Disheartened

I don't have to keep telling you how difficult this desk is. Yesterday the person I'm covering decided to come in and work, and to be honest, it wasn't a bad thing. Seriously this desk is so busy that it takes two escrow officers to even make a dent in it. It's insane. I am not complaining about the numbers, or the work, or anything like that, but only a rare few could possibly understand the enormous amount of crap we have to wade through every day. Believe me when I tell you that when I complain about a desk it's mostly because I like my social time and when I get interrupted by anything work-related it irritates me. But not seriously. Mostly it's just for show.

I take my job very seriously, believe it or not. I know I'm good at it. I am a customer service rock star and get a lot of compliments. So when I am involved in something like this it sucks the life clean out of me, and it really isn't that common for me to not want to go back and continue to make miracles happen. I can't believe it's only Tuesday. I feel so badly for this escrow officer because at least, at the end of my two weeks, I get to move on. She doesn't. I don't think it's doing her health much good.

So. Today was a day. I'll admit having her around has taken the stress level down a couple of notches, but there are always little things (and moderate to big things) that just make you take a step back and think, Wow, people really do suck.

I'm not going to go in to detail about what happened because I got over it like four times throughout the course of the day. I'll just say that someone took advantage of the game we in the service industry play for a living and basically reaffirmed my belief that there are too many people out there who don't care about anyone but themselves. Say what you will about what is wrong with our society - greed is the bottom line. It ruins everything. It breaks people down. It disheartens. It takes away all the good and leaves nothing but the bad.

We are all working hard to make something out of this industry - the deals come but they are harder and more involved and because only the best are still around, stepping up to the plate and over delivering are pretty much standard fare. With this kind of volume, however, mistakes can and will be made, through no fault of anyone, unless you want to call being human a fault. Under every circumstance that I can think of off the top of my worn out head, when a mistake is made the problem is discovered and handled with little or no impact on anyone. Apologies are made, shoes scuff the dirt, a few extra hoops might be required, but all in all, it's not a big deal. Every circumstance but this one. Apparently when WE make a mistake, someone else gets to keep the money.

It wasn't even $100, but that's not the point. The point is it isn't yours to keep. The point is, how do you live with yourself? How do you justify capitalizing on a keystroke error made by over-worked escrow staff? What gives you the right to take what isn't yours, what you didn't work for, what somebody else will ultimately have to pay for? Isn't that stealing? It's stealing, plain and simple. And we may not be anyone important to you, but we know a LOT of people, and we have some influence.

I am disgusted with greed and entitlement. I think we have cultivated a society where it is the common belief that we should have whatever we want, whether we deserve it or not. There appears to be no such thing as working hard for something (as evidenced by the ridiculous number of bank owned properties we're closing - properties these people shouldn't have bought in the first place). It's all take - take what isn't yours, take advantage of the system, take from someone else who is working too hard to notice. I don't know where it came from, and I don't see it going away any time soon, and the whole thing just gives me a headache.

Just flipping follow one rule, people, please. Do unto others as you'd have them do unto you, or how ever it goes. Is that so hard to follow? Is that asking so much? Apparently, for some, it is.

Fabulous.