It' a Great Day in South Carolina! Did You Get That Memo?

Apparently, our Governor has decided to issue a "directive" to state employees to answer the phone with the phrase "It's a great day in South Carolina."

This is idiotic. I kind of understand where she's coming from on this - she's always trying to market South Carolina to companies and get them to bring jobs here, so it's never bad to put your best foot forward. So I guess I can kind of see what her thinking is here, but it's not very well thought-out. The problem is that this doesn't move the needle at all. No company is going to think: "Gee, I just heard how great it is in South Carolina; let's open a factory there."

Worse, it smacks of the syrupy greetings that you hear at fast-food restaurants: "Welcome to Moe's!" and the like. It's just a style thing with no substance. On a practical side, if I was a state employee, I would HATE this. Nothing is as soul-crushing as having to say a canned line that has absolutely no meaning every time you answer the phone. It's also the thing that inept managers are going to harp on because they can. It's going to turn into this.

I know that our Governor wants to run our government "like a business" but this is something that she can leave out.