My astonishment continues to grow at the prevalence of bad customer service, especially in the beleaguered travel sector.

Here’s the story:

Rented a car from Hertz at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. The car I was assigned was equipped with the Hertz NeverLost GPS system. I didn’t request it. Don’t need it. Didn’t use it. I had the NeverLost preference taken off my Hertz profile about 2 years ago, when I got my new Blackberry with built-in GPS.

This has happened on 80% of my Hertz rentals this year.

Each time, when returning the car, I have to get the charge taken off, usually with some hassle (never as much hassle as today). Each time, they tell me they’ll AGAIN take the thing off my profile, and I shouldn’t have a problem with it anymore.

You can see where this is going.

My request today was met with resistance, belligerence, and a remarkable disregard for helping a customer (a 20-year customer who rents a lot of Hertz cars) with a reasonable request. I had to keep barking up the food chain until I found one adult capable of doing what all the other adults told me they couldn’t do.  The final grown-up I talked to, the station manager did exactly the right thing, and more. Refunded the extra charge, promised me he took the preference out of my profile, and credited a free day to boot. Then he gave me his card and said that if it happens again, in any Hertz location, to call him on his cell phone. I will.

Here’s the thing: the travel sector is nowhere close to recovery yet. The Phoenix Hertz location had almost NO customers returning cars at noon today. LOTS of cars sitting on the lot.  There were at least a dozen competitors renting the same mediocre cars at the same airport. I asked the manager if business was really that good that they could afford to alienate any customer, let alone a high-volume one. He sheepishly acknowledged that it wasn’t.

Any manager whose business depends to any degree on the willing choices of customers with lots of options should stop right now and remind service workers that their attitudes, actions, words, and spirit of helpfulness can do more to dig them out of the current economic hole than almost anything else. People are still buying. They’re just getting more selective. Why? Because they can.

Richard Hadden (twitter at http://twitter.com/rehadden) is a leadership speaker, author, and consultant who helps organizations improve their business results by creating a great place to work. He and Bill Catlette are the authors of Contented Cows MOOve Faster, and Contented Cows Give Better Milk. Learn more about them and their work at ContentedCows.com.

Our readers have seen consistent mention of the potential risks to workers and employers alike posed by currently contemplated Employee Free Choice (EFCA), or so-called “card check” legislation. We continue to believe that any statute that negates a worker’s right to have the serious matter of union representation resolved by secret ballot vote is a step backward. That said, organizations that are committed to remaining union-free must do more, far more than simply joining lobbying efforts to defeat proposed legislation. Sadly, too many companies are losing sight of this axiom, or are mistakenly using a temporary “employer’s market” as an excuse for failing to do the necessary things to retaining a focused, fired up, union-free workforce. It’s akin to saying that you needn’t brush your teeth because your town puts fluoride in the water.

Businesses that choose to tap into the discretionary effort (we call it Oomph!) of an engaged workforce unencumbered by an uninvited third party need to routinely (as in consistently) take measures which make it unnecessary for people to look outside the organization for representation. Like what? Like…

Listening – Really listening, both personally and institutionally. One of the absolute requirements for selecting managers ought to be communications skills – including the propensity for listening. People who can’t or won’t routinely evidence understanding of the fact that they were issued two ears and exactly one mouth have no business leading others. One way to augment listening on an institutional level is to diligently use employee surveys, with the results tracked across time at both the unit and leader level, and used as a significant piece of the organization’s performance metrics.

Making Sure that No One Is Abused or Humiliated – In a speech at the Armed Forces Staff College (Delos C. Emmons Lecture Series), Major General Melvin Zais suggested that leaders who push people around because they can are “a little man with a little job and a big head.” I’ll take it a step further and suggest that they are not leaders at all, and need to be on someone else’s payroll, preferably a competitor’s.

Treating People Fairly & Providing an Avenue for Problem Resolution – One of the chief things that drives employees into the arms of a labor union is the lack of an internal mechanism for resolving workplace problems. As a matter of course, each of us wants to know where we can go to get a fair hearing and resolution if/when we think we’re being treated unfairly. Smart organizations realize that it is far better to provide that avenue internally rather than leaving it to the courts and other outsiders.

Showing Up When People are Having a Tough Time – When everything is said and done, leadership is personal. We either gain or lose our folks one heart at a time. One important way to earn the benefit of the doubt in a world that has become entirely too crusty, cynical and self-absorbed is to be there, in person, whenever someone on your team is having a tough time. Don’t send them a Tweet or an email, show up.

If you’re unwilling to do these things day in and day out, regardless of the economic weather, then you don’t deserve (and likely won’t get) the benefit of the doubt of your workforce when it comes to deploying their discretionary effort, or for that matter, voting “No” in a representation election.

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A thought leader in the arena of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website at www.contentedcows.com, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows

For decades, corporations have routinely settled lawsuits, including those that are frivolous, trumped up, and downright larcenous by paying the plaintiff a nuisance settlement to go away. I have personally witnessed this on a large scale in the employment arena where many, if not most wrongful discharge and discrimination suits are resolved in this manner, regardless of the merits of the case.

Looking at each case unto itself, a negotiated settlement is quite often the cheapest, most expeditious resolution, in that it represents a lesser expense than the cost of going to court.

But the cases don’t stand unto themselves. Over time, the less industrious and less principled elements of our society are attracted to the free meal, like moths to a light. In the main this occurs because there is absolutely no downside risk. If for some reason you don’t cash out in a given case, you move on, with no material penalty.

Over time, organizations develop a reputation either as fighters or easy marks, and plaintiff’s attorneys learn who they can make an easy living off of and who it’s best to stay away from.

A more  dangerous version of that same sick game is now being played on the high seas off the coast of Somalia as larcenous citizens of the rogue state commandeer merchant ships and an occasional yacht, and hold them and their crews for ransom. Rather than an ambulance chasing lawyer, their weapons of choice are an AK-47 or RPG, and a fast boat.

Unfortunately, as with the aforementioned lawsuits, very few organizations fight back. Indeed, the ships are unarmed, and crews are generally taught/instructed not to resist once they have been boarded. Generally speaking, shipping companies pay a ransom, get their employees and their stuff back, and resume business as usual.

It has been estimated that the annual cost for this little game is north of $13 billion, nearly all of which is profit. It’s hard to know, however, since shippers and their insurance companies aren’t eager to publicize how much ransom they’ve paid out. Two things are for sure, however. 1) It is becoming more prevalent, and thus expensive, and 2) All of us who buy stuff that transits narrow bodies of water such as the Gulf of Aden and the Strait of Malacca wind up paying.

Until September, 2008, when the MV Faina, a Belize-flagged, Ukrainian operated cargo ship and its cargo of Russian made T-72 tanks and other weapons was captured, modern day piracy was largely under the radar. Eventually, the Faina, its crew and cargo were returned after a ransom reported to be $3.2 million was paid.

For those of us in the U.S., piracy has now made a big step closer to home. At present, subsequent to another act of piracy, four gunmen holding Richard Phillips, captain of the Maersk Alabama, an American-operated vessel, are in a standoff with a US Navy destroyer off the coast of Somalia.

Though neither a jurist nor a law enforcement expert, three decades of studying human behavior tell me that, until there is a “hot stove principle” at work, we will see neither a reduction in frivolous lawsuits nor a decline in piracy.

With respect to the latter, it would seem that Major General Tom Wilkerson, CEO of the US Naval Institute, interviewed this evening on CNN, has it about right… “Find them, and take the fight to where they live.” Until these thugs have to weigh some very long odds and serious risk of extinction, their behavior is not apt to change.

Indeed, that is exactly the approach taken of late by the French military. Today, for the third time in as many years, after days of unsuccessful negotiations, the French Navy intervened forcefully in a case of piracy against a French operated vessel. In addition to killing two  pirates in the operation today, since April 2008,  French forces have detained at least 60 persons involved in piracy against French interests. I can only hope that, wherever they are being held, the prisoners are being fed English food.

For readers who are not looking for jobs at the moment, be thankful, and please pardon the posting of job hunting tips two days in a row. It just seems a bit relevant at the moment. Today’s post is directed largely at the over 50 crowd (or over 40, or whatever age you have to be to start worrying about your age, ‘er being “overqualified” being an issue.)

Before proceeding, here’s a shout out to Michelle Goodman, who recently wrote a really good piece on this same topic for ABC News.

From an employer’s standpoint there is no such thing as “overqualified.” Under qualified yes… mis-qualified perhaps… once qualified, sure – but not overqualified. I’ve never heard anyone complain that their doctor, airline pilot, plumber, teacher, or lover had too much talent or experience.

As an HR executive during the high growth years of FedEx, and ADP, I was responsible for the hiring of perhaps 70,000 employees. We worried a lot about things like:

1. whether or not we’d be able to keep people whose skills might not be fully utilized right away
2. whether or not someone had done something for so long that they would be unable or unwilling to try different approaches
3. if an exceptionally well qualified candidate would become bored
4. whether or not those credentials would cost us more, and if not, why not?

I can assure you though, I never once worried, and the companies we work with today don’t spend one nanosecond worrying about people bringing too much talent to the game. The question is, is that talent fresh – is it relevant to the tasks at hand? And, perhaps more importantly, what kind of attitude do they bring to the game?

What hiring managers do mind is someone who has been around the block a few times and doesn’t want to listen or learn new stuff. To be sure, a lot of managers are intimidated just a bit by the prospect of hiring somebody who may be older, smarter, more experienced, or all of those things.

That said, a lot of people are in fact told by prospective employers that they are “overqualified.” Put bluntly, that’s code for “I’m not going to hire you, and I want a short, polite, non-confrontational, legally defensible explanation for it.”

And yes, there’s a bit of a dark side to this. The odds of folks over 45 years of age (like me) hearing the “O’ word are a lot greater than my 34 year old son hearing it. What is said is “overqualified” but what is sometimes meant is another word that starts with “O” – old. That may have something to do the significant increase in age discrimination complaints filed with the EEOC in the last decade. Can you as an individual change that? No. But here’s what you can do.

1. You can make darned sure that you don’t waste one precious minute of your life getting bitter about it. You didn’t get to this ripe ‘uh age still believing that life was always fair, so get over it. Besides, you’ve got better things to do, like conducting a job search, which, by the way is about as close to a full time job as any.

2. The 1st place to invest your time and energy is in doing a targeted job search. We are in corporate classrooms just about every week, training managers to hire those people (and only those people) whose temperament, preferences, and values will allow them to be happy, productive and successful working for a given organization. You need to do the same by identifying those companies (and even individual managers) with whom you will be successful. One of the major tenets of our work is that just as people have reputations, companies have a reputation as a place to work. The more successful businesses and even individual managers have figured out that their reputation as an employer matters, a lot. If I’m on a job search, those are the businesses I should be targeting. Sites like GreatPlaceJobs.com can be a good place to begin your search.

3. Do not, repeat, do NOT apply for jobs that you feel ‘overqualified’ for. Translation:  You believe going in that the job is beneath you. Doing that is committing fraud against your psyche, your resume, and a potential employer, not to mention the folks you’d be working with.

4. Your resume is your ticket to the dance. It needs to look like a ticket to a dance that is occurring in the year 2009. On the one hand, there have been enough football coaches caught putting their resume on steroids to suggest that falsifying documents is not a very smart thing to do. On the other, you need to worry – a lot about how that resume presents you. How does it look electronically, for example? Email it to yourself and find out.

Though you should never fabricate the data (dates, positions, degrees, etc.), there is nothing wrong with choosing how you want to allocate the white space on your personal billboard… which particular talents or experiences you should emphasize for a given job or employer. You should definitely consider adapting your resume for specific jobs and situations. Skills and experiences that are no longer relevant in the job market, or for a particular job don’t bear mentioning on your resume. You wouldn’t wear a thirty year old suit to the interview would you… would you?

Yet, selective creativity is perfectly legit. I once hired a sales rep for ADP  whose resume listed outstanding qualifications – as a baseball player. His resume listed his last position as “Catcher, Kansas City Royals” and his reason for leaving as, get this… “couldn’t hit a curve ball.” Upon seeing this, I just had to talk with the guy, and he had his foot in the door. Think of it as one-to-one marketing.

5. Once you do get an interview, show up prepared – something most people don’t do. Companies that are particularly successful at making acquisitions do very good due diligence on the business they are about to acquire. An applicant’s failure to conduct that same basic research on a place they might spend 8 hours a day working at is fundamentally stupid.

Similarly, show up prepared to participate in an interview. Practice being interviewed, and in particular, answering the obvious questions about why you are willing to consider a job you were qualified to do ten years ago. Get with an interview coach who is skilled at behaviorally-based interviews, have them videotape the practice interview and give you some bone-honest feedback. Watch the tape, throw up, make some changes, and do it again. This is serious business, and your first practice session shouldn’t be on the day you need to have your best stuff. Even Mariano Rivera warms up before he pitches.

6. On the big day, go into that interview brimming with confidence, secure in the knowledge that you’ve done your homework, are well prepared, and happen to be exceptionally well qualified.

This post has been excerpted from articles available in The Fridge at ContentedCows.com.

A thought leader in the arena of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website at www.contentedcows.com

Well, now that the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has been signed into law, the heavy lifting begins, amidst the hoopla and controversy over who has the most “shovel ready” projects worthy of public financing.

In that vein there was an excellent piece (Smart Roads, Smart Bridges. Smart Grids.) by Michael Totty in today’s WSJ. In well-written, compelling fashion, Mr. Totty advocates  using currently available technology and good engineering methods to leave us with “highways that alert motorists of a traffic jam before it forms; bridges that report when they’re at risk of collapse; or an electric grid that fixes itself when blackouts hit.”  In other words, as long as we’re at it, let’s use some smart data gathering and design methods to yield much better outcomes.

In similar fashion, we have long called attention to the fact that smart, well-run organizations make it a point to regularly (no, constantly) sample the ebb and flow of worker morale using well constructed surveys. They do it not out of some socialistic bent, but because they know that to a great degree, today’s morale drives tomorrow’s customer experience, and next month’s earnings. In other words, it pays to do it. This is not something where they turn the spigot on when times are good and shut it off when things get tough. Rather, they take pains to listen and respond to their workers whether the wind is in their face or at their backs.

A thought leader in the arena of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website at www.contentedcows.com