Doing Business the Hard Way
 

There are idiots everywhere. The following story is not the slightest bit unusual. So, I talk to a guy (let's call him Marvin) who runs a decent-sized organization to get his correct address and alert him to an incoming letter. The letter will come from a labor representative asking that Marvin consider some time-honored and customary changes to ensure that workers' medical insurance premiums get paid (there is a contractor here who has refused to make those payments, and some workers' families are without health insurance as a consequence).

Now, Marvin hates organized labor. So, Marvin's reaction to my story is to say "Well, we'll do whatever legal tells us we have to do."

Now, I'm going to point out a couple of general principles that I tend to assume, incorrectly, that everyone knows. First, you don't always have to spit in peoples' faces and signal your agenda with every statement you make. By saying he'll do what he's forced into doing, he is trying to shut the door on himself. If he conducts his regular business discussions like this, then he steals from himself the opportunity to say "Gosh Bill, I'd like to help you out but I've talked to legal and they say the course of action you're suggesting is only going to expose your organization and mine to increased risk and liability....yadda yadda." See, Bill isn't going to buy that if Marvin has already said his actions will be limited to what he cannot avoid doing. If this is Marvin's communication style, then Bill and all of Marvin's other customers will know that Marvin is not going to use any judgement at all, and his actions cannot be requested, only forced. But this first general principle is style-only. Important, I'd say, but not substantial. The next principle is at least as obvious, and more substantial, and still commonly ignored.

Why do people create enemies in their professional lives? Yes, there are people who stay away from me and I stay away from them, but there are not very many, and they have to work very hard to get on my ***** list. Almost everyone can get good service from me. Marvin chooses to create a reputation as someone who opposes an entire group of people that are players in his professional life. He does not "make the best of things." Instead he looks for every opportunity to poke them in the eye. The guys with sore eyes are the guys who represent the workers at the ground floor of Marvin's organization. The guys who actually accomplish the work that Marvin's entire organization is focused on doing. Now, does anyone see a potential problem for Marvin? does anyone besides me have a recommendation for Marvin's approach to dealing with these people, who represent the worker who will accomplish the real work of Marvin's organization....regardless of Marvin's political leanings? sure, Marvin's free to grind his personal, political axe. But isn't he ignoring the practical considerations?

Thanks for listening. Just had to vent, kinda. Actually, I love the Marvins of the world. I make pretty good money hosing the fires they set.

I Marvin is a public contractor doing public works, I doubt he even has the money to pay the medical benefits. He hate organized labor because it puts the seed into his employees brain as to the wages they shopuld be earning. Besides, he probably isn't paying the correct wage to begin with since he had to underbid the contract to keep the legitimate contractor who pay the required wage from getting the job.