Educating Managers

[Ron Nossaman]

This sort of thing comes up fairly regularly, and someone always presents 
it as an opportunity to rise above the challenge. I don't get it. It's 
probably a character deficiency on my part, but I see that as a willing 
victim's attitude. I much prefer challenges I set for myself, unrealistic 
though they may seem, to attempting to be cheerful about unnecessary 
arbitrary, random, and too often mindless roadblocks to what should be a 
routine task. If I attempt something in the shop that "can't", or "mustn't" 
be done, it's my decision and I have some idea what it can cost me when I 
make the decision. I don't make tuning appointments with the understanding 
that I have given permission for them to do anything they please to me as 
part of the deal. If anywhere near the energy spent in counterproductive 
thrashing was directed toward making it happen as seamlessly as possible, 
this wouldn't come up nearly that often.

I showed up for a concert tuning one day, on time, and checked in with the 
stage manager. He hemmed and hawed around for a good five minutes, and 
finally asked if I would mind waiting for them to do the sound check before 
I did the tuning. I told him I made allowances for that sort of thing, and 
he led me to a relatively quiet place to wait. I got out my book 
(experience), and spent the next hour and a half reading. After finally 
getting to the piano, and tuning it as the fork lift was bringing in the 
folding chairs which a dozen people were setting up with great clatter, I 
presented the bill to the manager. He was outraged that I had billed him my 
hourly labor rate for 1.5 hours of reading. "I thought you said you made 
allowances for these scheduling delays", he foamed. "I do", I said, "That's 
it on the bill". I explained that if he had asked me straight out if he 
could waste my time for free, I would told him no. As it was, he got as 
clear an answer as the question he didn't ask. I asked him if he would 
expect to be able to waste a plumber's time without cost. I also pointed 
out that I had arrived at the appointed time, and that my charge was less 
for that 1.5 hours than it would have been for the entire stage crew to 
stand around for an hour while I did the tuning. The tuning price was as I 
had stated, and the delay charge was entirely his call. I met my 
contractual obligation, and anything outside of that, and imposed by his 
decision, was on him. Then I asked him if we could wrap this up before I 
had to prorate another half hour's worth of time to the bill. The facility 
management (visibly trying not to chuckle), backed me up. The guy paid me, 
and I left.

The next time I tuned there, it was quite routine. I got to the piano 
within ten minutes of my arrival, the noise level was no more than 
necessary to the process, and we all got along just fine. Sometimes it's 
easy, sometimes hard, sometimes impossible, but I certainly don't consider 
the "challenge" to be a positive aspect of the venue.

As I said, it's probably just a personal character deficiency.
Ron N