Don't be a chump!

True story:
I make a reservation at a lovely restaurant in one of my favorite cities: Calgary. I’m entertaining business colleagues from a company we’ve just acquired. PR people, Marketing people, Regulatory people and more. I let the restaurant know we’re a party of 12. We’ll arrive at 6.

Our waitress kicks off the evening with making us all wait nearly 20 minutes for drinks. No worries. She must be busy. The meals are muddled up. Ok. So perhaps the kitchen has a new chef. When asked to fix the mistake we get the standard eye roll and deep sigh. Not cool. I slip out the back and look for said waitress to let her know that this evening is really important. The service could make or break the night… and could she try and step up her game. It got worse. We left early. We found a patio else where and made the most of our night. Tip? HAH! yeah right! Not even the mandatory gratuity got passed us.

Fast forward three weeks. I need a freelance photographer. I spread the news through my network. I get introduced by email to a budding young photographer whose nothing less than genius. We arrange to meet.

Imagine the look on both our faces when in walks the chumpy waitress from three weeks back.

My point is this. The person you’re being a complete jerk to today could very well be your next boss, client or worse…

I’ve recently been inundated with stories about the recruiters in the Toronto area that would make your head spin:

Calls on New Year’s eve demanding time and attention to hear about potential role.

11 calls in one hour only to be berated for 25 minutes on the phone for turning down a position.

Mean messages left on voice mail only to turn super sweet and lovely when said candidate ends up in a senior role who has responsibility for head count.

Hostile conversations where the candidate simply slams down the phone.

Hello? Your candidate today is very likely to be your client tomorrow? With an industry as small and as incestuous as ours, wouldn’t one think that acting like a chump is a short train ride to no where eventually?