How the “Doorman Fallacy” Has Led to an Overall Decline in Quality of Living
A mechanistic, cost-savings-centric view of the workforce is robbing our world of depth and beauty
Have you noticed how everything around us is getting a little, well… crappier? And I don’t mean the obvious big things like climate change, wars, wildfires, or the machinations of greedy billionaires. I’m thinking about the smaller things, the things we deal with every day.
You know — the things we buy, the service we get in stores, hotels and public transportation. Doesn’t it feel like everything is a lot crappier compared to what it used to be? And it’s not like we don’t spend a lot of money. We do, maybe even more than ever before. But somehow, we’re getting less and less for our money.
Why do we feel that even when we throw more money around, we don’t get the good stuff anymore?
I’ve been noticing this for a while now, and I’ve been trying to figure out what’s going on. Recently, I heard about the “Doorman Fallacy,” and I think it’s a good explanation for what’s happening everywhere.
What is the Doorman Fallacy?
In case you’ve never heard of this effect, in a nutshell, it describes what happens when people desperate to squeeze a few extra dollars out of a business misjudge the value, worth and scope of a particular role.
In the case of the doorman, the problem is as follows: When asked what a doorman does in a luxury hotel, people unfamiliar with the intricacies of the role are likely to answer that he opens the door for guests.
In a business that is only driven by numbers, given the technological advances of our time and the existence of automatic doors, someone will decide that a doorman is no longer needed to open the door.
What isn’t taken into account in this calculation is that the presence of a person at the door has other effects as well.
A doorman monitors the environment. He is the face of the hotel. He keeps certain people out, makes sure trash doesn’t accumulate near the entrance, and makes people feel welcome and safe.
Remove the doorman, and chances are the atmosphere of the hotel will change rapidly. And with it, the image, the sense of security, and the experience people have when they visit the hotel. The type of guests that visit the hotel also changes. Ultimately, the prices for the rooms go down.
So, what was the fallacy in this example? It’s the belief that a doorman only opens doors. Yes, the doorman opens doors, but that isn’t his main job. Rather, he ensures that visitors’ expectations of hospitality, security and standards are met. He’s the first indicator of the luxury and service you can expect from the place where you stay.
How does this relate to the overall decline in quality?
The doorman is just one, and probably for most of us, a very exotic example of what happens all over the world. But the pattern is the same everywhere. People who have no idea what a job is really about make the decision to cut costs by eliminating certain roles because they think those tasks are unnecessary or can be easily automated or centralized.
Employees are just seen as unnecessary costs to be reduced. Remove, automate, centralize. Make more money for stakeholders.
If you work in a corporate environment, it won’t surprise you when I say that your supervisors have little to no idea what your job entails. You can assume they have no idea about the little extras you do on a daily basis.
We see this every day. People get laid off, and after a short time, their department comes to a screeching halt. No one realized it was the person who kept the sand out of the gears.
Take office managers. There are so many little tasks they do to make life in the office pleasant for everyone. From refilling printer paper to restocking the snack bar to cleaning the coffee machine. There are so many things you don’t have to think about that magically get done when there’s an office manager.
But in the name of cutting costs, office managers are becoming a thing of the past in many global offices.
Office providers like Regus and Hive have sprung up all over the world. They rent out office space to global companies. Any additional service can theoretically be provided, but it costs extra money. So now highly paid executives are wasting their time trying to get the coffee machine working or ordering printer paper.
Hundreds of hours and real productivity are wasted because someone somewhere thought that what office managers do is negligible and can just be done on the side by everyone else.
But that’s not the case. Things are no longer getting done, or time and productivity are being wasted.
Replacing people with machines
And then there is the urge to automate. The persistent belief is that machines are cheaper and more effective than people.
And that’s partly true, at least at first glance.
You invest in developing a system, implement it, and you’re good to go. No recurring costs, no pesky employees who want a regular paycheck and, heaven forbid, a vacation.
Bank tellers, ticket booths, cash registers, airport check-in counters, etc. They have all been replaced by some sort of machine. Customers now have to pay for services and do half the work themselves.
Sounds like every capitalist’s wet dream, doesn’t it?
But lousy service has a high hidden cost.
For example, I’ve always had the same bank account since I started at University. I personally knew the nice woman who was in charge of my account. She knew me and my entire financial history. If I needed anything, I’d send her an email, and she’d take care of everything I needed.
A heavenly service.
Then, the bank got acquired, she retired, and everything was restructured. I no longer had a contact person, and nobody gave a rat’s ass about me or my account. When my credit cards were up for renewal, I couldn’t get a hold of anyone.
So, I closed my account and switched to a bank where I now know the name of the person who takes care of my account again.
Why am I telling you this?
Loyal customers who stay loyal to your business have great value in times of economic turmoil. If you cut costs by laying off people Chad from Controlling thinks are unnecessary because he has no idea what they do, that will also hurt your relationship with your customers.
Customers aren’t loyal because your product is so much better than everyone else’s. They stay because someone or something made them feel good.
It has become the norm to view people solely through the lens of cost without understanding what they contribute to the ongoing success of the business. People are treated as if they’re expendable.
Saving a few extra cents on product costs may seem like a great success in a world where the immediate gratification of stakeholders is paramount.
But this — financial — success is fleeting.
As people are replaced by machines and automation, consumers’ relationship with businesses is changing. Consumers are driven by a similar urge to get a quick deal because price is the only thing that differentiates one business from another.
The lack of doormen who feel like they’re doing something to help their business succeed is contributing to the overall deterioration of the customer experience.
It doesn’t matter whose product you buy. It’s all the same. And the price-performance ratio is no longer right.
Price pressure is increasing because companies are struggling to keep their customers. So they’re lowering prices.
The products have to be produced cheaper and cheaper. They become more and crappy. The quality of services has to be lowered further to be competitive until there are hardly any good quality products left to buy.
No one takes the time to produce good quality, satisfying products anymore. Instead, everyone seems to be racking their brain on how they can get rid of yet another doorman. Hoping that will solve their problems.
So if you feel that even for good money, you can’t get good service and good quality anymore, you’re absolutely right.
To get what you’re looking for, you have to spend exorbitant amounts of money on customized products and personal assistants. And we know who the only people are who can afford that.
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