“If the service you got from us today was so good that it made you go ‘WOW!’ – why not nominate us for a ‘WOW!’ Award? Fill in the attached card or do it online.”
Some years ago a Local Authority addressed that question and that request to users of one of its facilities.It prompted the following piece by me which was never published but rediscovered during a clear out of my attic –
WHERE BEARS FROLIC AND THE BOW-WOW FACTOR.
Once upon a time, in a land where bears frolic in the woods, there lived a man called Aleksei Grigoryevich Stakanov.
Aleksei Stakhanov, as his friends called him for short, was a coalminer. Each day he mined twice as much coal as the previous shift.
He would work one extra shift every day, for half-pay. And on Sunday he would work two extra shifts for no pay at all.
Aleksei Grigoryevich was much admired by the owner of the mine, who also owned newspapers, radio stations, film studios, cinemas, recording studios, theatres and ballet troupes. Newspapers, radio programmes, films, songs, opera and ballet united in praise of Aleksei Grigoryevich. All coalminers, at first, and then all the workers were encouraged to follow the example od Aleksei Grigorevich Stakhanov. Though the Private Finance Inititative did not operate there, the owner of the mine owned all
the schools, all the hospitals, all the jails and even all the summer camps, in the land where the bears frolic in the woods.
After some years the owner of the mine passed on, and, some years later still, it was revealed that the reputation of Aleksei Grigoryevich Stakhanov did not bear scrutiny. It was a fairy story, part of a campaign of fun and frolics.
Happy British workers can go down to the woods today and not encounter any bears.
But they can enjoy such fun and frolics if they work for employers who routinely urge them to go the extra mile, unpaid (try that on a cabbie!), and wag their tails like faithful dogs.They call it the Bow-Wow Factor.
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