I don’t know what kind of ethic is involved, but we’ve lost something these days. Whatever it is it can’t be good for business, big or small.

At the risk of waxing nostalgic about the good old days, something that used to be quite rare now seems commonplace. And that’s the lackadaisical attitude toward professionalism and propriety when doing what’s expected of you – especially something you’re contracted to do.

Much of the country is having one form of bad weather or another right now. This is not new. It happens every year and it’s called “winter.” Some are bad and some not so bad, but no matter the severity there’s not a person alive who doesn’t know how to handle it. Back in those good old days I alluded to we just handled it. Today, the overwhelming attitude seems to be, “Meh. Too much trouble. I’ll do it tomorrow.”

We had between 6 and 7 inches of snow yesterday. A full 24 hours later, the streets are clean, my walk and driveway are clean, but my newspaper wasn’t delivered. Why? I have no idea. As I write this it’s nearly noon and still no paper. Meanwhile, today is trash day and I’ve lugged everything to the curb. I just got a robo-call from our collection company; pickup will be delayed till tomorrow. Again, why?

And it’s not all winter-related. Several months ago I had a long-scheduled Saturday doctor appointment I had planned everything around. The morning of my appointment – only an hour before it, in fact – I got a call saying the office was closing for the day. When I asked if the doctor was OK, I was told he was fine, but that there weren’t enough appointments scheduled to warrant having the office open so they just didn’t want to bother.

One of my regular clients who pays monthly decided to skip January. No idea why; they just didn’t bother to send a check. They’ve done this before and I’ll likely get two checks this month, but where’s the professionalism in that? Flipping things around, someone I paid by check nearly five weeks ago still hasn’t cashed, deposited or otherwise processed that payment yet. Not a huge deal, but like the payment owed me, the missing newspaper, the couldn’t-be-bothered-with-it doctor appointment and numerous other examples I don’t have room to detail here, I’ll have to take my own time and effort to investigate or redo things it was their responsibility to take care of.

So, where’s the woodworking aspect of all this? There isn’t one, really. But everything I’ve just discussed affects businesses, large and small, woodworking and non-woodworking. And as such, it affects our woodworking very much.

A.J.