"Self esteem"
Yesterday I phoned the agency that I use to find tenants for my rental properties. I use the agency because I prefer to keep a polite distance between me and my tenants. The agency does the credit and criminal background checks and draws up the lease. It's worth paying them to do that.
Anyway a strange woman answered the phone. She was nice and perky so I forgave her for not introducing herself when answering the phone. One of the things I always insist on in business is that you say who you are immediately when you answer the phone. Everyone in my restaurant was trained to answer the phone thus: "Joubert's Restaurant. This is Pat (or whoever.) How may I help you?"
This is the conversation that I had this afternoon:
Miss Perky Pie: Rental Management Services.
Me: Good afternoon. This is Patrick Conlon from Robin's Wood Rentals. Could you please send me an application in the mail.
Miss Perky: Application?
Me: Yes. I need to fill one out for one of my apartments that is coming vacant.
Miss Perky: Which apartment building?
Me: My building on X Street.
Miss Perky: And who did you say you are?
Me: I'm Pat. Who are you?
Miss Perky: What?
Me: Listen, Miss Perky, (no I didn't really call her that) you haven't told me your name. You sound like you are very young and maybe no one taught you that you must always introduce yourself on the phone especially in business. What's your name?
Miss Perky: Michelle.
I could hear her bristling - getting defensive.
Me: I'll tell you what. I'll just give you my phone number and please ask Regina to call me. Okay?
Miss Perky: She's on another phone.
Me: I know because I just called her on her cell phone and it was busy. That's why I want to leave my number so she can call me back when she isn't busy. Okay?
Miss Perky: You don't have to be rude.
Me: Rude? Michelle, I am not being rude. Yes, this conversation is awkward. I'm being practical and businesslike. Any awkwardness that has occurred since you first answered the phone could have been avoided if you had introduced yourself when you answered the phone.
The only reason why I even bothered to spend time trying to educate Miss Perky was because she sounded like a sweet kid with potential.
The owner of this agency, a friend of mine, Barbara, was recently killed in a freak auto accident. She was my age and ran the business professionally. Her daughter has inherited the business and is letting things slide. Barbara would have trained her receptionist to answer the phone correctly.
Eventually Regina called me back. Regina is only 24 but is one of my "adopted" kids. By that I mean that I like her a lot and have taken her under my wing because she is smart, dresses beautifully, has impeccable manners and is all spit and polish. She's the kind of kid that I want to give a leg up.
Tonight, during dinner, I told Chas and Andy about my conversation with Miss Perky.
Chas said she was like that because of the "self esteem" nonsense that they teach in schools nowadays. It makes today's kids get their egos out of proportion and they end up defensive and thin-skinned.
As the three of us cranky old curmudgeons were bemoaning the modern world, I suddenly realized that actually all this "self esteem" crap that they teach in schools nowadays is actually the opposite. I mean it's phony self esteem. Real self esteem comes from real inner strength not screwy group therapy sessions. No amount of repeating the mantra, "I am special" will achieve that. You have to BE special, accomplish something.
A neighbor of mine, Tony, who owns ten acres about two miles away which she has turned into a wholesale plant nursery, used to be a school teacher in California. She stopped teaching in the 80s when they introduced the "Goal System." The "Goal System" is based on the Soviet education system introduced in Russia in the 1960s.
I have tried to find out more about this on the internet but cannot find anything about it but, according to Tony, it is designed to destroy pupils' individuality and replace it with a group-think mentality. I take what Tony says with a pinch of salt because she, like many of my born-again Christian neighbors, believes that the world was created 4,000 years ago and that dinosaurs existed in the Garden of Eden. However, her condemnation of public schooling cannot be dimissed.
Yes, most of my neighbors home-school their kids and they are the finest young men and women you could wish to meet. For a start, they have all grown up with vicious chickens and other farm animals and seen nature in all its glory and horror. They are realistic, practical and trained for survival.
The nonsensical "self esteem" crap that they teach in public schools doesn't help kids to survive and succeed. In fact it brainwashes them into thinking of themselves as victims entitled to emotionally manipulate and blackmail people into "respecting" them.
I ended up feeling sorry for Miss Perky and all the other poor kids who have been misled by public schooling. They actually don't have any self esteem at all. It has been erased and their individuality, their uniqueness has been replaced with a Borg mentality.
Anyway a strange woman answered the phone. She was nice and perky so I forgave her for not introducing herself when answering the phone. One of the things I always insist on in business is that you say who you are immediately when you answer the phone. Everyone in my restaurant was trained to answer the phone thus: "Joubert's Restaurant. This is Pat (or whoever.) How may I help you?"
This is the conversation that I had this afternoon:
Miss Perky Pie: Rental Management Services.
Me: Good afternoon. This is Patrick Conlon from Robin's Wood Rentals. Could you please send me an application in the mail.
Miss Perky: Application?
Me: Yes. I need to fill one out for one of my apartments that is coming vacant.
Miss Perky: Which apartment building?
Me: My building on X Street.
Miss Perky: And who did you say you are?
Me: I'm Pat. Who are you?
Miss Perky: What?
Me: Listen, Miss Perky, (no I didn't really call her that) you haven't told me your name. You sound like you are very young and maybe no one taught you that you must always introduce yourself on the phone especially in business. What's your name?
Miss Perky: Michelle.
I could hear her bristling - getting defensive.
Me: I'll tell you what. I'll just give you my phone number and please ask Regina to call me. Okay?
Miss Perky: She's on another phone.
Me: I know because I just called her on her cell phone and it was busy. That's why I want to leave my number so she can call me back when she isn't busy. Okay?
Miss Perky: You don't have to be rude.
Me: Rude? Michelle, I am not being rude. Yes, this conversation is awkward. I'm being practical and businesslike. Any awkwardness that has occurred since you first answered the phone could have been avoided if you had introduced yourself when you answered the phone.
The only reason why I even bothered to spend time trying to educate Miss Perky was because she sounded like a sweet kid with potential.
The owner of this agency, a friend of mine, Barbara, was recently killed in a freak auto accident. She was my age and ran the business professionally. Her daughter has inherited the business and is letting things slide. Barbara would have trained her receptionist to answer the phone correctly.
Eventually Regina called me back. Regina is only 24 but is one of my "adopted" kids. By that I mean that I like her a lot and have taken her under my wing because she is smart, dresses beautifully, has impeccable manners and is all spit and polish. She's the kind of kid that I want to give a leg up.
Tonight, during dinner, I told Chas and Andy about my conversation with Miss Perky.
Chas said she was like that because of the "self esteem" nonsense that they teach in schools nowadays. It makes today's kids get their egos out of proportion and they end up defensive and thin-skinned.
As the three of us cranky old curmudgeons were bemoaning the modern world, I suddenly realized that actually all this "self esteem" crap that they teach in schools nowadays is actually the opposite. I mean it's phony self esteem. Real self esteem comes from real inner strength not screwy group therapy sessions. No amount of repeating the mantra, "I am special" will achieve that. You have to BE special, accomplish something.
A neighbor of mine, Tony, who owns ten acres about two miles away which she has turned into a wholesale plant nursery, used to be a school teacher in California. She stopped teaching in the 80s when they introduced the "Goal System." The "Goal System" is based on the Soviet education system introduced in Russia in the 1960s.
I have tried to find out more about this on the internet but cannot find anything about it but, according to Tony, it is designed to destroy pupils' individuality and replace it with a group-think mentality. I take what Tony says with a pinch of salt because she, like many of my born-again Christian neighbors, believes that the world was created 4,000 years ago and that dinosaurs existed in the Garden of Eden. However, her condemnation of public schooling cannot be dimissed.
Yes, most of my neighbors home-school their kids and they are the finest young men and women you could wish to meet. For a start, they have all grown up with vicious chickens and other farm animals and seen nature in all its glory and horror. They are realistic, practical and trained for survival.
The nonsensical "self esteem" crap that they teach in public schools doesn't help kids to survive and succeed. In fact it brainwashes them into thinking of themselves as victims entitled to emotionally manipulate and blackmail people into "respecting" them.
I ended up feeling sorry for Miss Perky and all the other poor kids who have been misled by public schooling. They actually don't have any self esteem at all. It has been erased and their individuality, their uniqueness has been replaced with a Borg mentality.
posted by Joubert at 12:06 AM
The Alliance
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