"I don't have the time" ...

I've been bad, I admit it. Jason Alba, whose blog JibberJobber I faithfully read on a weekly basis, once wisely counseled me that a good blogger should write a minimum of 3 posts per week. His most recent post, linked above, is clearly a good reminder of this consistent practice as I often check in on his posts using my beloved RSS reader, and usually expect to find something good and new in there (I'm rarely disappointed). Personally I have gotten away from writing in the last couple of weeks because ... "there has been so much going on". Novel concept isn't it"? It definitely echoes the typical excuses we all make about most things in general; we don't have the time/energy/fill-in-the-blank.

In reality, we do have time, and energy. We just don't want to. Think about it, do you make time to read a blog? Watch your favorite TV show? Attend happy hour? The things that bring us enjoyment, and which we don't deem as "work", we make time for. Few are the people that truly "do not have the time". There might be a select number of individuals who are go-go-go from the minute they wake up to the second they close their eyes. I just don't know any.

So when I say that I haven't had the time to write, or call that long lost friend, or send a birthday card to a team member, I don't mean I really don't have the time. I just mean that I haven't prioritized it. Watching "Top Chef" just kind of seemed more important (See, I could try to make myself sound terribly important by saying I was in meetings from early morning til dusk but you would all see right through me anyway ... ). Forget location, location ... these days it's all about priorities, priorities.

"I'm Working On It ... "

Welcome to the Oh-Well parade. One of my biggest pet peeves in Corporate America today is the lack of accountability when it comes to meeting deadlines. Between the indifferent co-worker, cable company or tech representative, I’m ready to tear my hair out. Does anybody care anymore??

Most companies will never fire you for missing deadlines or for over-promising and under-delivering; something many employees working for them take advantage of. “Not my fault”, they claim while shrugging their shoulders, “I’m just waiting on XYZ”.

Toll free tech support operators “accidentally” hang up on you, often after you have been patiently waiting in a twenty minute phone que (make no mistake, this is no mistake!). The graphic designer who assured you the website would be finished by end of week is nowhere to be found, email or phone. The bank manager who guaranteed that the erroneous bank charge would be reversed (you know, the one that cost you $120 in overdraft fees??) by tomorrow morning “apologizes sincerely” when it wasn’t done.

We all know the stories, we all get equally frustrated at the lack of service and accountability, yet none of us know what to do about it. I suggest that we can only start with ourselves; create a personal credo to do unto others the way you would have done to you. Provide the best service, be utterly reliable and most importantly; stand by your word if you give it, whatever it is and to whomever it is, even if that customer is a faceless voice on the other line. It could be your self.