Rhi Axtell – Writer

I’m sitting in my go-to coffee shop. Go-to because of the large community tables, nice coffee, and generally when I stroll in there it is quite quiet.

Today the quietness is pierced by a woman talking to her friends. All around retirement age or beyond, the three of them huddle at the end of the table, leaning in close to hear each other (although their voices carry across the whole room).

The woman in the centre, I’m going to call her Linda, is talking about an experience she recently had with her energy company – how they had raised her bills without her knowing because she hadn’t checked her email. She felt this was unfair and (in perhaps a move that signals her age) she decided to email the CEO of the company to complain. Linda had been a loyal customer to this company for years, and wanted to let them know she was disappointed.

“I didn’t use rude language,” Linda explains to her friends. “I started the email ‘I am sorry to have to send this email but…’ and then explained my concern.”*

*How incredibly British – to start a complaint email with the words ‘I’m sorry’!

After sending the email, Linda received an automated email response almost instantly.

Hello,

I’m away from my desk a lot at the moment and won’t be checking my email…

“And I was so angry!” Linda says, not even pausing in her rant to take a sip from her tea. “There I was being penalised for missing an email – and the CEO of the company was not even checking their email either! Where is the fairness in that?”

Yes, I admit, I was eavesdropping, but it’s stories like this that really resonate with me. This disconnect between company and person. This impersonality of the corporation. The cruelty of automation.

A lot of my work at the moment has been around engaging with communities – small, grassroots work that involves your neighbours, the people on your street, people who think like you and share your values, people who DON’T think like you and share your values,. The whole messy lot known as ‘humanity’ and the trials and tribulations that go hand in hand with that kind of work.

And you know what? It’s really made me feel sad when I think about large, faceless corporations which have the power to manipulate the lives of Linda with just a single, automated bill rise because she didn’t check her computer or phone. You know why she missed the email, and the phone call that followed it? She was at a funeral for a friend. No joke.

Does an energy company care if you are grieving? I would argue that with cost of living crisis that is going on, the energy companies are causing more people to grieve than ever before.

And what can we do about it? Probably very little, but I would argue that working with those nearest to us in our communities, sharing and supporting each other, and trying to resist the urge to lean into the comfort these corporations give us all the time, might be a good start. Maybe not all of those things at once. One at a time. Don’t overwhelm yourself. I’m still trying to figure out how I can disconnect from Spotify which I listen to every day.

Oh my, this blog post spiralled into an anti-corporation rant, didn’t it? Amazing what sitting in a coffee shop can trigger in a person.

Phew.

Take a little breath, Richard.

I wish everyone a lovely day – and I hope you can take a moment to think about someone else today, because if you don’t, who will?

See you next time.