[MR] managing complaints

[Becky McEllistrem]

Someone mentioned it’s not a good idea to dismiss complaints out of hand just because someone’s complaining.

   I understand the fear that every complaint might be scoffed at.  I’ve written several superiors about their projects warning them why their approach might be a bad idea and either got ignored or mocked.  They later found out that not only were my concerns correct, they were concerns that included double the numbers of people I’d discussed. The down side of this situation is those that ignored or snubbed me lost my support. The up side of this situation is those who politely disagreed with me but at least spoke to me became close friends and got a couple ideas they hadn’t considered before.  They continue to have my support for decades later.

   The problem I have with most complaints is methodology.  I think it’s good to bring issues up in a public forum so you can get responses from a variety of perspectives and decide for yourself what you think your priorities might be.  I think it’s OK to revisit subjects because there’s always new people and new approaches that we hadn’t thought of before

   I think it’s bad to try and corner an officer or royal in the middle of an event as we have a defined complaint process.  A pre-arranged meeting at a specific event is one thing.  Cornering someone in the middle of an event because you weren’t getting a fast enough response for your cause was never a standard procedure and certainly not appropriate for a society of courtesy.  When someone corners me at an event I often do some digging into the situation later.  I then find the real issue is that those complaining didn’t get their way fast enough.  Thus they decided cornering someone with out of context comments would be a better way to get what they want.  This technique sometimes works and sometimes backfires very badly.  For me the complainer loses my respect.

   Unfortunately the complaints that often say “you don’t do X enough or support X subject enough” often mean, “You didn’t do things my way”!

   If you have a valid complaint then it should stand on its merits through the appropriate channels regardless of obstacles.  If not perhaps suggestions for new approaches would work better than complaints.

We want our officers and royals to be approachable.  But we shouldn't take advantage of that interest with manipulation.

Rebecca