After months of enduring an overage here or extra charge there by seemingly every service provider who crossed my threshold during our house elevation, I had begun to feel like I was fighting my own little personal war. A war against being ripped off.  So when I met our unsuspecting movers recently, I greeted them with an aggressively defensive stance – like bringing a sword to a pillow fight – ready to thwart any trumped-up extra charges.

“The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can.  Strike him as hard as you can, and keep moving on.”  Ulysses S. Grant

The price for the move had been predetermined with the moving company weeks prior to meeting the actual movers. When they arrived and started talking about additional transportation fees, extra gas charges, blah, blah, blah I was ready. Not today, buddy. You just found the wrong customer to start talking about extra anything. 

GET A MOVE ON: You think we’re already 45 minutes on the clock and decided to add another 15 minutes of intro chit-chat?  AND you walked up all the stairs to my apartment without carrying any moving supplies in your hands? Sounds like you guys are going to have to hustle like mad-men to get this job done within the time-frame I already agreed upon for this job. Giddy-up!

BEHIND ENEMY LINES: And they did. They were fantastic – quick, careful, courteous – the whole deal. I began to rethink my initial stance. These movers were not the enemy. They didn’t OWN the company, they merely worked there. They weren’t going to receive the fees for this job, their company would, they’d get a small fraction. And they were doing all the heavy lifting – literally.

LIGHTBULB MOMENT: Maybe it was seeing the sweat on their brow that cold December day or the Christmas music playing in the background that sparked my epiphany: this crew were mere worker bees in a corporate hive, working as best they could in a grueling job that probably didn’t pay that well. They were just doing their job, trying to make a living. Not setting out to put the screws to us, not these guys.

We made restitution by giving them a generous tip, a heartfelt thanks and an ultra favorable review, by name, to their company. I learned two lessons that day: It’s a jungle out there, but not everyone’s an animal. And, kindness matters so spread a thick layer where you can.