Have you ever noticed that....?

Have you ever noticed that any place that has a sign up that states "Our staff have the right to work without threats of phisical or verbal attack" are only ever displayed in places where they lack any kind of customer service skills. Yesterday I had the misfortune of having to queue up in a Post Office. I needed a number of the larger first class stamps that we are now forced to buy due to the post offices incompetences. They cost more if your card or letter is larger than the smallest of envelopes. I don't grudge the cost, its the fact that we have to queue up to buy them. In the States you can leave the letter & the postage in your mailbox and the postman will collect them when they drop off mail.

So I queued for ten minutes to be met by some woman who simply stared at me despite my usual, "Hello, how are you?". Not a word was said until she told me the price then while I asked for a receipt she started to talk to the colleauge next to her totally ignoring my request. Come on people, you work in what is advertised as the 'Peoples Post Office' and yet your counter staff are some of the least polite people you can ever meet. They need a serious dose of customer service training.

The other place where you see the same sign warning of abuse to staff is London Underground. You spend forever in line to get to a ticket booth that is actually open to be met by someone who hardly speaks a word of English and couldnt be more less bothered or less helpfull. They are only worse than the moron gate guards who would rather chat to a friend than assist passengers in need.

Maybe it's the unions fault?

Yesterday Panarama reported on the traditional postie and how they have laid off 60,000 staff and yet expect their front line postal workers to deliver more mail. Of course the posties don't want to work longer rounds. They result to not bothering, to dropping a card through your box saying "Sorry you were not home", even though you were in all day and they simply didn't even bother knocking. As Margarett Thatcher soon realised the Unions are the curse of this country. Of course they have done some good things. We no longer send Children down the pitts or up to clean a chimney but then look at the state and attitude of children in this country today? I'm all for the return of national service as the only salvation to return respect to the youth of today.

Unions meanwhile aare going to ruin hundreds of thousands of peoples travel plans if the strike at British Airways goes ahead, as planned from December 22nd - January 2nd. The highest season of the year, where the airline makes the most money. But somehow this time like the postal strikes of earlier this year, the strikers do not have the public support. The postal workers face a declining industry while e-mail takes priority in the mail race, while how can one have empathy for British Airways Crew who earn on average double that salary that their colleagues at Virgin Atlantic make. BA Long Haul Crew make on average £35,000 PA. BA crew have always been paid the most, perhaps from the era when they gave themselves the name 'The Worlds faveourite Airline'. But in the deepest recession in 100 years and on the back of the biggest losses the airline has ever known, BA has to change to compete with its competitors. Surely striking at Christmas and causing the loses at the airline when they can most rake in the cash is likely to only hurt the airline even further. With so many discount 'no frills' airlines, we all have so much choice these days. Did you ever compare a shorthaul flight? £89 on Easyjet and £169 on BA. Of course you have to watch the extras but does striking help their better goal? They want BA to stop turning their Airline, the airline they proud to work for into a low cost carrier. But instead of aiding their cause are they not sending more people into the hands of their competitors. Would you really book a BA flight if you knew they are likely to be on Strike soon? Not I.

As the rest of us all have tightened down the hatches and started to work extra hours since all of the lay off's that were made last year. Perhaps we would feel different if the airline was profitable or they were paid so little, but its hard to feel different when they earn so much and their actions are likely to send the airline to the ground. With a huge pension deficit, a loss of £401 Million last year and higher fuel costs once again, I can see the airline going to demise. Sort it out guys, have a little festive love. After all, it is Christmas and everyone just wants to go and see their friends or loved ones. At least to date I have not seen a sign on a British Airways Aircraft saying their staff deserve to work with threat of abuse.

Go Joe go!

This year has been the first that I have watched the X Factor from the begining to the end. What an incredible journey its been. From the auditions and all the people that we love to laugh at for thinking they sound great when they are completely tone deaf. Right through to boot camp and eventually the finals.

I have to confess I love Olli from day one, a checky Essex chap, like myself, but it wasn't until I heard Joe sing that I swapped my vote. The turning point was hearing Joe sing "The Circle of Life", a song that will always be special in my heart. It truly gave me Goose bumps as he sang it and I simply didnt get that from the other contestants. Each week Joe sang I would wait for the bumps and know he had that something special. There was something about him that reminds me of me. Maybe as he was a performing arts student? But that was it, each week I would watch, waiting for the note that would give me the shivers.

I sat there tonight, along with, if the news is to be believed some 20 Million People, watching and hoping Joe would win.

Watching the news, the outakes and seeing the retakes of him when they announced the winner and that moment he realised he was the winner, there was a moment when I thought 'I wish that was me'. How did that feel? Then it snapped and I realised, I know exactly how it feels. February 17th 1995 when my parents land line rang and this voice called and asked for Neil, then said "Hi it's Sue Sharp from Walt Disney World International Recruitment. Neil I have a role as a Walt Disney World Cultural Representitive and a 12 month posting at Epcot Centre with your name on it. It was the day that my dreams came true. The moment in my life that changed me forever, the day from which point I would never be the same. Not only was it the start of my voyage from boyhood to manhood and a pivital point where I discovered the true me. It was the first moment I ever realised that nothing is impossible, you can achive your goals and the hardest thing is not achieving them, but rather to dream them. To want to better yourself, to dream of better things.

Disney taught me so many many thing but the greatest gift of all was learning that anyone can make a difference. It takes the smallest of things to help make someone smile. A small gesture which may mean so little to you can mean so much to others. The golden rule we used to be taught was 'Exceed guest expectations'. Once you do that, you are always a winner.

It seems hard to believe that my time at Disney began nearly 15 years ago. It seems like yesterday. The memories are so fresh and I undoubtedly know that it was the experience that made me the man I am today. I miss the magic, the pixie dust, the sunshine and the fun times, but I have managed to bring much of that magic with me. From a boy who was nieve, young and unexperienced, shy and daunted by the challenges of the world, to the man I have become, strong, ambitious, outgoing and surprising even to me, brave. I miss the wonderful people I met at Disney, David, Mark, Alison, Claudia, Kiyomi, Christine to name but a handfull but the dream walt once had was for a futuristic community of tomorrow. We were that community and we will be that Disney Alumni until the day we die.

Joe, I wish you success and hope that your new found fame finds you as much happiness as my turning point in life had on me.