Dot Wordsworth

Are you negatively impacted by business-speak? It’s time to escalate

Advice for a reader in her quest for a refund

issue 14 March 2015

Maureen Finucane of Richmond, Surrey, wonders whether there is any branch of public service not infected by Orwellian Newspeak. In a letter to the editor (Spectator, 28 February), she explained that a museum owed her a refund and that after a fortnight she was told on the telephone: ‘The situation is being reviewed by several managers and once it has been approved will be actioned.’ She asks if I might take this up. I’m not sure I have the strength.

I can only suggest that in response Mrs Finucane might assert that she has been impacted negatively by this issue and demand that the situation be escalated as a priority. I have before me a customer-service advice sheet for people whose computers go wrong: ‘Contact the Support Engineer working on your support case,’ it counsels, ‘Please let them know to adjust the Severity’ of the case.

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