04/28/09: Only in New York
I like advertising that doesn’t use deception.
04/16/09: If Designers Were Civil Servants…
“We do not process paperwork after 3:30.” This statement was angrily shouted at me through a window on the 9th floor of the Brooklyn Courthouse at 3:40. This window, inexplicably, is open until 5:00. This is a window where, to my knowledge, the entire purpose is to process paperwork.
Why am I visiting this window for the fourth time? I’m applying to change my last name to my husband’s and it involves a mountain of bureaucracy that not only includes 5 viists to this wonderful window, but also publishing my name in a local paper. (I should add that this return visit was after a former visit involved missing paperwork that previously i was informed I did not need.) Oh, and all of this occurs before I even hit the social security office.
Anyhow, the whole thing got me thinking about the way i conduct business and the way I interface with clients. What if I told clients “sorry, I don’t design after 3:30,” or “I don’t answer calls after 3:30,” or “I don’t respond to emails after 3:30”? I’m pretty sure that the client would have no hesitation in dumping me and selecting a new designer willing to work busness hours. Yet, when it comes to government and bureaucracy, we are locked in to the estoeric rules and forced to be submissive to rude people who seem to hate us. I can’t help but wonder if government as a whole would run more efficiently if it just had to operate under the same rules as the self employed: being courteous and accomodating but still establishing boundaries.
I’m still a good little democrat, but I do wonder if business could at least teach a few lessons to civil service in niceness and efficiency. Or just close the damn window at 3:30.