If You Make an Appointment, Keep It. . .

Here's another classic style tip that will cost nothing, and does not necessarily require that you are "dressed up" although you might be if it has anything remotely to do with your job (or getting a job). When you make an appointment, keep it!

One more time, I have made sure that I am up early, showered, and dressed, so that I would be ready for an appointment with a service person who was to come by the house this morning to discuss a possible big ticket purchase and installation. There are a number of things that need replacing here at Totleigh-in-the-Wold to keep things looking nice and relatively up to date in and around our vintage (tongue firmly in cheek, you understand) house built in 1985. And once more, we have been stood up. No call. No voice mail. No email. Nothing. Just like the old Ricky Nelson tune.

If this were a isolated incident, I would not be so annoyed, but this has happened repeatedly with various service people over the last nine years since we purchased our first house in Illinois and here in Mid-Michigan. What is it with so called service providers who make an appointment and never turn up? As my late maternal grandfather might have said, "Well son, I guess they just didn't want the business badly enough to bother calling or showing up." Looks like we must contact another company now.

And the moral of today's story? Whether it involves your job, interviewing for a job, performing well in your job, keeping your job, a money-making opportunity for you or the company you represent. . . or you are simply lining up a social occasion in your private life, you move mountains to keep appointments. Or just call and leave a message if you are detained. Apologize for the delay and ask to reschedule. It's the polite and considerate thing to do, guys.

-- Heinz-Ulrich

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