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I love it: these unpaid, enthusiastic volunteers are providing real, honest customer service -- as opposed to the theater of customer service one normally gets

• throwaway1979 14y ago
  The article points at professionals in R&D organizations, etc. having such a positive attitude. This misses the point completely. If management pushes workers to the brink, they will be cranky and unhelpful. They just don't have time to do any better. Some professions are harder to push. R&D being an example but this is changing. In the world of software, daily scrum meetings come to mind. For me, coding is something I love to do. But if you give me impossible deadlines and manage me to death, I will hate it. When I hate it, I don't willingly work nights and weekends (I do that for love .. not for money). This creates a vicious cycle.
• larrys 14y ago
  "as opposed to the theater of customer service one normally gets from the paid "customer support" staff of large organizations." Keep in mind also that the olympics is a short term thing and a job is a long term thing. It's easier to remain enthusiastic over the short term and for something that you choose because you wanted to do it. As opposed to something you have to do. So the group of volunteers is both self selecting and additionally short term.