A question of policy<\/p>\n
Like all of you, I have regularly had employees say to me,
\n\"this is the policy of the company\", when justifying a policy or
\nprocedure implemented by their management. And that's it; you
\nhave to accept the decision even if the policy or procedure is
\nobviously nonsense, counterproductive or not at all customer-
\nfriendly (in our opinion, of course!).<\/p>\n
From this week only, I can give three such examples from
\nBandung:
\n1. Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI)'s newly installed ATM system: The
\nsystem has many shortcomings. The way they are justified by BRI
\nemployees is going to scare away all the people who moved from
\nprivate banks in 1998 to state BRI. The ATM system does not work
\nduring the weekend and outside office hours, and very often there
\nare connection problems or breakdowns during the day. So the
\nsystem is not reliable at all. As with the BRI security guards
\nand system of lining up to see the cashiers, this is the worst I
\nhave experienced in eight years in Indonesia. No employee can
\ngive an explanation and just regrets the poor ATM service. The
\nsecurity guards in BRI are just speechless when we give
\nsuggestions as to how to fix the problems.
\n2. I went to Santo Borromeus Hospital recently to see a doctor. I
\ndid not have enough money on me and could not buy all my medicine
\nright there. The doctor's prescription was unreadable (as is
\noften true, even in Belgium), so I asked the clerk to give me the
\nnames of the medicines (she had already checked them to calculate
\nmy bill), but she said that it was hospital policy not to write
\ndown the names of medicine on a piece of paper and that I should
\ncall from the pharmacy if there was a problem. Can you imagine?
\nShe simply refused to write down the names of the medicines I
\nneeded to buy just because of \"company policy\".<\/p>\n
She even checked the policy with her manager and it was
\nconfirmed. I wonder what kind of manager is coming up with such a
\npolicy and if she\/he had a good reason for doing so.
\n3. Indonesian passport procedures: Indonesian Immigration
\nofficials request identification, family card, birth certificate,
\nmarriage certificate and sponsor letter. Well, in Belgium, ID is
\nenough. And don't tell me that an Indonesian ID cannot be
\ntrusted, because then you would need to clean up the whole civil
\nregistration service ....<\/p>\n
My question is why do Indonesian policy and procedure makers
\n(both in the private and public sectors) make things much more
\ncomplicated than they already are, and why are employees unable
\nto explain why such policies or procedures are being implemented
\nby them?<\/p>\n
YVAN MAGAIN<\/p>\n
Bandung<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/a-question-of-policy-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }