I was recently refused a request for a student's contact details via Massey University (the standardised letter came with the irritating "is there anything else I can help you with?" -having not helped me in the first place! Privacy laws prevented them from giving them to me. In contrast to this, people are exposing themselves and all their personal lives, not just contact details voluntarily on social media. There is no privacy on Facebook. So I'm a little perplexed. I spose its another paradox that seems to be the essential human quality;its what makes us unique in the animal world.
I was annoyed and said so. I suggested they tell their boss (assuming them to be minions) that the situation sucked; and received a flurry of emails which eventually got the lead I was looking for. Which also shows that you can get something but you might have to express what you want, and why, in a respectful manner which acknowledged their position in terms of legality.
Get to the boss is a good ploy-too often front desk workers feign helplessness despite the fact that they are the interface for the company and should feel a little more powerful and autonomous in their ability to make decisions.When I was a teacher, a colleague of mine would become enraged at the yawning "I just work here" attitude and shout at the mouthpiece "Who do you work for?!" and then blast out their onus as a company rep to make decisions and take some responsibility. Followed by his statement to never shop with them again and tell them he would tell all his colleagues to follow suit as they were a useless bunch of ............wits.
