The "Never Reply" Syndrome

I was just chatting with my wife and she said that she is rather annoyed with the "never reply" syndrome from my daughter's primary school.

She said that she had left multiple messages for my daughter's math teacher, form teacher, CCA teacher and the school's CCA coordinator since mid of last week about a new conflict in schedule in the math and CCA class, and never received a reply. What is most disconcerting is that the conflict in schedule will start tomorrow and the one caught in this maze will unfortunately be my daughter.

Waiting in the absence of information is very uncomfortable indeed. During such time, we conjure up new imagery and imagine new information which may be completely wrong to "fill the void" in information. Negative emotions are generated and often result in conflict, ill opinion and complaints.

This syndrome is particularly bad in the healthcare setting. Do we ask patients to wait for the call regarding a lab test result and then forget to call? Do we tell patients that we have already received their feedback/ complaint letter even as we are working on it? Do we make patients wait for indefinitely long period at the clinic even when the delay is inevitable eg. doctor called away for emmergency? Do we keep a patient waiting without information about his delayed surgery even as we are working hard to reinstate it? The answer is YES, sometimes, because processes do break down, but when it happens we should learn quickly and make it right (so that the possibility of it happening again is eliminated or reduced) because they create highly anxious situations for our patients and their family.

All organisations with service operations would do well to reduce/ eliminate the "Never Reply" syndrome.