Monday, November 07, 2011

More Bees With Honey Than Vinegar

Let me start off by being completely honest in saying that patience is not one of my strongest virtues. On a scale of 1 to 10, patience lands somewhere around minus 1 when it comes to me. And not only am I impatient, but sometimes intolerant - especially when it comes to people doing their jobs correctly. Or rather, how “I” see them being done correctly.

I am fully aware of WHY I am impatient with others. I am impatient with others because I’m impatient with myself and the high standards I place on my own doing.

However, every so often I will learn a lesson in patience.

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Last Monday morning, I remembered a saying that my mother told me as a kid.

“You catch more bees with honey than vinegar.”

And the reason I remembered this was because for the THIRD time in the one year that I’ve worked for this particular vendor, the payroll company they use claims that they did not receive my payroll invoice - therefore, couldn’t pay me.

Which made me want to go insane and scream, “YOU STUPID IDIOTS! YOU LOST MY INVOICE AGAIN!”

Allow me to explain….

In order for me to get paid, I have to fill out and fax an invoice to a payroll company with both my hours worked and productivity totals. Once they get the invoice, they cut a check and then direct deposit into my checking account.

However, something in my psyche told me they hadn’t received my invoice from the previous week, so I decided to listen my intuition and call them to double check.

I was right, they hadn’t gotten my invoice. Well…I don’t think it’s because they hadn’t gotten it because this has happened THREE times. I really think it’s because someone in the office misplaced or lost them. I mean come on, I had fax confirmation reports clearly stating that my invoices went through, so I knew ALL three had gotten there.

Let me just add here, that I also work for another vendor who I also fax my invoices to, yet this has never happened with them in SIX years.

Anyway, after calling them very early Monday morning and being told they never got my fax, I began to feel agitated and extremely annoyed. I was told to call them back after 3 p.m. to see if they had found my invoice. So I waited (impatiently) while cleaning my apartment, because that’s what I do when I’m agitated and annoyed. I clean.

At 3:05, I called them back and was told they did NOT find my invoice and that I’d have to fax it again.

SON. OF. A. BITCH.

Well….I wish you all could have seen my body language at that point. I looked liked the Wicked Witch of the West after she discovered that Dorothy possessed the Ruby Red Slippers, and realized there was no way in hell she could get them off her feet unless she KILLED her.

I almost exploded into a ball of FLAMES.

But suddenly, I heard my mothers voice saying…..

“Remember, you catch more bees with honey than vinegar, Ronnie”

So instead of screaming, I decided to change the ‘tone’ of my voice into Shirley Temple, and be very sweet to the lady who was helping me. I BEGGED her to make sure that if I re-faxed my invoice, she would be positive I got paid on Friday. It was then that she said, “I’ll tell you what….just fax your invoice directly to me and I’ll be SURE it gets to the right place as fast as possible.”

I thanked her profusely and told her that I really appreciated her kind efforts.

So, I RAN to Kinko’s and immediately faxed it to the number she gave me because she was leaving her office at 3:30.

Once I got I back from Kinko’s, I called her office to ask if she had received it. Where upon, she said that she had.

YAHOOOO!

And not only did she tell me that she got it, but also said that she would hand deliver it to the proper person so that my paycheck would be direct deposited by Friday. Positive.

I said, “OMG…thank you! You’re a doll and a life-saver. I could KISS you!”

She giggled and said, “You’re very welcome.”

So you see, my mother was right….you DO catch more bees with honey!

However, I’ll have to remember that the next time I get impatient and intolerant.

Which…um…will probably be within the next 24-hours.