As I wrote previously, I was recently waiting in line at my local HSBC branch with an elderly lady in a walker. At the time, I was furious that she was asked to wait in line, and was standing up for about 20 minutes.
Today, I had the opportunity to discuss with the banker in question the incident. He was polite enough to offer me a seat, which I did not take. I mentioned the incident, taking care to emphasize that I was aware they were short-handed. He informed me that he had offered the lady to sit, and that the grandson could wait in line for her. I don't recall that bit of conversation, even though I was about 8 feet away, but its possible it did happen. The banker mentioned that, had she been alone, things might have been handled differently.
First, I feel I owe him an apology for using such harsh language in the previous post. I have a soft spot in my heart for old ladies in walkers - she even looked a bit like my paternal grandmother. And even though I got the impression that the banker was being a bit defensive when speaking with me, and did not extend an apology for the long wait Friday, I am convinced enough that the matter is settled, and will revise my angry Yelp review (essentially a somewhat edited repost of my previous blog entry).
Still, I would have expected a bit less defensiveness, or a bit more courtesy. But maybe I expect too much.
I'll leave my original blog post as both a cautionary reminder of getting angry without all the information, and also a reminder of how damn good I feel when I get riled up about something.
Just as well - I've got a lot of reading about Iran to do in the next few days.
Special thanks to Taryn Mattice for forcing me to try to empathize with the banker.
1 comment:
Sorry Ryan, I'm just getting back to this story now.
I think you should congratulate yourself -- whether the fellow's explanation was exactly what took place or not, you did some consciousness raising. Next time around, I bet he'll go out of his way to be demonstrably gracious.
Maybe it's having a kid, I'm learning to ignore the defensiveness, the bravado, whatever it is that happens when he's busted. As long as my kid does what I think is the right thing, he can yammer on about it all he likes (and I can walk away rolling my eyes.) It may be an ego-shoring thing "I'm okay, I'm all right, I'm a good person, just misunderstood." Whatever. So congrats.
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