Communication is Key!!

When will companies learn that communication is of vital importance and would actually help THEM have a much easier existence?

This morning, I had to be up at 4 AM as we had inventory at the store where I work and heaven forbid they have it at normal business hours and lose sales.  Our company hires an outside organization to help with our inventory.  Just for general reference, it’s a Monday morning, after a major snowstorm that blanketed the entire east coast of the United States with over two feet of snow. 

My alarm rang at 3:54 AM (I always set it for weird times).  I got out of bed and walked sleepily into the bathroom to get washed.  It takes a minute for warm water to flow, so I turned on the faucet and waited patiently.  After what seemed like a long time, the water still was not getting warm.  Just then, my husband came up the stairs with a note in his voice that always tells me something is wrong.  The heater was not firing.  We have oil heat so when it doesn’t fire we don’t have heat OR hot water, which is especially bad when it’s 12 degrees outside.

Getting washed with cold water wasn’t fun; sitting on a very cold toilet seat is also not a barrel of laughs.  My husband called our heating company as they supposedly have an “Emergency Line”.  So, by 4:10 AM, we put in our first call.

Meanwhile, I got dressed and headed out to work, in the cold, in the dark, on the partially snow covered roads.  Thankfully, my husband drove me to the store.  Still waiting for the heating company to call us back, our cell phones were in our glove-covered hands.

The bright lights of my store looked welcoming.  I could see the cars of my fellow employees in the parking lot, but the van that should be there to bring the inventory company's employees was nowhere to be seen.

The Assistant Manager of the store opened the door for me.  He is a nice, funny young man who I always look forward to working with, next to him was another part-time manager who is one of the hardest working people I have ever had the privilege to work alongside.  As my husband started to pull away, they told me to stop him.  Apparently, the Supervisor of the job from the inventory company couldn’t get to our store and therefore the inventory was cancelled.  All of us, the workers from our store were there.  We had prepared for the week prior and if inventory was not taken today, most of our work was for nothing, not to even mention the fact that we had all woken up so early, on such a cold, dark day after a blizzard, to be there.

Why didn’t they know earlier that she couldn’t be there?  Why didn’t they call our store manager or our district manager before we were all there?  Wouldn’t she have known or at least had an inkling the night before that she couldn’t make it??  Communication!!!!!!  All of us were not only annoyed, our company wanted us to clock right out, so we were destined to have done all of this for nothing!

During this time, my husband had gone home as a co-worker said he would drive me back if the inventory company couldn’t find another supervisor.  Once again, the communication of the inventory company, internally, and to us, was severely lacking causing a continuation of confusion and anxiety.

The parallel side of this is that my husband and I were still waiting for a call back from our heating company.  My husband texted me when he arrived home to say he still hadn’t heard anything, so he called the “Emergency Number” again.  Once again a woman, who is probably just part of a generic answering service, took our number and said someone would get back to us. 

At 6 AM the inventory company had finally contacted the Manager of our store with their definitive answer, the inventory was to be cancelled!  All the work, all the hassles of fighting snow covered roads to get in, all for nothing!!  We were told to clock out and go home.  Thankfully, my prior manager, who was there as our company supervisor, drove me home.

I walked in the door to find my husband frustrated to no end.  He had not heard a thing from our heating company.  It was now after 6 so it had been two hours.  Our house was freezing cold and who knew if the pipes were going to burst?!!  Some emergency number!!!!!!

At 6:30 AM he called again, at 7, I called.  I asked why we hadn’t even received a call back as it was now already 3 hours since our initial call.  She said all she did was leave messages.  What’s the sense of that?  If an EMERGENCY number just leaves messages, why not just have an answering machine?  What difference is there to the customer if there is no actual SERVICE behind the number?  And, why don’t they tell you, after the initial call, that you won’t hear back until after normal business hours?  I did ask when the office of the heating company actually opens during our last call to the emergency number.  She told us they open at 7:30 AM.

My husband and I sat under blankets, wore gloves, and continued to wait for some word.  We gave the office a few minutes to get in and called back at 7:35.  A woman answered the phone at the actual company; thankfully, it was no longer the answering service.  However, the woman was beyond rude right off the bat.  She said we were on the list and someone would be here sometime today.  My husband tried to convey the fact that we were concerned about our pipes bursting and that we were freezing in the house.  My 88-year-old mother lives with us, which is an added concern.  The woman at the heating company could not have cared less.  My husband asked if we could get a “window” as to when we might expect some help or if someone could at least call us back to tell us something we could do to keep our pipes from bursting which would only be a bigger problem for them to fix and a more expensive problem for us.  With a note of annoyance, she told us we would hear from someone this morning.  Now why did she have to be so rude?  Why couldn’t she just have told us that from the beginning? 

Communication!!!!!  The inventory company could have avoided extra hassles to everyone by cancelling the night before OR at least by 3 AM this morning!  The heating company could have informed us that the emergency number just takes the message and passes it along to the company when they open at 7:30.  The woman at the heating company could have answered the phone with a smile and told us she knew of our issue, had contacted a repairman, and he would be out this morning!  Both episodes would have been so much easier for everyone had common sense communication taken place!

Here’s the message I am trying to communicate this morning.  When an issue comes up, as issues always will, be honest, confront it as early as possible, and communicate a solution or a timetable to a solution, clearly and nicely.  I don’t understand the benefit of anything less!!  It doesn’t help the person with the problem as they become frustrated and annoyed and it doesn’t help the company involved, as a frustrated, unhappy customer will eventually lead to a failed business.

Thankfully, the oil company repairman has now been here for over an hour and he is knowledgeable and friendly.  Had the office been as professional, I would be now writing how great it was to have the problem solved before lunch.  A positive perspective is enhanced by clear, honest, friendly communication.  We are not adversaries unless forced to feel that way.

That’s my rant for the day.  I hope I’ve communicated it clearly!!

Just Ask

Did you ever wake up in the middle of night, in the middle of a dream only to find yourself falling back to sleep and back to the same dream?  It happened to me last night and it has stuck with me this morning.

The strongest feeling that is still with me this morning is one of anticipation.  I’ll set the stage for you to the best of my ability so you can follow along.  Maybe you can tell me what you think it all means.

Apparently, I was in charge of orchestrating a very small dinner party.  The woman who hired me to arrange this party was always in shadows.  I could see that she was probably forty-ish and had shoulder length dark hair.  Her voice was soothing but strong.  There were to be 7 other guests at this party, aside from myself, and the woman in control of this occasion held very high connections.  

She sat across from me behind a huge glass desk.  Her swivel chair was turned so that as she spoke she was looking out of a floor-to-ceiling window that overlooked a clear day, a blue sky, in the middle of a busy city.  I could even hear the traffic whizzing below us.  She was leaving the guest list up to me with the only criteria being that those invited had to be people I didn’t know personally and they had to be well respected, accomplished in their field.  An invitation with this woman’s name on it would not be rejected, she assured me, so there was no limit.

My most important, immediate task was creating this list of 7 people that I, as an average person, would value learning from at this particular time in history.  The people had to be real, alive, and not superficial. 

The next thing I remember is sitting behind an old, vintage typewriter.  The room was now very much darker and full of empty shelves, aside from dust.  There was no computer, this list, apparently, had to come from my heart alone.

Feeding the paper through the typewriter and getting it set as I remember doing back in the days before computers and Word, I stared at the white sheet in front of me.  As I stared at the paper suddenly all kinds of names started appearing:  Barack Obama, Deepak Chopra, Paul McCartney, Noam Chomsky, Lily Tomlin, Richard Dawkins, Carole King, Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks,  Stephen Colbert, The Dalai Lama,  Gloria Steinem.  I had to narrow this list to seven even as more names were popping into my head…

I don’t know if any of you reading this are old enough to remember that in the old days, when typing on a typewriter, some parts of a letter would be really dark and almost go through the paper.  Everyone with an ‘i’ in their name, the dot was unbelievably dark.  So that left me with Gloria Steinem, The Dalai Lama, Carole King, Richard Dawkins and Lily Tomlin.  My list now had 5 names so I had to narrow the remaining list down to two.  If you know me, then you know that Barack Obama would HAVE to be there.  That left me with Deepak Chopra, Paul McCartey, Noam Chomsky, Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks and Stephen Colbert.  Of them, only one could join the dinner.

It was at this point in the dream that I woke up.  I glanced at the clock on my night table to see it was 2:27 am. I was thinking about the names that were so ingrained in my head and felt overwhelmed and kind of chuckled to myself for this weird dream.  I flipped on my back and remember starring at the ceiling.

The next thing I remember, I was back in the dream.  The paper with the names was miraculously still in front of me.  I thought to myself, I have a religious man, a scientist/atheist, a strong politically involved woman, a musician, and a comedian.  I also included President Obama so I had a politician with a background in Constitutional law.  I now had to decide if I wanted an actress, an actor, a philosopher, another amazingly accomplished songwriter, another comedian or a scientist.  I could feel my hands typing, pushing down hard on the round keys of the antique typewriter:   Noam Chomsky.

The next thing I remember is being back in the clean, clear office of the woman with the dark hair and the big window.  She was talking on the phone, (a sleek desk phone, not a cell phone) and she just held out her hand for the list. 

I handed my list to her and in a flash I was sitting in a magnificent room with the most comfortable, cozy, contoured chairs.  Each was exactly the same, situated in a circle and each had it’s own personal table set with a white tablecloth, light blue clothe napkins, and a simple vase with a white chrysanthemum.  The china was white with a delicate blue line.  The room was full of windows and surrounded on all sides by a magnificent garden.  The greens of the outside garden gave the room a beauty that I truly cannot explain.  I remember feeling a bit nervous, as I didn’t know what to do next.  Was I supposed to greet the guests as they entered?  Was I supposed to speak to them?  I looked down and realized I was holding a leather bound book, perhaps the answers to my questions were in the book?  As I opened the cover to look inside the book the room was suddenly full of all the people on my list!  President Obama was sitting right next me; his big smile and warm eyes were taking in the room which was now filled with waitresses and waiters as the aroma of fresh baked breads, and for some reason, cinnamon, filled the air.  Noam Chomsky and Carole King were chatting amicably to my left.  Across from me, the Dalai Lama and Richard Dawkins were in deep discussion while Gloria Steinem and Lily Tomlin were laughing hysterically.

I felt as if I was somehow see-through…as if they were all solid and there but I was transparent.  Food was served on delicate silver trays.  I wish I could remember what the food was, (maybe my current diet is blocking the image from my mind).  The woman who had me arrange this time then entered the room through a crack in the wall.  She glanced around slowly as everyone looked toward her, even though she was in shadow.  Her voice was warm and kind as she expressed to everyone there how welcome they were.  She walked around the interior of the circle of chairs and tables and invited them to share their simplest secret, to share what they apparently already knew.  All their voices came together as one word, ‘ask’, filled the room.  Ask for opinions, ask for help, ask for guidance, and ask for the truth.  She then looked at me and suddenly I wasn’t transparent anymore.

With that, I woke up.  I have no idea what or who I am supposed to ask.  But I feel compelled to find out, so I am just putting the asking out there.

I suppose this dream will fade in time, but the task is reverberating in my head.  I guess this blog is not the same as most of my others, but it is just so strong in my own thinking today that I wanted to write it down.  Perhaps one of the things I am asking for is your indulgence in helping me think about all those I invited to this meal.  All are people I admire greatly.  All are people, including the bigger list, of personalities I would love to meet and have an in-depth discussion with about the world and how to work to make it a nicer, safer place.  I suppose it would be my dream to have these people assemble to work out the problems and lessen the hate.  

I hope you ask for and receive all your fondest dreams.