Over the course of my life I have had to move on from relationships that I realized weren’t mutually beneficial. In some cases it was obvious. I’m not talking about friendships with those that I don’t always talk to, because when we talk, we can pick up where we left off. In this case, I’m referring to a business relationship with whom I decided to terminate after realizing that I wasn’t valued.
First of all, no one is indispensable. There are those performing services that you appreciate, but the long and short of it is that if something happened to that person, it would be relatively easy to find a replacement. Over time, you might even develop friendships with them and experience happiness, sadness and all the things. That person is only a phone call or text away. Or at least they should be, right? Especially after you have a long established business relationship. Our last communication was me stating, “I’ll let you know when I need to reschedule,” to which they replied, “Ok.”
I think that appropriate business behavior might just need to be taught. That’s a class that someone should teach for sure. Perhaps people don’t realize that it is simply the right thing to do to respond to people appropriately. Also, if you handle all of your communications, even when you’re on vacation, you just might need to reply to someone to let them know, “I’m away, but as soon as I get back, I will return your message.” Otherwise, you might as well say, “I don’t care whether or not we connect. Meh.” This makes perfect sense to some, but to others not so much. I won’t say that it’s an age thing either, because there are people of all ages who have excellent follow up.
There’s no reason why we need to beg people to take our money to do things for us. If we have to constantly contact people in multiple ways to do things for us, they don’t deserve our money or time. Obviously they don’t want to be bothered. I am fiercely loyal in some cases, but when I realize I shouldn’t be, I’m done. When I think about it, I stayed five years too long. I am much happier in my current business relationship. I am done with waiting for a week for more for someone to get back to me about anything, especially if I want to give you my hard earned money for a service. I guess it’s similar to breaking up with a person, because no one wants to be the bad guy, or at least I don’t, but I realized that life is too short to be disregarded. Do I need to say definitively, “You haven’t heard from me because you don’t respond appropriately.”? As a good friend of mine often says, “No ma’am, pressed ham.”
That’s a lesson that a person will have to learn on their own, because after 10 plus years, you should know how to TCB. Yep. I feel some kinda way about this because I’m mad at myself for stubbornly waiting for better service.
#ksmithsays
ksmithsays 