Admit it, you’ve either thought or said it about someone. Perhaps it was that car that cut you off in traffic on your commute to work. Maybe it was the person in front of you in the grocery stores limited item check out who has ten items more than is allowed. Certainly if nothing else you’ve experienced someone cutting into a cuing line. Well, I don’t blame you if you called them a jerk because they are. Such people feel that whatever they have as an agenda is more important than whatever you have for an agenda. Self-serving and self –important these people could care less about others. They’re jerks!
Being in the real estate business I have to deal with jerks every day, but the one that bothers me the most are the people who schedule an appointment to see a property and then never show up at the scheduled time. Such as today, when Dan called and told me how important it was for him to view space in an office building I have listed. Although my day was fully scheduled I shifted my schedule around to accommodate his request. As happens a lot in the real estate business
Dan didn’t show for the appointment resulting in 1 ½ hours of my day wasted. Dan, you’re a jerk! Could it have been that hard to call and cancel if you’d decided against viewing the property?
As I mentioned I could go on forever writing about the jerks I encounter in my business as I’m sure you can also. You might wonder why I even write about it since it does seem to be part of doing business. Well, I write about it because it jerks are an economic drain on society and businesses I want it to change. I think it is now time for businesses to stand up and tell these people they are jerks and their behavior if unacceptable. The restaurant industry is finally started to do it by requiring a credit card to reserve a reservation. If a person makes a reservation and then doesn’t call to cancel it and doesn’t show at the reserved time their credit card is charge a cancel fee. While the restaurant doesn’t have the opportunity to tell the person what they think of their behavior they can make the person pay for their behavior. I’m personally hoping the real estate industry will be the next.