While growing up, a trip to the hardware store meant that we would go there and that anyone in that store would be able to answer any questions that we had, and listen to our need, then go through the different selections of products, and sections of the store to help service the problem that we came in seeking an answer to. In those days, the sell of a product to you was based on the quality of the long-term benefits, as well as the price. The time and effort put into the information of the sale offered a secured solution, with the knowledge that if it didn’t happen to be the right choice of product, it could be easily returned, and the time and effort of seeking a further solution, would be done with care and respect together with the experience of working through (to the best of their ability) customer care and assurance that you would come back again to purchase other products in the future. It was also a time when if you could fix what you already owned, there was not a need to discard it. There was a pride in knowing that you had saved what had been working well, good enough, and would continue to work well.

Today’s experience is not the same. There are bigger stores, with greater selections. If you happen to need help, there are certain people delegated to different departments, that (if you have done your own research) can help to a certain degree, guide you to the section, and popular brands with a short conversation to attend to your need. It’s your responsibility to ensure you buy the right product, and if not stand in line with receipt in hand ‘proving’ you bought the product and are within the terms, guidelines, policies and procedures for the return of your money. The further possibility of a solution being that you do further research (with the option to buy the research from self-help books) then return to the same section of the store to buy yet another type of product that will be closest to the need you happen to have. No guarantee of quality, the option is to buy a whole new product and/or pay someone else who has a knowledge, and works in the area of need. There may or may not be a guarantee that they service your need. You have to do your own research there as well, it is a gamble as to whether or not to trust that the person who is doing the servicing will actually come through with an honest cost, and long-term solution to the conclusion to your various household function responsibilities.

I am offering the comparison of the hardware store experience as a reflection of the same type of human support systems that are in place today.  The time and effort of quality of care is just not an option. Someone listening then taking the time to work through the various types of solutions with you is not their department, and/or not part of their guidelines, policies and procedures. The service of people are divided into time frames (according to the guidelines of need). Then are offered the options available (within the predetermined treatment procedures) for whatever labels you ‘qualify’ for. To have a different personal opinion of whatever support worker is offering, is only a reminder that there are other’s who are inline waiting to be serviced by the their policies, and the reoccurring option of doing the research, then exercising self-help to whatever pieces of vulnerability you happen to be experiencing is your responsibility alone. Everyone under the umbrella of this type of support offered, at the end of the day, clearing their desk, and feeling they have done their job well. The approval of other’s doing the same job, (and pay check) offers the reward that they have done their job well. Whether or not they have actually addressed the actual concern, with a solution that is of long term benefit is really not relevant according to their job description. Not their section of the hardware store.

There would be many that would disagree with my summary, offering the terms of their agreements do offer various selections of client care, and give examples of what that support looks like with a great sense of accomplishment.  Just as would the employees of today’s home improvement stores. My question is: “What happened to our personal responsibility to incorporate some sort of ethic into our thought processes, and emotional effort of helping another human being?” It just seems like there’s been a gradual filtering out of this being a consideration on many levels, in the different spaces that occupy the interactions that are prioritized in communication. Immediate short term solutions assuming the total role of any/all questions or personal care concerns. A long termed accountability for these type of decisions made are passed on with a lack of conscience for the consequences, because long termed outcomes for the quality of care for another person are just not included in the conversations of progress. Everyone wants to do their job well, most do, I am just wondering in all the adaptations that have had to happen throughout the years of change, if we have forgotten how to share responsibility?

Heather Ann Jarman 2016