“0-3 to base, 10-4.”
As a courier driver, it meant that I, the driver, had received the message. And it didn’t matter if I wanted to make that inconvenient pick-up 5 minutes before the end of my shift, I still had the responsibility to do it, convenient or not.
It meant that I had received the message, and accepted the fact that it was now my responsibility to take that action for that customer. You know, the people who pay my wages.
Often, as I said, it would be inconvenient. Reichhold Chemicals was like that. They were in a kind of out-of-the way spot on my route, on Wallace Road, and because of that, I’d plan my run accordingly to try and maximize my efficiency. So when I made my stop at Reichhold at a little after 4 PM, I could quickly get back into shape to respond to things coming from the city core.
But if they called in for an “Oops, we forgot,” pickup after I’d already been there, it would mean scrambling to get back to them before they closed at 5 PM and bending me out of shape location and time-wise for other customers also closing at 5.
More often than not, that message of “0-3 to base, 10-4” would be followed by a stream of rich, creative profanity that would probably last until I got out of my truck at Reichhold, to be replaced by my corporate sunshine and roses demeanour for the secretary in the office, who happened to be cute. Pretty shallow shit, but there it is.
When I responded to the call from any base, I was accepting responsibility. I was accepting accountability. It was now in my hands. If that shipment didn’t get picked up, there would be questions asked of me. Reichhold was one of our biggest customers. They, and others like them, were the reasons we were in business in the first place, driving around town in our beautifully out-fitted shiny new trucks looking so cool. This, of course, was before we installed an after-hours secure mailbox there for just these reasons. That box also allowed us to make early-morning deliveries before the place even opened, so this story does lead to a good place as far as Reichhold Chemicals and Gelco Express were concerned.
We didn’t have READ indicators on our cellphones back then, mostly because we didn’t have cellphones back then. So that means we didn’t have the read-receipt option on those not-yet-invented phones either, where you could toggle that feature off and just simply show DELIVERED, so that we could pretend to have not seen the message, when actually we had, but for reasons specific to us, chose not to indicate that we had accepted responsibility, accountability for the message. As in, “I was just so busy I didn’t see your order to pick-up at Reichhold, really sorry!” when the truth was that to make that pick-up would interfere with my drinking plans for later that evening.
Good thing too. Imagine losing a customer because it was just too personally inconvenient to service their needs? As cool as I thought I was at the time, I believe Gelco was kind of in it for themselves, and poor Reichhold just wanted their mail to get to head office for the next morning, or else they’d be held accountable. And when head office calls them about the missing reports, guess who Reichhold on Wallace Road calls next? And when the local Gelco manager gets that call from Reichhold, guess who he’s waiting for at the beginning of my next shift?
Naw, it just wasn’t worth it. Just go pick up the mail. Backtrack if you must, but just go get it. It’s better that way. And, when you look at it free of personal convenience, it’s simply the right thing to do.
If I ignore that order message, and claim I missed it, that’s dishonest at worst and disingenuous at least. If I don’t respond to the radio call, pretending that I must have been out of the truck every time my base attempted to communicate with me, I’m misrepresenting the truth. And every time I do that, I take a little slice of my own personal integrity and throw it away. And while I’m doing that, I potentially compromise the efforts of others just doing their own jobs as well, unaware as they are of the issues having me decide to ignore their messages.
Back in the day, when we delivered mail or a parcel or a box, or even cremated human remains, we required a signature as proof of delivery. Not like today when you can just leave it sitting on a porch, or stuffed in a mailbox, or between two houses because you weren’t totality sure of the address, and then bugger off. Back then we had a system of accountability.
Today, I guess it’s a different world, and I hate sounding like Grumpy Grampy Steve here, but leaving a box on the porch or elsewhere “reasonably close by” is not the same as handing a person an envelope. And yes, I know they take photos now and text you that it’s been delivered, and that’s all cool and everything — I’ve had a smart phone longer than many folks have even been alive — but that’s still no guarantee of anything, it just means that there’s a picture of your box sitting on a porch somewhere. No guarantee of anything really, and a really drive-by attempt at accountability. Not to mention somebody can still come along and take that box, and maybe text you a picture of an empty porch?
So this is just a note to those of you out there who’ve disabled the READ-RECEIPT feature on your iPhones.
Like, you know we know you’re reading our messages, right?. Like, you know we know you’re ignoring us, right? Like, maybe you have your reasons, but you know what? Being ignored is the same as being ignored. Like, you did consider that, right?
Somewhere along the line you must have formed the impression that people distinguish between the equal affront of having their message read and ignored, versus not being read at all? And it kind of makes one wonder who spends $1500.00 on a phone only to give the impression that they’ve not yet read your message? That it’s been “delivered,” sort of like the photo of the box on the porch, but a guarantee of nothing.
To me, it’s not the cleverest of approaches to incoming mail.
If a message is that inconvenient or that unwelcome, maybe you need to find the whatever it is to cancel that person out of your communications network, and be done with it, and them. Because you’re kind of doing that anyways, just in a more incremental way with the “delivered” response. Not taking accountability. By the way, it’s absolutely okay to “read” a message and just be busy, you know have a life, go places, do things. It’s not that the word “read” implies the expectation of immediate response or anything.
But at least we know you put your eyes on the freaking thing, and that the ball is in your court. Or is that the problem? The ball in your court thing? Just so you know, that ball and that court is the accountability piece in all of this.
If it’s a tactic that’s employed in the hopes that certain people will just go away, then you’re bang-on, they will. And how are the rest of to know if we’re on that list or not, or were you not aware that you could specify who gets that message and who doesn’t? It’s a $1500.00 phone. You should check it out sometime and see what’s in it.
As well, how many times do you check your phone? Honestly. How long between quick peeks? Or does it just sit in your pocket or bag or purse, or in its little Lululemon holder inert for the day? What a waste of a phone. I could get one at Dollarama that can do that, and take pictures too. Just saying.
Imagine the message you might be inadvertently giving your friends, that you’ll get to them when you can, or when you decide to. Or when it’s more convenient. You’ll get to them when you get around to it, if at all.
Back in 1987, if I fail to acknowledge that message from my base to make that Reichhold pick-up, and I do it enough times, that “aw-shucks, I was busy” schtick will lead to us losing a valuable customer and perhaps to me losing my job. I have to be aware of the fact that the person on the other side of that message can read my call sheet if they want to see just how busy I was.
I will be held accountable no matter what.
So playing peek-a-boo with other’s messages is a risky business.
Hide-And-Go-Seek was always a fun game as long as somebody was doing the hiding and the others were doing the seeking. But it becomes less fun when the game turns into Hide-And-And-No-Seek, which is sort of what might happen when people tire of being purposely ignored, no matter how benignly.
Some twentieth-century wisdom from a twenty-first century man.
NEWSMAGRENFREW 