Promises

I’m in the middle of a frustrating situation. These deals always make me ponder why people are the way they are.  I understand that we all have different personality types and that plays a very significant part of our “behavior” but there are some things that still elude me.

My situation is that a piece of equipment was taken to a shop for some work.  On a Thursday the shop said that they could do the work on Monday (and be done with it on Monday). They started on Monday alright but barely got anything done.  The “mechanic” was “sick” on Tuesday and on Wednesday they got a “high priority” project in.  So, a week and half later, my item is still sitting waiting to be worked on.  Today, I stopped by the shop three times and nobody was there all afternoon – perhaps another “sick” day?!?!

Promises, promises, promises…

Ok, I get the part about “high priority” projects. I even get the part about being sick.  The part I really do not understand is promising to do something by a certain date and NOT delivering.  In my business world, we work night and day to achieve our promises and to maintain our honor.  Eighty hour work weeks and even all night efforts occasionally occur to meet the deadline.  We most certainly work like crazy when the paying work is there because it might not be there tomorrow.

So, perhaps a promise or, more specifically, a broken promise, in much of the business world is going the way of the world.  A lie is no big deal – in fact, it isn’t even a lie – it’s just ‘something that was said’. Honor and integrity are not even a consideration anymore and nobody really cares about anybody but themselves.  I know… That is incredibly sad.  Happily though, I KNOW that many people are simply not that way. In fact, most of the people that I really know are not this way.

Maybe it all comes down to how people communicate and/or their communication skills. When a person says “I’ll have it done on Monday” maybe what they really mean is that there is some chance that it will be done on Monday OR that they would like to have it done on Monday (but they know there is no chance of that) OR that they will have it done on SOME Monday.  I dunno – I’ve never been called a “great communicator” so perhaps the problem lies with me.

I suppose this “complaint” is similar to the ole “mañana” topic that gets a lot of attention with cruisers in the Caribbean and Mexico. However; I am making a clear distinction between someone saying exactly when they will complete a task versus someone saying ‘sometime later’.