Jimmy, thanks for your comments. I definitely would not want to say that Blockbuster employees are necessarily worse than employees of other stores. I happen to have a long history of those types of jobs myself, so I know what it's like and I know that customers can be very rude and impatient on top of that.

You'll notice that I did not use the word robots in my piece. And you're probably right, the issue may have as much to do with the management style of the store as anything, if you notice, I do raise the question in the piece that the problems in this store could well be management or training. My problem has to do with the end result. Whether it's the employees or the training is not the major concern in this letter. The concern is what it feels like to be treated like crap. I'm sure you've experienced the same - perhaps not in Blockbuster, but in other stores and customer service situations. When I go into Blockbuster, I do not treat the employees like robots, I treat them like human beings and hope for the same in return.

At any rate, I'm sure there are many fine Blockbuster employees out there. But this piece is about my experiences at a particular store. And you might not like to read it, but that's been my experience. Once again, I did not use the word robots in the piece. I did use the word "robotically" once to describe the way a particular employee greets people as they come into the store, but I did not say he was a robot. We can all behave robotically at times, I know I have.

You'd be surprised how many similar letters I have gotten from others who have had bad experiences at Blockbuster, but that is not what is important to me. If you read the letter carefully, you'll see that the treatment by employees is just one of my problems with the store, there are other issues I was also raising in the piece. The most important issue, by far, and the one that I am most concerned with, is the "advertainment monoculture." And since I close this article by blaming myself for helping to create it, I hold myself accountable as well. If you missed the last couple of paragraphs, which have really nothing to do with the employees but with overall corporate policies, where our culture is going, and what my own responsibility is, then you really missed the point of the piece.

Sorry you were offended but the piece had nothing to do with you. I'm sure you do your job very well.

Jon

JR Notes: This Blockbuster employee sent in a very thoughtful, if flawed, response to my piece. The end result: I actually changed my piece slightly because he got me thinking. However, I lost some respect for this person when it turned out he had emailed me from a bogus aol address, and the email I carefully crafted just bounced right back at me. If you're not ready to have a real dialogue, then all we have left is potshots.

This was my "bounced" response, where I responded point by point to his comments. What you have below is a blow-by-blow interaction, with my responses appearing in italics throughout, and his in regular text. Here's how he began:

I realize this article is somewhat outdated

Actually, the major issues raised in this piece - my criticisms of Blockbuster's corporate policies, my concerns about the encroachment of commercialization into all aspects of life - are anything but dated. If anything, my criticisms of Big Business have been heightened by the despicable criminality and cavalier behavior of Enron-type executives - scum who have dealt a serious body blow to the average American through their unapologetic greed. Most of these folks aren't technically criminals, rather they're people in power who manipulated the acceptable rules of corporate accounting to get what they wanted, regardless of how it would affect the lives of the people they were ultimately responsible for. Although I know nothing of Blockbuster's corporate accounting practices, their big business position in the entertainment field remains quite troubling to me. Let's put it this way: no independent video stores have opened in my area since I first wrote this piece. These issues are not going away. The only thing that is dated in this piece is the particular interactions with the particular employees at that particular store. And to be fair, I have seen an overall improvement in the tone and management of that store in recent months (although I am also making good on my own commitment to spend less money and time and Blockbuster contributing to the problems I am criticizing).

but I just skimmed through it and would like to make a few comments. It seems by the end of the article, although you stand by your gripes, you realize your own fault as well. First of all, you are quite aware of your position in your world. You are a (somewhat, to the best of my knowledge) professional and successful individual. As I am sure you are aware, many Blockbuster employees are simply trying to make ends meet.

That means that you, me and your fellow employees are all in the same boat. Never assume that just because someone has a web site they are flush with cash and "successful."

While going to school, they are earning some extra cash. Believe me, just like any other non-degree job, they don't like being there.

You're implying that once people get their degrees, they will enjoy their work more and treat people better. I've got some news for you: there's lots of people out there who are well into their professional careers, making tons of money, and they're still treating the people around them like crap. I figure that it's never too early to start trying to improve your work situation and make the world a better place by treating people around you a little bit better. Adult life is full of demeaning and difficult jobs, so I'm sorry, but I just can't let someone in college off the hook for taking their frustration out on other people. I don't take my angst out on my customers even though my business is struggling, and I expect the same in return. And a college student's cash situation is modified by the fact that their whole future lies in front of them. I'd pay every dime in my piggy bank to have that uncharted feeling back again. No, I can top that: I'd work at Blockbuster. And I'd show up to work every day with the biggest smile on my face you've ever seen. I'd search for missing copies of Smokey and the Bandit with zeal.

You chose your profession because it is something you love to do. I love to write too. I also love movies.

A little more time on my web site and you'd see that this is not the case. I do love to write, but I've never been able to do it full time. Instead, I run a business while longing to write full time (by "writing" I don't mean "brochureware," but the uncensored truth, on my own terms). As is obvious from my web site, this creates a lot of conflict and tension in my life. I am trying to resolve that with grace, but it is an ongoing challenge. From your comments so far, it seems that you might assume a little too much about the relative success and happiness of the average customer that comes into your store - at least those with web sites that make fun of Blockbuster. Certainly in my case, you'd be more on track if you thought of me as someone who walks into your store with an unflattering chip on his shoulder, rather than someone with a fat wallet and professional status who expects to have his ass kissed when he rents his movies.

Nothing wrong with that, and if i get a polite customer asking for help at my Blockbuster, I am more than happy to help them in any way I can. But there needs to be a mutual understanding here, as with any form of communication in this life, that both parties need respect.

Perhaps you did not read the letter I wrote to the other employee who wrote in above? In that letter, I wrote: " When I go into Blockbuster, I do not treat the employees like robots, I treat them like human beings and hope for the same in return."

We are not your slaves

That's good, I don't know what I'd do with a slave if I had one.

and I do not control my surroundings. Most likely my manager takes care of that.

Now that, my friend, is a copout. Please note that I am not questioning the idea that Blockbuster managers are ultimately responsible for the tone that is set in their store. In the original piece, I acknowledge that "weak management" could well have been the problem in my particular store. However, the assertion that you have no control of your surroundings creates a violent disturbance in my gut. We are only going to take this world back and make it better if we push the envelope and do what we can to claim our lives as our own. Even in cases of extremely limited freedoms, we always have choices and things we can control. The most powerful argument ever made on this topic is by Victor Frankl, in a book called Man's Search For Meaning, based on his own life experiences in World-War-Two-Era Nazi Germany.

But we don't need Victor Frankl to shoot holes in your argument. Just take the example of the employee in my piece who sent me home to retrieve a video unnecessarily, in violation of store policy. Clearly, he had control over whether to violate store policy or not, whether to make me run in circles to rent a video or not. He had the option to learn more about the policies he was supposed to enforce; he had the option to try to be flexible or use common sense. He had the option to call the store manager on the phone and make sure he was doing the right thing instead of holding his ground. To take another example that your raise in your email: let's say that you're working the register, and a huge line starts to form, but you can't do anything about the line because, as you said, that's the way management has set it up, and the employees stocking videos aren't allowed to help out. You can still turn to the growing line and say something like, "Folks, sorry about the long line, we got a rush of customers and we'll try to get you out of here as soon as possible."

When you do that, you'll be surprised how understanding people are and how much the tone shifts. And that's something that's completely under your own control. Stepping back from this discussion of Blockbuster, I hope you'll reconsider your belief on the level of control you have in your work life. As you graduate and move into the working world, you won't find too many situations where you'll have total freedom and control. Usually, you'll be faced with hard choices under fixed constraints. There's a lot of pretty shitty jobs out there waiting for us to make the best of them. The time to reconsider assumptions about what we have control over is now.

I am not implying in any way that you are ignorant to this problem. You seem like a pretty reasonable person, and I would think (particularly from your reference to Zen) that you have logically pieced this together. Moving on. Just as you are given your time limit for completing a task, we are too. And either way, our tasks often screw us over. We have to check the drop box, if not to prevent viewing fees, to at least retain the movies our customers most currently desire.

Maybe I need to rewrite my piece, because what I was trying to get across was not so much that employees didn't have important things to do in other parts of the store, but that they seemed to be completely disinterested in what the people waiting in line (and what their fellow co-workers behind the register) were dealing with. In short, there was no "team concept," and, as far as I could tell, no real concern about what other people were going through. The sad thing about this kind of experience is that it's a missed chance for positive human interaction on all sides. And this kind of attitude closes off opportunities. For example, my closest friend from college had to take a crummy job at the mall working at Electronics Boutique after graduating - just more proof that the dull jobs don't end after graduation. Anyhow, the job paid like crap, his manager was a piece of work, and customers were very rude most of the time as customers tend to be. But my friend always tried to go the extra mile with customers. He got satisfaction out of locating hard to find titles, he even called people back about products he thought they might be interested in. In short, he tried to make connections with people even in the limited ways that were possible in a retail environment. The way he carried himself resulted in a job offer from a regular customer who was also a computer store owner. This person could tell that my friend was more committed to enhancing the experiences of those around him than he was to feeling sorry for himself. Opportunities just seem to unfold when we can step back from our bitterness - and I know that's hard, believe me, I've been there many times.

We all know how badly America needs such mediocre entertainment as John Q, or Shallow Hal, and when a copy is nowhere to be found, we unfortunately have to go find one.

If I had seen employees looking for the specific videos that customers in line were looking for, I would have been much more impressed. There is a BIG difference between seeking out and re-stocking the hottest titles based on interactions with customers, as opposed to simply hunkering down and re-stocking the shelves, no matter how many unhappy people are bunching up at the front of the store. And how dare you call John Q "mediocre." It's much worse than that. :)

Everyone wants to be pleased. And the line then begins to form. Believe me, if i could eliminate this process altogether, we would all be much happier. Our stress feeds off each other's. Just as you get angry, I get angry, and this leads us nowhere.

This is one of the best points you've made in your email. You're absolutely right, these kinds of situations, where both employee and customer are stressed out, always seem to escalate, and we end up bringing out the worst in each other. Although I really do make an effort to carry myself with dignity in Blockbuster, as soon as that "advertainment" system starts blaring and I start getting nostalgic about that video store I'd rather be in that Blockbuster put out of business, I do get a bit of a chip on my shoulder. But you're right. If I want to be treated like a human being, I need to do the same in return. If you're thinking that I'm someone that really needs some kind of special treatment, I don't. I've worked a lot of shitty service industry jobs in my day, and I expect to encounter imperfect people and imperfect environments. As I said to the last guy who wrote in, I just don't want to be treated like crap.

To confront another complaint, the TV monitors play continuous trailers, which none of us want to see. Corporate America controls that my friend. Believe me, if I could pop in a copy of Jurassic Park, or Almost Famous, I would. I am guessing you do know that much, however.

Yes, I'm aware of that. It's funny, though, I was in a Blockbuster in Florida recently and they were just playing movies all the time. It seems that they chose not to play their advertainment television from Blockbuster corporate. It's hard to say how much flexibility individual stores and managers have on this issue, I would guess not very much, but this example does call attention to another disagreement between you and I. As many problems as I have with corporate America, and you can see from this web site I have a lot of them, I don't perceive corporate America as a monolith. We're talking about individual companies - companies that, no doubt, are doing what they have to do to compete in the global economy, but they're also beholden to their customer base. If customers make their displeasure felt, policies change. Employees might have less power than mobilized customers, but if you don't like the infotainment system you have to put up with at work each day, you should consider writing a letter - at least an anonymous one. Just slumping our shoulders and saying "oh well, that's corporate America, not a fucking thing we can do about it" isn't going to cut it. If we're going down, my man, let's go down swinging! I get fatalistic too sometimes, but through this web site, I'm trying to turn that around. Who knows, I may even contact my local manager and see if they'll take off the advertainment system - at least for a commercial-free afternoon. If I do, I'll post the results on the site.

What I am basically getting at here is that we are all controlled. I need my paycheck just as much as you need yours, and just because you have a degree behind your name doesn't mean my money is less important to my needs.

Not totally sure what you're getting at here, and we've already gone through the control thing. How about if I meet you halfway, and just acknowledge that it's tough out there, and we're all in difficult circumstances dealing with real obstacles every day.

In fact, and I think you would agree, a college student's money is much more important than that of his elders, because we have NO money to begin with.

Actually, I completely disagree with that. I'm you're elder, but I have "no money to begin with" either. Your statement is such a gross generalization it's hard to wrap my head around it, much less agree with it. As far as tough financial circumstances are concerned, I divide the world into "rich and poor," not "in college or out of college." I went to college with kids who had more money than I'll ever see. If you want me to make a gross generalization, how about this one: people in college and people who have been to college have probably not tasted the worst of the poverty that is inflicted on the world. However, I would agree that you stand a better chance of finding jobs to your liking as you get older, and perhaps that's a point you're trying to make in your email. How about if I acknowledge that working your way through college is no picnic, and you acknowledge that the indignities of the working world last long after the cap and gowns are trashed?

And just as your editor may turn down (and he hasn't, he may one day) a story that you would just love to tell, my editor, my manager that is, turns
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.---Plato

This last section of your email seems a little incomplete, as if the email was sent prematurely, so I'm not sure what to say, except that my editor Rachel is a hardass, but I ultimately control everything I publish on my site, which is why it's free and why I make no money off it. You're absolutely right about how our financial obligations put us in tough situations. I wish you success and hopefully you'll experience work situations that are more on your terms as you get older. Although I'm disappointed that you sent me this email from a phony address, I applaud the effort you put into writing me and thank you for taking the trouble. True, I did have a lot of problems with your arguments but the discussion gets right to the core of the problems we all face in the working world and I thank you for the opportunity.

However, I do want to make a few closing points for you and (any other Blockbuster employees who are thinking of writing me a letter!) to consider. First, it seems that Blockbuster employees really take the criticism of one particular store at one particular time personally. Nowhere in the piece do I extend my criticism of Blockbuster employees to other stores or situations. You would do us both a service if you took these criticisms less personally. I'm sure your assumption is that I don't really understand what Blockbuster employees have to deal with, and that's why I need to be confronted, but I'm not sure that's fair. As hot-headed as I am about Blockbuster, I've worked in a lot of stores and bought merchandise in a lot of stores. Believe me, I'm all-too-familiar with the range of service you can expect to see out there.

It seems to me that stores with monopolies on certain markets are often the same ones that are prone to having the worst employees/management approaches. Perhaps less attention is paid to customer satisfaction in these stores, because there is less concern the customer could vote with their dollars and go elsewhere. That would explain why the worst service experiences I've had in this town are at either Blockbuster or Radio Shack - two stores with no alternative options. On the other hand, in stores like Stop and Shop, Circuit City, and Staples, where there's more local competition, I haven't had any serious service meltdowns. At any rate, I've been around the block a few times and I know when I've got a shitty service situation on my hands. If you had worked at the store at the time, you probably would have been really nice to me and really sympathetic about the situation. And I would have responded in kind.

But the thing that troubles me most about these letters is that there seems to be a lack of attention to the most important points I tried to make in the original piece. Clearly, it's only natural for Blockbuster employees to hone in on the negative store anecdotes, but my bigger problems with Blockbuster are not the bad experiences I had in that one store, but the issues I have with so many aspects of Blockbuster's corporate policies - everything from the hypocritical "family values" video selection policies to the so-called "advertainment" system I have such a hostile reaction to.

To your credit, you seem to understand that I want to get across so much more than a retelling of a few cruddy interactions. In the end, those bad experiences are forgotten. But finding my own role in the broader struggle to make corporate America more humane and more accountable is ongoing. It's something I'm still trying to figure out, but I believe that taking a public stand and putting my point of view out there is a good first step. No employee who has criticized my work has shown me a better example of speaking out on Blockbuster that I should aspire to or move aside for. In my view, there's too few voices of dissent and way too much "going with the flow" out there.

So when you end your email with something about "be nice to other people, they're having a hard time too," I start to get some serious bile in my throat. I'm sorry to break this to you, but there are some very serious problems in the world that "being nice" won't solve. By all accounts, former Enron CEO Ken Lay is a super nice guy. I'll bet he has a kind word for every Blockbuster employee he ever encounters and he probably never gives the "advertainment" system a second thought. If your point is that you shouldn't treat the people around you shabbily while in mad pursuit of so-called noble causes, then I couldn't agree with you more. But one of the biggest problems with this world is that we don't speak up enough, because it's just not considered polite, proper decorum. So no, I’m not very fucking nice, but I've got something to say, and I’m disappointed that you can't see the merits or reasons for this kind of piece despite its flaws. Maybe if you now understand that I didn't get paid for it, but rather, paid dearly with gnawing work in order to publish it, you'll have more respect for it. Yes, we should treat each other well, but we should also challenge each other. At any rate, I'm not going away, so get used to me.

Jon Reed

p.s. I've decided to take the world "employees" out of the last sentence of my original piece due to your thought-provoking letter. Clearly, it's unfair to hold employees and executives equally responsible for Blockbuster's overall corporate direction.