home alone

[Wimblees@aol.com]

I want to respond to the posts that dealt with servicing pianos when only
children are home.  Several months ago I wrote an article that talked about
trust. One of the items in that article mentioned being trusted to go into a
home when only the teanage daughter is there. Although some customers say
they don't want me there when only their daughter, or son, is there, it is
suprising how many time I am allowed to come to the home late in the
afternoon, before the parents come home, but after the kids are home from
school. Sometimes this is for a first time customer, but the customer has
gotten my name from one of my clients.

What this implies, at least to me, is that I have gotten a good reputation of
being an honest and trustworthy person. I work very hard at that, in that I
do not make any remarks that could be interperted in any way as being
threatening. I make sure I keep my distance from the children, and do not
enter a room in which they are in, except, of course, the room with the
piano.

I read that there were reports of teachers, service people, etc, being
charged of sexual misconduct. That can happen any where. But we all have  to
deal with those kinds of problems. There are car accidents all the time, but
we don't stop driving because of that. Some of you also mentioned that you
would cancell an appointment if you found out you were going to be there
alone with a teenager. And it was mentioend that we leave ourselves open for
possible problems every time we go to someone's home, when the lady is home
alone. If I had to cancell every time a lady was home alone, I would be out
of business. I think if we become too paranoid, it is going to effect our
work. I think that if you make an issue of that problem, (mentioning to the
customer you can be trusted, or that you don't want to be there when she is
home alone), it might actually imply that there is a problem. I take the
attidue that I can be trusted. The rest is up to the customer.

There is another side to this issue, which I want to address to the woman
techs. How do you feel if you have to tune a piano for a man who is home
alone? Do you feel threatened in any way? One of you mentioned you would
cancell an appointment if only a teenager was at home. Would you cancell an
appointment if only a man was at home?  And to turn that around, how would
you react if a man, who was alone, told you you couldn't come it, because he
is afraid you would charge him with sexual harrasment.

If the threat of being charged with harrasment is going to keep us from
servicing pianos, we would all be  out of business. And this harrasment is
not just sexual. Should I worry that I will be charged with making racial
slurs if I go to an African American's home, or making anti semetic remarks
if I go to a Jewish home?  Of course not.

Of course I am not implying that you should not be careful. But if you can be
honest, and conduct yourself honorably, I don't think you should have any
thing to worry about.

Willem Blees  RPT
St. Louis