Value of Time
Have you noticed a trend? It’s been creeping up on us. I haven’t heard anyone speaking up yet. Corporations are asking us to work for them – for free! I am not talking about working 60 hours and getting paid for 40. That’s been going on for a long time, a trend that has led to overwhelm, stress and unhealthy life styles. What I am talking about is the notion that we have to do our own customer service. Look at the airlines, they want us to book our flights online, print out our boarding passes, lift our own bags, tell us to re-arrange the overhead compartments on the plane, and have us bring our own food. The banks have trained us to do online bill pay, online credit card payments, now online currency trading. Even my water company is asking me to serve my account online! It’s all disguised as giving us more independence and freedom. And yet what’s happening is that we do the work for them. I wouldn’t have a problem with that, if they were to lower the rates, but that’s not what I am seeing. They have shifted the work they used to do to us, yet they keep increasing their prices. As a result, we do our own customer service. Yes, it’s all happening at the click of a button, but isn’t time money? What is your time worth?
