Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Coffee Chat: The Business of Trust

Rory Bore at Ink Interrupted hosts the Tuesday Coffee Chat, and this week she asks the question,  Who do you trust most? 




Last week, Ms. Rory was having a great deal of trouble with her blog, so i posted my first trust discussion a bit early.

It didn't leave me much to chat about this week, or so i thought.  Now i'm getting started, and maybe i do have a few more things to say.

The Jalopy has been telling me for a few days that i need to "change oil soon!"  "Change Oil Soon!"  "Change the Oil, Blast it!"  (Okay, so maybe not that last one.)

My only possible minute in which to do it was yesterday morning before my two jobs, so i took Jalopy to Kevin and Lenny.  While there, i got the price on getting Humphrey the Honda some new tires which were a requirement for inspection.  (Those babies were as bald as...well, never mind what they were as bald as, suffice it to say they were bald enough to have never have passed inspection.  How they got us to NOLA and back like that is the Lord's grace only.)

Also i am getting them to work up the price on replacing the oil pan on Cicero, Bigger Girl's vehicle.

While talking to Kevin, i realized that it's so good to have a mechanic shop i can trust.  They do nothing we don't need, are fair about pricing, and have done a couple of small things for us at no charge, like when Jalopy's power steering seemed to have a small leak and they put the stuff in to seal it for free.   (It's holding so far, keep fingers crossed.)

Also on the topic of trust, the work i do requires that people trust me.  Some of them give me keys to their homes, alarm codes, and let me wander through their homes cleaning with no one else around.  Even those who are home when i'm cleaning don't follow me around, and they let me into every room in the house, including offices that might have file cabinets or small safes.

It means i have to be 100% honest every single time about every single thing.  If i find a penny on the floor, it goes in the change jar.  (Please note that i have yet to ever clean a house that does not have a change jar.)  If i break something, i admit it right away and offer to replace it.  Those who pay me by the job know i will be there until the job is done, and those who pay me by the hour know i don't dawdle to pad my pay.

Then, too, in my line of work i see things in people's homes or offices and i have to be able to keep my mouth shut.  The janitor/housekeeper knows a lot about you, and if that person isn't reliable, you never know what information about you might get out to people you don't want having it.  Being trusted to know what people have in their dressers when you are putting the folded clothes away is a big responsibility.

Ms. S, whom none of you know and whom i will not call by  anything but that on my blog, has some trouble with hoarding.  One time she asked me if anyone else i clean for has as much stuff as she does.  My response to her was, i don't kiss and tell!  There's no way i would talk to anyone she and i know in real life about her home without her permission.  Sort of the way a doctor might refer to a case study without a name, but would never talk to a mutual friend about another friend's medical diagnosis. 
 
Trust is a two-way street.  When you find a person or business you trust, hold on.  And if you are in a business where you have to be trusted to get the job done, be careful to hold yourself to a high standard.

Trust takes time to develop, and is worth it.
 

Today is:

Birthday of Wenchang Wang, the God of Literature -- China

Car Keys and Small Change Day -- ???

Dia de Andalucia -- Andalucia, Spain

DNA Day -- day in 1953 when Watson and Crick determined the double helix structure of DNA

Februalia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (purification of Rome performed by citizens making sacrifices to the dead)

Floral Design Day -- a day to acknowledge this art form, sponsored by Rittners Floral School 

International Pancake Day

Kalevala Day -- Finland (Finnish Culture Day)

Mardi Gras -- Fat Tuesday, Carnival, the last day to feast before the Lenten fast begins tomorrow, greeted with revelry in many parts of the world; related observances and names:
     Scotland, Fasten's E'en or Bannocky Day
     Portuguese, Terça-feira Gorda
     Italian, Martedì Grasso
     Swedish, Fettisdagen
     Danish, Fastelavn
     Norwegian, Fastelavens
     Estonian, Vastlapäev
     Spanish, Martes de Carnaval
     German, Faschingsdienstag
     Hawaiian, Malasada Day
     Lithuanian, Uzgavenes
     Icelandic, Sprengidagur (literally, Bursting Day)
     also Pancake Day or Bursting Day, the day to eat the last of the eggs and butter in the form of some kind of fried cakes, and to eat until bursting

National Chocolate Souffle' Day

National Science Day -- India

National Tooth Fairy Day - and/or August 22, depending on whom you ask

Nylon Day -- the first aliphatic polyamides were produced on this day in 1935

Peace Memorial Day -- Taiwan

Public Sleeping Day -- this one even has a wikiHow page 

Rare Disease Day -- International 

Read Me Day -- local and national celebrities, with community volunteers, are encouraged to visit classrooms this week and read to children; the original idea included wearing t-shirts with writing on them and encourage the children to read the shirts, thus "read me" 

Shrove Tuesday -- Christian

Single-Tasking Day -- encouraging you to do one thing at a time, and not feel guilty; begun by Theresa Gabriel, who claims multitasking is inefficient and hurts your brain! she suggests it be on the 4th Tuesday of the month, although other sites list other dates
 
Spay Day USA -- sponsored by the HSUS; Sit! Stay! Spay!  Good Owner! 

St. Hedwig of Poland's Day (Patron of queens)

St. Romanus' Day (Patron of the mentally ill; against drowning, insanity)

Teacher's Day -- Algeria; Bahrain; Egypt; Jordan; Libya; Morocco; Oman; Saudi Arabia; Tunisia; United Arab Emirates; Yemen

World Spay Day -- don't let your pets litter! 


Anniversaries Today:

University of Pittsburgh is chartered, 1787


Birthdays Today (followed by Feb. 29 Birthdays)

Ali Larter, 1976
Robert Sean Leonard, 1969
John Tuturro, 1957
Gilbert Gottfried, 1955
Bernadette, Peters, 1948
Charles Aaron "Bubba" Smith, 1945
Brian Jones, 1942
Mario Andretti, 1940
Tommy Tune, 1939
Gavin MacLeod, 1930
Frank Gehry, 1929
Svetiana Allilueva, 1926
Charles Durning, 1923
Zero Mostel, 1915
Earl Scheib, 1907
Milton Caniff, 1907
Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, 1906
Vincente Minnelli, 1903
Linus Pauling, 1901
Ben Heckt, 1894
Charles Blondin, 1824
John Tenniel, 1820
Mary Lyon, 1797
Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, 1533


Antonio Sabato, Jr., 1972
Tony Robbins, 1960
Gretchen Christopher, 1940
Jack Lousma, 1936
Dinah Shore, 1916
Jimmy Dorsey, 1904
William Wellman, 1896
Herman Hollerith, 1860


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"On Golden Pond"(Play), 1979
"La Reine de Saba"(Opera), 1862
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling(Publication date), 1749


Today in History:

Coronation ceremony of Liu Bang as Emperor Gaozu of Han takes place, initiating four centuries of the Han Dynasty's rule over China, BC202
The first edition of Henry Fieldings' "Tom Jones" is published, 1749
John Wesley charters the Methodist Church, 1784
The first commercial railroad in US, Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) is chartered, 1827
Robert Nelson, leader of the Patriotes, proclaims the independence of Lower Canada (today Québec), 1838
Regular steamboat service from the west to the east coast of the United States begins with the arrival of the SS California in San Francisco Bay, 4 months 22 days after leaving New York Harbor, 1849
The Bulgarian Exarchate is established by decree of Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz of the Ottoman Empire, 1870
The American Telephone and Telegraph Company is incorporated in New York State as the subsidiary of American Bell Telephone, 1885
The USS Indiana, the lead ship of her class and the first battleship in the United States Navy comparable to foreign battleships of the time, is launched, 1893
Queen Ranavalona III, the last monarch of Madagascar, is deposed by a French military force, 1897
Egypt regains independence from Britain, but British troops remain, 1922
DuPont scientist Wallace Carothers invents Nylon, 1935
Basketball is televised for the first time, 1940
In Taiwan, civil disorder is put down with the loss of 30,000 civilian lives, 1947
James D. Watson and Francis Crick announce to friends that they have determined the chemical structure of DNA; the formal announcement takes place on April 25 following publication in April Nature (pub. April 2), 1953
The first-ever color television sets using the NTSC standard are offered for sale to the general public, 1954
The United States and People's Republic of China sign the Shanghai Communiqué, 1972
Andalusia approves its statute of autonomy through a referendum, 1980
GRB 970228, a highly luminous flash of gamma rays, strikes the Earth for 80 seconds, providing early evidence that gamma-ray bursts occur well beyond the Milky Way, 1997
First flight of RQ-4 Global Hawk, the first unmanned aerial vehicle certified to file its own flight plans and fly regularly in U.S. civilian airspace, 1998
Over 1 million Taiwanese participating in the 228 Hand-in-Hand Rally form a 500-kilometre (300-mile) long human chain to commemorate the 228 Incident in 1947, 2004
Jupiter flyby of the New Horizons Pluto-observer spacecraft, 2007
Egypt annunces the discovery of a granite head from a statue of King Tut's grandfather, Amenhotep III, 2010

12 comments:

  1. Messy Mimi, Trusting your auto mechanic is a definite. We are fortunate in that department. For years we used one guy at the Toyota dealership and when he retired he left us in good hands with another. I really appreciate finding good people in the service business who I can trust, like the guy we hired a number of times to remove trees from our property. You're smart to not discuss your clients with others. People can gossip without even know they are doing it and the harm it can have on a person. Have a good day, my friend!

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  2. I always say, Dentist and Mechanic...if you find a good one, don't let go!

    Interesting perspective on trust...you are spot on, trust is like money in the bank, you have to earn it and you have to protect it.

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  3. I have never met you in person, but I know you are very trust worthy. I would give you a key to my house. I agree, finding a mechanic you can trust is very important. I wish I could find someone that repairs computers that I could trust, I know nothing about the inner workings so I feel like I get overcharged like at a garage.

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  4. And this is why people trust you with their homes and lives, because they know you can be trusted. It is always a blessing to find someone in any position that you know is honest and fair, and can maintain confidentiality.

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  5. I love honest people. They are jewels and I've known many throughout my lifetime. I also know folks that would steal from their own family and would tell tales that aren't even true if it benefited them. Bless their hearts. I'm sure that you are one of the honest folks. It shows.

    Have a fabulous day. ☺

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  6. So true. Trust does make the world go around. Seems fewer and fewer people trust anyone these days.

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  7. I've never had a house keeper but I can see that trust would be a big deal.

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  8. So many jobs require an element of trust, thankfully usually there's not a problem, but there's always the slight anxiety that something might be going on. Seems like you have a good mutual network of trust in your life.

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  9. It is so awesome you have a mechanic you can trust! The hubby and I were talking about that recently, since taking our vehicles to the dealer always is so expensive (unless something's under a recall or warranty - and even then, they aren't all that trustworthy from our experience). Maybe now that we live in a small town, we'll find a local mechanic that we can trust! ;)

    I also admire your work ethic - if you lived local to me, I'd totally hire you to clean my house. Of course, my OCD would dictate that I would clean the house before anyone came to clean, so I'd basically be paying you to come hang out...heh!! ;)

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  10. It absolutely takes time - but I have been lucky in some situations that people have just given it to me; without what seemed a question. I think perhaps that's a pretty big compliment, but it's not an ego stroke because it just instills in me even stronger that sense of : do not let them down!!!

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  11. Like you say, trust is two way. Once trust is broken, not easy to get people to trust again. Love your sharing on trust. Have a wonderful day!

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  12. I am always tickled to find someone that names their vehicles... we do too! I have yet to find a person I can trust to house/cat sit... I am pretty sure I would trust you!

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