Do good guys finish last? Are they "losers" for seemingly giving way to those who are so commonly perceived as "assertive" in this day when a "dog eat dog" mentality (with apologies to my Troy and Barbi) seems the norm in order to get ahead of the pack? I was reading an article written by a friend as a reflection for Good Friday, and one of the first things that came to my mind was a recent experience I had while managing a seminar we had organized for our Institute and Center. Some circumstances probably led to what eventually transpired during the morning but we didn't expect a little twist that I just had to confirm what we had witnessed via an email in the following days.
It started when Vendor A arrived at the venue ahead of Vendor B, together with an entourage that included two of his staff bearing suitcases and boxes with equipment he said he wanted set-up for his talk. We were surprised at his arrival and insistence because he was NOT scheduled to give any presentation. We did send him an invitation to present a month earlier but he did not reply to our email and we could not contact him on the phone numbers he provided to us during a previous visit to the Center. It turns out that former colleagues misrepresented the Center by assuming that the tentative programs they got had the final line-up of presenters. Only superficial apologies were extended to us while we tried to address the mix-up prior to the arrival of Vendor B. In the latter's case, the non-confirmation of Vendor A led to us inviting B, which the latter accepted with little fanfare despite the short notice (a couple of weeks after we didn't get a reply from A).
With available time in the morning session, we were able to squeeze-in Vendor A who, despite being provided an explanation of the situation as well as himself eventually confirming that his phone numbers were incorrect, still insisted on making a presentation albeit a shortened one and without his props. He ended up making a very long presentation that was more a sales talk rather than one that was supposed to be in-synch with the research and interactive (academe-government-industry) objectives of the seminar. At several times, he had to be reminded of the time, and which affected the presentations of the succeeding speakers. At one point in the presentation, he even announced his intent to donate equipment to the Center, which surprised everyone but was not taken seriously considering it might have been something made at the spur of the moment given the way he was talking that morning.
Meanwhile, Vendor B who requested to be the last presenter approached me and told me that he was contacted by his staff about an emergency regarding their servers. His being a vendor happened to be a part-time venture. Primary of his concerns was managing a business process outsourcing outfit nearby. He said that he would have to leave to attend to the emergency and expressed his apologies. I immediately saw what was actually transpiring and offered my own apologies, even extending yet another invitation for a future seminar that we have only started to conceptualize around an invitation for a visiting professor come July or August. Vendor B welcomes the opportunity but insisted it was his shortcoming and mentions he would try to return in the afternoon. Somehow, I knew he wouldn't be returning that day.
The next day, I sent him an email to again apologize for the mix-up and reiterating our intent to invite him to a future seminar. He responded by explaining that they indeed had an office emergency and thanked us nonetheless for an unrealized opportunity to present the previous day. To me, Vendor B's explanation was an example of humility in action and one that allowed us to save face despite the former being the offended party. If Vendor B would have been any other person like perhaps Vendor A, we would have been hearing and getting a more hostile response rather than an unexpected and undeserved apology. My colleagues (not the former ones who actually made quick exits even before the lunch break) also share the same opinions I had about what unfolded that day. We just laughed afterwards while also taking up the implications of the other people's actions that day
Vendor B was a class act and one that showed decency still existed, Vendor A's was a crass one and perhaps showed what people will do to get ahead and with the help of others who continue to masquerade as ones with concern about the Center when they are only concerned about themselves. At least to us who are in the know, Vendor B, the good guy, won this one.
[And that is my reflection on the eve of Easter Sunday.]
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