Friday, September 4, 2009

No Upside Rule

Buttin is a very wonderful, calm and rationale human being.

I can sometimes be proned to irrational, uncalm and unwonderful behavior and I don't think all these Lumpy hormones are helping (this poor kid is getting blamed for everything already).

So, Buttin has this rule about when you want to do something out of anger (or any other extreme emotion). First - ask yourself the question, "Does what I'm about to do have an upside?". Good examples often come in the form of family members or close friends doing something relatively harmless that still gets on your nerves. If you snap at them or tell them to leave you alone - who does it really make happy? No one. Your friend ends up feeling very badly and then you end up feeling like you overreacted. See - so there's no upside, understand?

So far this morning, I've used some restraint. I do not know if I'm in a "No Upside Rule" situation or if this issue actually calls for action (I know what my friend Liz would say).

This morning, the very first call I got was from a rude, unhappy and borderline abusive customer. She was very irate at the cost of a water extraction (one that had poo-poo over the entire apartment). She was also very rude to Barbie yesterday. We used to do business with this particular customer months ago, but thankfully she stopped calling because she was hateful back then.

We have a relatively good relationship with the management company (i.e. her bosses) and I'm VERY tempted to write them a very nice letter explaining that no one but me is allowed to abuse the misfits. We are always very eager to help nice customers, but apparently no one ever taught this woman (I call her Mushroom - I've actually met her and she smells like pork rinds and farts and is shaped like a mushroom) that you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar. I do not think that I'd include the part about how I call her mushroom in my letter.

So - I'm not sure if I should send the letter or not. It would certainly make me feel better (for a least a little while), but I do not want to damage a relationship. At the same time, I really feel like someone should know that she is rude to vendors and I can't imagine how she treats residents. Oh what to do . . .

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