If you want to get things done go to the lowest level possible.

It seems to me that a lot of people want to speak to the manager, so to speak. There is actually an unofficial term regarding hair styles. It's called an 'I want to speak to the manager' haircut. To me it looks more like an indignant bossy bitch hairstyle, really.

Anyone that has spent any time in the service knows how to get things done. You don't speak to an officer and you don't speak to a private. You go to a sergeant.

Lieutenants are too green and are somewhat afraid to step up to the plate, majors are in a twilight zone, career wise. You might get lucky with a captain but you can generally rely on a solid NCO.

A staff sergeant or above is the person that generally has the authority to get the job done and knows what is going on. His decisions are seldom questioned.

The same thing seems to hold true in the business world.

Going to the store manager is kind of an iffy deal because he is likely to want to fall back on policy or something because he knows he is under the microscope from his bosses. Besides if the problem is something along the lines of a technical nature he's likely not to know what is going on. He's not a technician, he's a manager. He manages technicians.

Of course the kid stocking shelves not only has no authority but probably doesn't know very much, either. The person you want to see is the department head.

Let's use a defective Walmart cell phone as and example. The store manager doesn't know how to judge if the damned thing is defective or not. He may very well show you that the product isn't defective and teach you what you are doing wrong. The store manager probably can't do this. The department manager probably can. That's why he's there.

The department manager likely has the authority to deem the phone defective and in many cases replace it on the spot. If the phone is slightly out of warranty he may decide to replace it anyway. In short, he is the go-to guy. The manager is not.


Anyone that has served knows that if you are looking for someone the last place you go to is the base commanding officer. He has likely never even heard of private Smith before. There are thousands of people on base and he certainly doesn't know them all.

A visit to his company may get better results. The Company Commander certainly knows private Smith but may not know where he is at the time. He may very well direct you to the man's platoon leader who in turn may not know where he is and pass you on to his platoon sergeant. Odds on finding private Smith get better the further down you go. The platoon sergeant will send for Private Smith's squad leader and it's a lead pipe cinch the squad leader knows where the missing private is.

The further down you can go to get a problem solved it's a pretty good bet that you'll get the best results with the least amount of BS and fanfare.

  




To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY