Technology was supposed to usher in a time of enlightenment and enrichment.
All those mundane tasks were to become a breeze, if at all.
The free market was supposed to usher in a time of competition.
We're free to choose between price, quality and time.
All this design and innovation of companies was supposed to usher in better products and services.
Everything will meet our needs when we need it.
But none of that has happened.
Despite all the design led bravado, despite never before having so much capability in our pockets and despite rampant consumerism meaning we can get whatever we want at whatever price we want it, everything is a bit shit.
The adage of 'pay peanuts, get monkeys' has evolved to 'pay gold, get dirt'.
I just made a chilli. I make good chillis. I once won a gold medal for my chilli at a friend's house.
Naturally, I had 400g pot of sour cream and 300g pot of guac.
Pots had plastic film or foil lids - once opened, they cannot be closed again.
Even the guac, which oxydises.
Then I opened a block of extra mature cheddar.
They stopped selling cheese in ziplock bags so it's back in the fridge to go hard.
So much for service design considering how the product could be used in the wild.
It doesn't stop there.
I had a circular conversation with the chatbot agents at Adobe.
None of the six people in two and half hours understood my problem nor a request for a refund. They passed me around until they achieved their ultimate goal, telling them to fuck off.
I have stuff to return to Amazon.
My nearest dropoff is a 24-hour Shell garage.
This Shell garage only accepts Amazon returns during office hours and not over lunchtime.
Everything.
From opening an account to logging into the account you opened.
From all the road furniture on the pavements to the uneven road surfaces.
From applying for jobs to communting to that job.
From the products we buy to the customers services we rely on afterwards.
Never before have we paid so much for so little.
Speaking of which, shrinkflation?!
There's no reason for a packet of biscuits to have gone up to nearly £3 a packet but a fraction of their original size.
Speaking of which, subscriptions?!
We pay good money not to own any music, movies, newspapers, fitness, electrical goods, furniture, cars, etc. so should we have even fewer assets to sell if needed. Or we cancel our subscriptions and we can't do even the most simple things to bring joy to this feckless life, like listening to Kylie Minogue or watching Jamie Dornan.
My uncle Tony used to own a restaurant and takeaway in Brean Down, Somerset.
He served gut-busting platters of full English and mixed grill with a side of buttered white bread as standard.
I remember writing up the menus muttering that he couldn't possibly charge someone that for a mug of tea, the tea would need to be Yorkshire; strong and freshly brewed.
Now, it's what's the most we could charge for recycled teabags that have been steeping in the washing up bowl all day.
As if that wasn't bad enough, every companies has been doing A LOT of unpaid labour just to get something done.
So I'm being charged a premium but I'm still being burdened with managing it.
With product design, ownerhip and management having a big recruitment drive, you'd think we'd see an improvement in how things are run, at the very least, but it seems the more is thrown behind it the worse it gets because the needs of the customer will never be as important as the needs of the shareholder or the SLT.
Putting profit before people has destroyed our profession, destroyed our quality of life and destroyed our planet.
Money, products and services are all made up.
Supply chain is made up.
So why don't we make it up so it's better.
Make raw materials cheaper, make the cost of production cheaper, make utilise cheaper, then life would be affordable.
Make organisations efficient, make organisations genuinely customer focussed, make make structures more flat, then work would be more meaningful.
But in the absence of that, don't pretend you care about our customers or your business if everything you do it shit.
