booboo
ArboristSite Operative
I'd put this little story in a post a while ago, but it fits this topic well...
Stuff happens, we try to avoid it, but when it does, it's best just to deal with it professionally and with a smile, even though you may be screaming inside.
When I was fairly new to the business and was a new foreman on a crew for a small company, I busted a window on an enclosed porch. It was the end of the day on a Friday and I was doing a small removal next to the porch. I was rushing and letting stuff fly instead of lowering because we wanted to get out of there. A piece landed tip first and sprang back into the window. It was actually the plexiglass on the bottom panel of the porch door and it was really old, discolored and brittle. I told the homeowner right away, apologized, and said that we'd take care of it. We covered it with some plastic for the night and headed back to the shop.
Back at the shop, I told the company owner about it and said I'd pick up a piece of plexiglass in the morning and go put it in on my own time. I felt pretty bad about it because I knew I'd screwed up by being lazy. The owner said that he had a good friend with a glass shop and that he'd have the glass guy take care of it but that I'd have to pay for it. I would have rather done it myself but hey...
Monday morning, I walk into the shop and the owner hands me a bill from the glass guy for something like $250. I went nuts, after all it was like a 3' x 2' piece of plexiglass! When I calmed down, he proceeded to explain to me that even though I handled it the right way, maybe I ought to be a bit more careful. Then he asked me to give him the glass guy's bill back. He ripped up the bill, started laughing, and told me, as he walked away, that I owed him a case of Heineken to replace the one he gave the glass guy!
I picked up the beer after work that night and never forgot the lesson.
Ben
Stuff happens, we try to avoid it, but when it does, it's best just to deal with it professionally and with a smile, even though you may be screaming inside.
When I was fairly new to the business and was a new foreman on a crew for a small company, I busted a window on an enclosed porch. It was the end of the day on a Friday and I was doing a small removal next to the porch. I was rushing and letting stuff fly instead of lowering because we wanted to get out of there. A piece landed tip first and sprang back into the window. It was actually the plexiglass on the bottom panel of the porch door and it was really old, discolored and brittle. I told the homeowner right away, apologized, and said that we'd take care of it. We covered it with some plastic for the night and headed back to the shop.
Back at the shop, I told the company owner about it and said I'd pick up a piece of plexiglass in the morning and go put it in on my own time. I felt pretty bad about it because I knew I'd screwed up by being lazy. The owner said that he had a good friend with a glass shop and that he'd have the glass guy take care of it but that I'd have to pay for it. I would have rather done it myself but hey...
Monday morning, I walk into the shop and the owner hands me a bill from the glass guy for something like $250. I went nuts, after all it was like a 3' x 2' piece of plexiglass! When I calmed down, he proceeded to explain to me that even though I handled it the right way, maybe I ought to be a bit more careful. Then he asked me to give him the glass guy's bill back. He ripped up the bill, started laughing, and told me, as he walked away, that I owed him a case of Heineken to replace the one he gave the glass guy!
I picked up the beer after work that night and never forgot the lesson.
Ben
