I have a dead tree in my backyard that needs to be removed.

I talked with a contractor a few months ago, received a quote and a timeline, and assumed it would be taken care of. But the company I talked with kept postponing the date of the work, stating that they couldn’t drum up enough business in my area for it to make financial sense for their team and equipment to make the trip to my area.

So it dragged on.

Eventually, I put my foot down and gave a drop-dead date. Magically, the tree service showed up just in time to cut down the tree.

Only, they didn’t actually cut it down.

After months of discussion and a clearly agreed upon price for the work, the sales guy I had been working with said that he had to “regret to inform me” that the head of the company refused to do the work for the agreed upon price, claiming that the sales guy had given too deep of a discount.

He said they could do it for 50% more, but I certainly wasn’t going to accept a last-minute bait and switch like that, so we went our separate ways.

 

It’s a ridiculous situation.

I’m incredibly frustrated with the tree service company, and I have no intention to ever work with them again.

But to some extent, I’m empathetic.

After reflecting on the situation, it seems like the sales guy’s only job was to get agreement from new customers. He gets sent to new areas and has to do what it takes to find work (and probably gets paid by commission).

I was firm on the price that I would accept, so he probably thought it was better to accept the work for cheap than to not do it at all. In theory, he gets paid, I get my tree taken down, and the company gets a little cash. Seems like a win all around.

But after he then was unable to find more work in the area, he couldn’t convince the operations crew to make a long trip for one relatively small job. They were probably making more money elsewhere, so they had little incentive to move.

When the president of the company finally got to my house, he saw that his sales guy had under-quoted the job (it was half the price of other quotes I had received), and knew that he’d make more money taking his crew elsewhere. So he bailed.

 

The situation reflects terrible business integrity.

I value honor and integrity, so I expect others to stay true to their word, regardless of whether they screwed up, or whether they could make more money elsewhere.

But if I take a step back and put myself in each person’s shoes, I can see how someone with weaker values could behave the way these people did.

I still have no interest in interacting with them again, but I get it. If their only goal is to make the most money, then they did right thing.

 

It’s tough when others don’t agree with us, or when they do something that might seen malicious or hurtful. The easy response is to take it personally and hold it against the other person.

But I’ve found immense power in the following phrase:

“I don’t agree with _______, but I see how they can think that.”

We shouldn’t expect to agree with everyone, and there are plenty of people with whom we’d probably be better off not interacting.

But the simple act of imagining the thought process that might have led to a given action can be incredibly powerful.

The alternative, blind anger and frustration, doesn’t sound quite as appealing.

-Brandon