The Prairie Spy

Alan “Lindy” Linda

Here is the next one, the second of three things I’ve learned, that may or may not be worth passing on.

Number 2: Beware of what I call “false deadlines.” 

“Deadline.” A strange term, when you look at it. It originated during the American Civil War, and literally originated in the Confederate Andersonville Prison, where Union soldiers were held captive. There were no tall prison walls, often just shabby line fences or such. Cross those lines, you were shot. Dead. In modern times, any time limit, once passed, has become a point of no return, a deadline.

So now you see what the modern meaning of a deadline is. 

As an HVAC contractor who also repaired appliances, I have a typical example: The customer calls you mere hours before high school graduation, or Easter, or Christmas, or fishing opener, or any of a lot of events super important to the customer who is calling you. “My air conditioning–dishwasher–furnace–whatever has been acting up for a couple of weeks. Can you come right away?” Because, they will go on, we’re having people here tomorrow for Christmas, graduation, whatever.

Or: “My furnace has been acting up.” Or. Or. Or. You name it, I’ve seen it. False deadlines! They contribute to unhappiness all around.

One experience with this sticks in my mind over all others. (And there were many.) The lady of the house called me. “We’re having a graduation party here tomorrow. Can you come check the air conditioning right away?” I might add that it is now Friday morning. I have work lined up, but. She was a good customer, so I went that afternoon. I was in kind of a hurry. Which isn’t a good way to approach a problem.

“We just had a commercial duct cleaner clean all our ducts,” she said. She went on to describe the large truck from which a large suction line ran into the house, down the stairs, and to the ductwork. Before seeing why the AC wouldn’t work, I went downstairs to check stuff out.

Upon examining the furnace, I saw that a basketball-sized hole had been cut in the side of the hot air plenum. (Basically a tin box setting on top of the furnace.) They had shabbily patched this up with tin and duct tape. Thinking I would remove this patch and make up a better one, I did so. Then I saw, when I looked inside, that a large amount of duct dust, debris, and crud had accumulated on top of the A-coil. (Which cools the air stream.) Whoa!

Had I turned that system on, I would have blown all that crud up into the house, which she had just spent a week cleaning. And I would have been to blame. Her false deadline would have turned into my nightmare.

In sum, this is their deadline, not yours. And again to sum up, a saying that says it all: “Lack of preparation on your part does not constitute an emergency (Or a deadline.) on my part.”

Oh. And the lesson?  We in the service industry have been jammed up and badly criticized by people who used their false deadlines on us. Hey! Watch out for yourself and your tendency to set false deadlines, either for others or for yourself.  You’re human too, you know. Don’t do this. You’ll often disappoint yourself. (Even worse, you’ll take it out on someone else, which is generally not productive.)