I am big on integrity. I generally consider myself to be exceptionally honest and expect such from others around me. ESK taunts me by calling me a "rule follower." And, I suspect I would have had a lot more fun as a younger monkey if I'd cut loose and broken a few rules. I probably would have gotten caught and ended up back in a cage . . . but who knows?
Anyway, like most offices, we contract a lot of our supportive services out. We have a contract for bookkeeping and a contract for various office machines, services, etc. It is convenient because it frees us of the responsibility of paying for stuff to get fixed, but at the same time also means that we have to spend time waiting around for stuff to get fixed on their schedules. It's a trade off.
A couple of years ago, a company jerked us around over some equipment that broke down. They kept trying to replace it with an inferior or non-functional machine before they, after a couple of months of wrangling, finally honored the contract we have paid for over the years. After more wrangling, we finally got them to give us a credit for part of the time our office was disrupted/inconvenienced by their stupidity. (Notice how I cleverly am not telling you the company's name? )
Today, as I'm processing the accounts payable, I noticed that they gave us a sizable credit for a tiny little problem we encountered last month that was fixed fairly quickly. I personally don't think they actually owe us so much a credit . . . but I'm not going to open that can of worms because, based on my last experience with them, I would probably find that my efforts to be exceptionally honest would result in our account being shut down.
But, that means that I now have to realize that my integrity comes with a limit . . . like convenience. Sigh.
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