Confrontation, some of us are attracted to it like white trash to day time television and others avoid it like an attractive female (that’s probably all they had on the set) NBC producer avoids an invitation into Matt Lauer’s office. Is it a genetic pre-disposition towards conflict or are we conditioned to becoming confrontational? Most people who know me know where I stand when it comes to conflict, as the late great Tom Petty wrote “I won’t back down” an example of my illogical unwillingness to back down is exemplified in an e-mail exchange that took place in my neighborhood when the payment procedure for the plow service for the common roads was changed due to a family or two failing to pay their share: (the names have been redacted to protect the innocent)
Hello All,
I just want to clear some things up for everyone. Woods has been very difficult with my particular account. One season years ago Ken’s mother was having health issues so his wife took over. It was a very bad season for them and things didn’t go well. She dropped us in the middle of the season and we had to get another plow service.
Since then I have had a good discussion with Ken to help him understand why we no longer want his service for our driveway. However, it seems as though he continues to say that one of the houses not using him directly has not paid a bill and it has been difficult to collect payment. That is not the case, both of us have paid and if he needs a copy of the checks we will gladly provide it to him.
As we go forward, you can use whatever service you want. Just know that what Ken is telling you is not correct. We did pay our bill.
Thank you,
This rambling email made absolutely no sense, so, a normal person would have sat back and thought “should I respond to this, or just let it go, it’s fairly evident that the person writing this email is of average to below average intelligence and their life is probably already difficult enough without someone calling them out for their non sensical email trying to excuse and explain the fact they are a complete dead beat. That same rational person would have also thought, maybe I don’t hit reply all and just send a note back to this idiot calling her out on her shit, limiting the embarrassment and exposure. Well, this guy didn’t have any of those thoughts:
K!!#@$,
I was under the impression that there was a fee we paid in order to maintain the common roads, which everyone has to pay because everyone uses the common roads, and then a fee for your own driveway. So, regardless of your opinion of Woods you are obligated to pay the common fee and it has been communicated that there were two families who did not pay the common fee. Let me know if I am missing something here, but it is not possible to have multiple plow services plowing the common road(s). Credit to B!$@ for taking the point on this thing and collecting everyone’s money now that Woods is requiring us to pay all together. If there is a reason you believe you should be exempt from paying for the common road plow service I’m all ears.
The response to my email:
Please keep your Lawyer business separate from the neighborhood. We don’t feel we are exempt and that was the purpose of the email. You should have read it with open eyes before responding with your condescending remarks. We gave B@!$ the check and I do appreciate him handling this. I don’t care who you all chose to plow, but I don’t like our name being dragged through the mud by a company you choose. Both of us have paid Woods in full last year and that is all I wanted to clear up.
So thank you for your wonderful comments to be shared with the entire development. Maybe that is how a lawyer handles things, but a friendly neighbor maybe should have sent this to me alone.
Have a great night, as I am sure you can tell by my email you have caused me to have a great night as well.
Couple things here, first I hate it went people credit me being an asshole to the fact that I am an attorney, that has nothing to do with it, I have been an asshole my whole life an attorney for roughly 14 years. Secondly, the company never indicated to the person collecting the money or to the rest of the neighborhood who the people were that failed to pay. So, why would you feel the need to send an email to save your good name if you weren’t the one who failed to pay for the plow service? I didn’t send an email to the entire neighborhood assuring them that I had paid for our share of the plow service and neither did anyone else in the neighborhood.
Ultimately I sent my phone number via email and indicated to the individual that I would gladly discuss things over the phone. It was a tear filled conversation that I had to endure but I think I was able to establish that my dickish behavior had nothing to do with my juris doctorate degree.
Fortunately, all is not lost with me, just this afternoon I had to cover a sentencing for my partner where a client had issues with his conviction and thought there was a statute that exonerated him. I had thoroughly explained to him that the statute was not applicable to him because he did not meet the criteria required to fall under its treatment. To no one’s surprise the sentencing did not go smoothly. At the conclusion of his sentencing I escorted him into a conference room and once again explained to him why the statute was not applicable to his case. Walking to the elevators he kept yapping at me and I finally asked him what his problem was, the elevator door opened and he stood in the door of the elevator so it wouldn’t close to keep me from getting my own elevator. He proceeded to pull out his phone and record me and indicated that I was upset referring to me with the N word. He was African American and had I used that word in reference to him it would have created a shit storm.
His behavior was entirely unacceptable and some of the worst by a client I have ever dealt with, on top of that it was just he and I in the hallway that contained the bank of elevators. Part of me wanted to throw him against the wall of the elevator and let rage take over, but I quickly realize thats not the way I want to get on WOOD TV’s website again (which I have been on occasionally due to some of the cases I have handled). Ultimately I grabbed another elevator but, for some reason the client felt the need to follow me most of the way back to my office berating me. “You so bald you look like a cone head without the cone, you and yo tight ass suit!” There were additional barbs but I managed to keep my composure and make it back to my office. SERENITY NOW! That’s what I kept telling myself on my way back to my office, it’s like he wasn’t even there.
serenitynowinsanitylatercom 