Covid is today’s “the dog ate my homework” excuse

A crisis inspires and enables innovation. Few of us, unfortunately, expect government to innovate. But our elected officials and service providers need to start understanding that bureaucracies can innovate and change too. I recently was advocating for an economically disadvantaged woman who is alone in the world and is being treated dismissively by bureaucrats. It was government officials who decided that she could no longer earn a living or pay her rent, which is now overdue. They shuffle her file and tell her to wait. It will all work out and she will get her money. Great advice but what will she tell her landlord?

The people who are managing the crisis are salaried employees and they don’t understand that they have created an economy with two types of citizens. Citizen #1 - those who are salaried employees, and Citizen #2 - those who aren’t salaried or have lost their jobs and aren’t working and are afraid not only for their bank accounts, but for their way of life.  

My friend has tried to play by the ever-changing rules. No one helped or acted with an urgency that her precarious economic situation demands. Politicians and bureaucrats who are so eager to shut down a significant portion of our economy have to be equally eager and willing to deal with the consequences – namely, ensuring that citizens are not financially ruined by their economic realities of a lockdown. They are failing in this core function. Using the excuse that the system is overwhelmed and people like my friend will simply have to wait is not acceptable. 

Covid is today’s “the dog ate my homework” excuse for government and companies that want to drop the ball on customer/constituent service. Because of this lack of digital caring and response, my friend, normally a productive person, who goes to work and pays her taxes, is left weeping on a floor that will not be hers much longer if she doesn’t pay her rent.  

Her experience shows that core pillars of our society are failing. Stating that “… in these trying times, we have an increase in volume” is an unacceptable response from service providers. We have been operating under the Covid reality since last March. When my friend tried her cell provider because she couldn’t pay her bill, she got the same response on their customer service line. Same thing at her bank. I am sorry, aren’t you making more money than ever “…in these trying time.” What has exactly changed for you during Covid? I bet it is nothing like what she and every other entrepreneur are going through in these trying times.

I have spent my life in communications, and my work teaches people how to reduce stress through clarity in communication. The unintended consequences of economic and physical lockdown include economic ruin and levels of depression and unproductivity that will rival those of the Great Depression. People like my friend can no longer innovate and produce. She can only beg for help. Governments are killing their constituents with their lack of clarity and empathy, and unwillingness to engage in difficult conversations. 

Fortunately, for my friend, I was able to get an elected official to respond to my email within 60 minutes. And right now, he has someone working on the file. That person is Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, M.P., Beaches-East York. Mr. Erkine-Smith, thank you, and I hope you can help.

For those of you who need help or want to know how I made this happen, here are some tips to get through the gobbledygook of our outdated systems:

1.    Write down your problem – now write it again in under 50 words.

2.    In bullet points, list whom you have talked to and give links to what forms you were asked to fill out.

3.    Ask for your desired outcome, again write it in fewer than 50 words. Don’t waste your words on how much you hate what’s going on, or how much it hurts. Be clear, concise and conscientious.

4.    Don’t be a jerk; be respectful

5.    Don’t threaten people and say “I am going to the media with this.” News is something people don’t know. Unless your problem is not a common issue for everybody, no one will publish it. You might get some views on Facebook if that is your goal. But I have found what most people want is a resolution and not Facebook fame.