The value of Jamaica time
When we see a long line at any government office, remittance service or bank, it shows as a group how little we value our time. In most cases these are not bearers or proxies but people who think they have to be in the line to get service. Indeed, if we are to count all the lines we join in a month, we give away more percentage of our value than sweet old Americans retirees give to Jamaican Scammers when they call. Instead of a young hustler from Flankers we are giving our money to a rich organization, too complacent to innovate.
In most cases however, the organizations do allow online access, and as a culture we resist to engage them in non traditional ways.
No overtime
Employers pay for time in days, weeks or months. Overtime had become fading concept with the shrinking manufacturing industry, and so hourly paid workers, gave way to 9–5 office workers. The production line no longer provided the accountability to ensure each person was doing their job at every hour in the day. Employers are afraid to pay by the hour because there is no monitoring system for what is done in each hour. Salaries tend to be much lower than a consulting hourly rate, because consultants are much more closely monitored, they are literally always in the client’s face, once they are being paid.
Leave with pay
Salaried workers join the lines, because along with sick days, which are abused to do government interactions or paydays, where people leave early to join the bank line. They already got paid to join the line. The extra hours spent out of work do not result in lost opportunity for money.
The line will be long
If everyone assumes the line will be long and used their 2–3 hours to make quick money or do what they enjoy, then we may have a perfect storm for more online transactions in Jamaica. Our culture however does not value that and we therefore have a longer road to evolve in the digital economy.
StartupRobot is helping to provide alternatives to joining the line at the bank and the tax office and the companies office. Visit the website to find out more.
