Sure, I’ll Help, Just Reach Out
I am a bit frustrated today because I am seeing a consistent pattern with people who extend themselves and volunteer to help others actively and in the same vein choose to avoid fulfilling their promises. I realize this is a general statement but what I am saying is that people should make promises and commitments that are reasonable. People should set expectations that are honest and achievable.
What I see often is people saying, “call me” or “I’ll help” and then when we call, they are overwhelmed, unavailable, can’t do it right now or whatever other reason they produce. This is not good for the person making the promise and certainly not good for the person expecting to get some help.
If you can’t do something, just say you can’t do it. If you don’t know if you can do something, be honest about it and say, “I don’t know if I can help.” Don’t say “yes, just call me.” On the other hand, maybe in this day and age we must come to realize that we can’t count on people. We can’t even seemingly count on people that we pay to do things.
I don’t have all the answers here for this issue, but I’ll say this, a promise is a promise, and your word still means something. Keep your promise or don’t make it.
The Cohenization Project 