I woke up and set off for work like I usual do around 7am however, on this occasion I noticed something was missing from the side of my house – I stopped and realized that my large grey wheelie bin wasn’t next to the blue recycling one.
Not to miss my train, I pondered this throughout the journey and came to the conclusion it must be in my neighbour’s drive as the bin men may have put it there by mistake. That weekend I knocked on my close neighbours’ doors and neither of them had seen or had possession of it.
Before you ask I have my house number and street name in big white paint along the side so fairly easy to know whom this large grey bin belongs to!
This made me come to the conclusion that my bin must have been stolen! So, later that day I slowly drove around my surrounding street looking for a freshly painted bin with my address along the side, this was proving tricky and I came across very suspicious to other pedestrians and drivers – so I ceased my mission!
The next day I called my local authority and explained my bin went missing and it’s highly likely someone has pinched it
The polite lady on the other end of the phone stated it would cost me £85 to replace my bin! I then went on to say that was ridiculous and I pay council tax etc, and at that point, a vision went through my mind of me running to the end of my street in the middle of the night and stealing a bin and then wheeling it back to mine!
The customer service lady from my local authority then said to me “Two wrongs don’t make a right” she preached to me about me thinking of taking another poor neighbour’s bin and this is how it would start a never ending line of frustrated homeowners having their bins stolen. She continued to talk to me and said you sound like an honest person so do the right thing pay the £85 and you could end this trail of bins being taken from people’s front gardens.
She made me see sense and I paid the £85 (although slightly begrudgingly)
So, this leads me to the moral of this episode in my life – just because someone has done wrong to you doesn’t mean you should take out your frustration by doing wrong to others!
We don’t have to follow other people’s ways or even adopt other people’s habits, we should end the trail not fuel it.
In my profession (which is nearly 18 years of dealing with people) the crux of human nature is people to let people down, usually not intentionally but it does happen, some opt to do it more than others but before you take a quick reaction due to an unhappy episode, stop and think as you can end that trail of disappointing people.
We rely heavily on all aspects of business and the people around us being honest and doing right thing, from our office cleaner turning up each morning and keeping our work environment clean and tidy, our internal IT support team ensuring our IT systems are fully functional, to our candidates clarifying they have the skills to carry out the role we are discussing with them and clients being honest with us when they are hiring.
Just because one candidate lets you down doesn’t mean they all will
Just because one client gets you working weekends for an urgent position then disappears doesn’t mean they are all like that
So with all this being said before you make any decision just ask yourself am I being honest? Is this the right thing to do or say?
Two wrongs don’t make a right
