Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Timely matters

I have a(nother) pet peeve. I know you're thinking to yourself, How odd! Today's pet peeve comes to you from month end and the hellishness it can be even in a crappy market where people are being laid off left and right and nothing ever closes. It's called tardiness. No, you know what? It's called being late.

I can forgive a couple of minutes. We had some brief torrential downpours yesterday and since the branch I am at right now is situated off quite possibly the worst highway on the planet (217) where for some inexplicable reason people get on it and just throw their car into park, people are going to hit some traffic snares here and there and perhaps run just a few minutes behind. Sometimes there is no avoiding that. But late? Like by 20 or 30 minutes? Or, as in my yesterday 3 o'clock, 3 hours? Inexcusable.

Are you late for your doctor's appointment? No. Even though they keep YOU waiting for an hour after you check in, you wouldn't DREAM of being late for your doctor. How about jury duty? Or traffic court? No. Because you know that if you don't show up on time they throw you out and that's not a good thing at all.

So what makes you think that when I set an appointment for you to come close on the purchase or refinancing of your house there's no real commitment to actually showing up on time? Do you think you are the only one with an appointment? Do you not get that when you do this kind of stuff, especially at month end, a whole bunch of OTHER people are doing it too, so the odds of you having the only appointment of the day are slim? Generally speaking we make appointments at hour intervals, and at month end it is the norm to have back to back appointments. When you show up for your 1pm at 1:30 you just made my 2pm, my 3pm and my 4pm all late. Why is your time more valuable than theirs?

I've had people show up 45 minutes late and told them to wait until after my next appointment, also sitting waiting patiently in the lobby, but 15 minutes EARLY, for us to get started. Respect the appointment time. Because frankly, it won't impact MY life if you don't reduce your current interest rate or get to move in on Friday. Honestly. It doesn't.

Yesterday my 3pm (a simple seller signing, should take roughly 15 minutes) called at 3:30 to say he was running behind (really? I hadn't noticed) and could he come at 5pm. It's month end, so after a heavy sigh (off-camera, of course) I agreed. By 5pm I was exhausted and weak from blood loss and had already had a long day, but what the heck, it's a seller, I can knock this out. But 5pm came and went and at 5:30 he called to say he was on Hwy 217, he'd be there any minute. "Any minute" turned out to be "Any 45 minutes" and sure enough, in he strolled at 6:15. Hi! Can I get you some coffee or water?! Or would you prefer to just TAKE MY LIFE, THE LIFE I HAVE OUTSIDE OF THIS OFFICE, SINCE YOU CLEARLY DON'T CARE THAT I HAVE ONE?!

And then of course he read. Everything. So it was a simple seller signing that ended at around 7pm, you know, when I should have already been home from the mall and the Rite Aid, and comfy-cozy in sweats, done with dinner and petting my kitties.

I'm just asking for a little consideration. You may not understand what I do, and you undoubtedly forget me once you leave the building, but I AM a pretty important part of the whole real estate transaction situation, considering I'm the one that handles your money and records the deed to your house. Try to remember too that although most of the time I enjoy what I do, I also enjoy going home like everyone else. Being home allows me to recharge and forget about work for a few hours and enjoy the fruits of my labor. So I can come back in tomorrow morning and paint on a smile for you.

2 Comments:

At 10:48 AM, September 30, 2009, Blogger Unknown said...

Amen to that!

 
At 5:45 PM, September 30, 2009, Anonymous Jackie said...

Don't get me started on being early to a doctor's appointment only to have to wait 40 minutes to be seen. Yeah, sure the orthopedist makes more money than me but my time is just as important to me.
It kills me when people in my office complain they were late getting in on time for a meeting or training. I just love the “traffic on Monday’s on 217 is really bad.” Then leave your house the hell earlier if you have an 8:00 AM meeting that is on your calendar every fricking Monday.

 

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