take for granted that there is a problem. Also, many companies have secret shopper programs. The level of hatred spewed on customers in this threat is ridiculous nonetheless. Damn it, men, you're customers also.

I wasn't really slamming you, meta. I love these discussions, as you know. Well, that and I'm not a real Latinist. The subject of the sentence is the thing and the indirect object is the possessor. That just sounds confusing English, but consider the following exchange. "Who's letter is this?" "Oh, that letter is for me." We do the same thing, but our use is tied to specific circumstances. As far as classical Latin goes, I think it's just best to follow conventions. Unfortunately, that means trying to move your mind around conventions that change over time. When you take Latin in most programs, you're almost certainly going to read some of both early and late Republic writings as well as early empire. That's a huge span of time. Take Medieval Latin. How can we appropriately describe Medieval Latin when there is no real consensus on when the Medieval period began? For good or ill, however, I learned Classical Latin. I figure that just means that it was the best period for Latin literature, so folkd took the whole period and called it classical. Same with Greek. You learn Attic Greek, but that's really a misnomer. You've got epic and doric and other stuff mixed in there as well. It's just the difficulty of deciding on classifications. Hell, look at the fantasy poll in the C&C forum above. We can't even decide where to place modern works in terms of genres. :D

"he has hot babes who is attracted to him" I was literally laughing in my seat.

I agree. Why does something become cliched in the first place? Because it's an idea that has broad appeal? Drizzt was just fine as a character. He might have been overused, but the outright hatred folks express for the guy seems overboard. Not only that, but someone must love the character. A lot of someones.

*weeps* :Cant's emo grin icon:

If this is essentially what Vol meant, I agree with it. Wholeheartedly. I've had folks trespassed, literally escorted them to the door and told them not to return. In this case, I don't know of any halfway decent boss who does not take the part of the employee because, when push comes to shove, you're accountable for the welfare of the employee while he's on the clock. That's why I refused to call my cashier stupid. Won't happen. Ever. ...And I have had to be tough with customers. I've had to look them in the eye and tell them I would never be able to accomodate them and that there was no other option. Yes, customers can be crazy. Take the guy who wanted the sandwich for the wrong price. He was wrong. There's no way to accomodate him. You should be respectful, but he's wrong. ...And I would completely agree with the server in this case, as long as the server was professional about it.

"...he indirectly and long-term wise is one of the more important reasons that your job exists." hahaha He is the only reason your job exists in the first place. You cannot sell if no one will buy. Hell, the business owner doesn't have a company unless someone buys. hahaha It's like saying having a heart is one of the more important reasons that you're alive. I mean, I'm no captain of industry like Vol, but I might have talked to a few bosses in my lifetime. Maybe had a chance to question them. Hell, as management, a position in which our local business tycoon Volourn has more exprience, half the time you're told that it better not reach the district manager unless it's important. Even someone like me, who doesn't try to be unfair and isn't particularly rough with service folks, I get free meals if the service is bad. I recently got a $200 dollars removed from my wireless phone bill because I felt I'd been wronged. At one point, the supervisor told me that there was no way that I'd get those charges removed, as they were valid, but she'd give me the contact information for her boss. You know what, Verizon did remove those charges. Granted, they were wrong in the first place, but it kind of goes against the dictates of Vol, our resident Donald Trump. Good Lord, when my parents moved to their new house, the buliders told my mom and dad that they'd have to stay in a hotel for a week because of a mistake that was clearly the builders. Not only did I have the builders pay for the storage and part of the moving expenses, I had them agree to pay for my folks' hotel stay. Amazing how the problem was mysteriously fixed the next day. hmm. ...And the builders weren't going to pay for it, either. I calmly said I understood but that the solution was unacceptable and that I'd like to talk to her boss. After two levels of bosses, we struck an agreement and then, lo and behold, the move-in date was moved up to the next day. Funny thing about bosses. Oh, and I'd say that one of the more important reasons to build 500 homes is because there are customers to buy them. That's going out on a limb in this place, I understand. After all, customers aren't the reason we have jobs. The boss is. The boss doesn't even need customers. If there weren't folks to buy homes, I'm sure K&B would build them just to provide jobs for a bunch of deadbeat slobs who do nothing but complain about folks who actually move the economy. That would be the consumer, to you guys. Having been the boss to whom the customer complains, I will say this, I accomodate the customer, but I try, as best as possible, to take the employees part. However, if I had an employee who showed the same amount of contempt for the customer as some of the folks in this thread, I'd counsel/coach them. If the problem persisted, I'd fire them. Well, I wouldn't want them to file for unemployment, so I'd give them the worst shifts and every legitimate crap job until they quit or I could fire them for cause, thus having the best case if unemployment became an issue. I'm for the employee, and I understand that this thread is all about venting, but customers are the reason you have a job. They're not one of the biggies. They are the biggie. No customer, no job. Oh, and your boss only has a company because of customers. I mean, I should probably defer to Volly Warbucks, but he's wrong.