I’ve been bad…

I may occasionally do things that I’m not proud of…but at least I know it when I’ve done something wrong. I’ve been brought up to care about honesty and integrity and I will occasionally lie awake at night feeling guilty if I’ve done something that my dad wouldn’t approve of.

Dad was Head of Derbyshire School Journeys and often organised trips around the world for his geography pupils.  He would work out to the nearest penny – what the trip should cost, then he would work out how much to ask the parents for. After the trip was over he would meticulously go through every receipt and come up with an exact cost  – and then refund each parent whatever money was left over – this would range from £1.60 to £5.10 ….but whatever it was – the parents would get an exact breakdown and an exact refund.

Watching my dad work out his finances and his wish to do everything honestly and above board has left me with an innate sense of right and wrong. Hence when somebody over pays, or pays us twice – I’m not the type to just say…’don’t say anything – see what happens’ I’m much more likely to say… ‘refund the money and let their accounts department know they made an error’…

But… I don’t always. Hence my comment that I occasionally do things I’m not proud of.

Recently a client – (who shall remain nameless) – kept us waiting for our invoice to be paid for six months beyond the due payment date. They didn’t give a reason, they refused to take calls, they made no excuse – they just would not pay…then they finally paid us.

Then a month later they paid us again.

My accounts department flagged this up and immediately said that we should refund them at the end of the week…and I said ‘no’.

I said – … ‘you know what…let’s just let them stew for a few weeks…let them call us, write to us, e mail us…let them suffer …like they made us suffer’.

It wasn’t worth it – all that happened was that I got really stressed feeling that my dad was watching me from above shaking his finger at me and sending me bad vibes. I knew I had done a bad thing and I couldn’t sleep till we had paid the money back.

So that’s me…however there are some people that do much, much worse and yet seem to have no idea that they have done anything wrong.

Now correct me if I’m wrong here… but as a business owner – everything my team does is my responsibility.

Anything that happens within JKSL is ultimately down to me…and I accept that – I hold my hands up.

What you won’t find is me blaming everybody else.

 

If I’ve been bad – I will own up.

…and if you pay me twice, I will pay you back…
Mike C