Is Victor Meldrew Right?
I’ll just pause right there, to allow some of us just to think “yes”, before we’re presented with any more information.
OK, ready?
Here was a man who was, not just an expert, but the expert, at railing against modern life. (Also, if you have never seen, or heard of “One Foot in the Grave”, none of this is going to make any sense to you. Although,that also means you’re young, so you might as well read on to see how things are going to get).
Now, I’m 49 - I’ve a way to go before I reach Meldrew territory (in age, if not in spirit). But, when it comes ageing, and in particularly how older people are treated, I have a great frame of reference with my mum, and with my stepdad.
I don’t suppose that anyone, for the shortest moment, thinks the world is set up to any way cope with, or accommodate people with dementia. We’re not good, after all, at ‘difference’. However, my stepdad does not have dementia. He’s just got a lot of years behind him. He’s not ill, or infirm. He should be making his way through the world with ease.
But, it doesn’t feel like the world wants to help with that - particularly large organisations and companies.
The bank.
The DWP.
The management of his building.
He could definitely be forgiven for exclaiming “I don’t believe it”, on, reasonably, a half hourly basis.
Here’s the thing - the world is not set up to help, well, anybody that might need any kind of assistance, particularly when it comes to technology. So, if someone has no mobile, no email address (take a moment to imagine! no email!), well, businesses these days are not set up to cope.
As everything becomes more technology driven, anyone not keeping up with that technology is, not just getting left behind, but we are actually de-skilling some older people and removing their ability to do things for themselves, that they quite easily could.
From my stepdad’s experiences, I would say that large companies and organisations are not giving consideration to an ageing population. And, as I posted on Facebook to friends:
It's frustrating the living hell out of me because -
1. it's poor customer service to a large percentage of the population (almost 20% of people in the UK are aged 65 or over, over 13% are over 70 and that is surely a figure that will grow).
2. it means older people are more likely to need someone to step in as an advocate.
Many people won't HAVE an advocate, so how they're getting by I have no idea at all. (Also, most companies make it quite difficult for someone else to speak, due to GDPR, which is fair enough, they do have to be careful, but they need to be mindful at the same time).
Which resonated with a few people, who, similar in age to me, are finding the same for their parents.
One commented:
"My dad gets very frustrated that everything is “online” and he feels he is pushed into online billing etc when he wants paper ones. Though you can still have them, companies go out of their way to make it difficult."
With someone else going a little bit further:
Agree. Everything is pushed to online- my mum (82) isn't online and if she were I'd have to help even more with that.
British Gas cocked up her Gvmnt subsidy earlier in the year and it took 2 days to actually find someone to help as the phone just diverted to "Go online" and when we did get through in the phone they couldn't help!
I often phone and pretend to be mum just to get through the guff and have to pretend to be a bit confused/quavery voiced as they can tell otherwise!
It's shocking that banks/utilities/insurance are not set up to deal with elderly customers.
Thus companies are doing a disservice, not just to people who aren’t comfortable with technology, but also, their families, who have to step in and sort things out. A sort of ‘two for one’ deal in alienating people. Not because people mind helping their family member, but because they know that they shouldn’t have to. More worryingly sometimes, when people are fiercely independent, they simply don’t want to have to ask for help, and maybe won’t.
This should be something that concerns all of us, for our own futures, especially as life expectancy increases - will we be outpaced by technology next?
I’ll leave it to another friend to have the last word.
Yep. De-task your business by dumping the work you don't want to do onto your customers. Call it a 'web portal' where they can make policy changes or sort a few things out, but make sure you slash plenty of jobs from your call centre so service there is even worse and the portal looks like progress. You could even call it 'omnichannel service'.
Take away the supermarket checkouts and replace them with 'self checkouts' where customers do the jobs you've just removed (along with all those annoying, profit-sapping salaries you had to pay humans). Make sure they're hard to use, don't work and have lame user experience. Then, when theft goes up because you got rid of human checkout staff, install nasty little cameras that spy on your customers as they do your job for you.
And when people say this doesn't work for some neuordiverse people, the elderly and others, just say you tested it thoroughly and it's what everyone wanted.
Much love,
Anna
xx
