by Chris Banescu –
YouTube, currently the largest video platform in the world, does not provide search functionality for your liked or saved videos. You’re allowed to search all YouTube videos for specific key words and terms, but you cannot search solely within your own lists of liked or saved videos. [Read more…]
Incompetence
PayPal: Take The Darn Survey Or Else!
by Chris Banescu –
Just three days after providing my business with a debit card I never requested or wanted, PayPal manages to insult and frustrate me again. Immediately after logging into my account, instead of viewing the Summary (dashboard) page that normally lists the latest financial data and activity on my account, I was met with a demand to fill out a survey. The message box replaced my normal view of the latest transactions and payments, and completely blocked my view of the Summary page information (see first survey screen shot below).
Summary Dashboard Page Held Hostage
The message read as follows: “Please take a moment to let us know what you think about the redesigned display of information on this page. Thanks!” PayPal offered me no way to bypass or close the message. My only choice was to click on the “Provide Feedback” option right bellow the message. My Summary page was being held hostage until I complied with PayPal’s demand to complete their survey. [Read more…]
PayPal: Here’s That Debit Card You Didn’t Ask For
by Chris Banescu –
Today I received the PayPal Business Debit Mastercard that I didn’t ask for and didn’t want. A few weeks ago PayPal notified me of their decision to issue this debit card for my account. They did not bother to ask me first. They didn’t request my permission first. They didn’t give me the option to opt in. They sent it to me anyway.
First Email
Originally PayPal sent an email informing me of this “new benefit to your existing PayPal Business account” which they decided was good for me. They made that decision based on my “history as a PayPal customer.” PayPal’s long-winded email (six paragraphs long) touted the many benefits of this new card. No clear option to opt in or opt out was evident anywhere. No large or visible button or bolded “Yes, Send It” (opt-in) or “No Thank You” (opt-out) link was provided. [Read more…]
How To Demotivate Employees and Undermine Morale and Productivity
by Chris Banescu –
Here’s a list of dysfunctional, unethical, and destructive organizational practices that I have personally experienced or seen while working with or consulting for various companies, corporations, universities, and non-profit institutions. Each of these will demotivate employees, undermine their morale, and negatively affect their productivity. Each of them will corrode organizational cohesiveness, foment suspicion and resentment of management, and destroy employees’ trust in and respect of their leaders.
Once more than one of these dysfunctional situations become normalized and spread across a company, then employee dissatisfaction and disengagement will increase exponentially. Quality of work will be negatively impacted. Great employees will begin to leave. Then the good ones will quit. The remaining employees will stop caring, stop speaking out, stop trying to address problems or improve anything inside the company. They will “go to gray.” They will do the minimal work required of them and no more.
If this pathology continues over longer periods of time, a human resources crisis will envelop the entire company and disaster (financial, ethical, legal, criminal, etc.) will inevitably follow. [Read more…]