Integrity
The topic of “Integrity” arose the other day when two companies displayed the very meaning of it in two opposite ways.
Nay
On Friday morning the owner of Company “A” – let’s call it “Off-the-Mark Productions” telephoned us. He signed a Production Services Agreement a week earlier. He consequently hired our video crew to perform work for them in a town half an hour away. We explained that our rates are portal-to-portal. Therefore he understood that this means that the one-hour travel time would be part of his cost.
With the contract signed and crew members ready, Off-the-Mark called to cancel our services. They decided to “go with another company.” They found another video production crew that was willing to travel for free. So, rather than communicate with us and negotiate a new contract, Off-the-Mark instead betrayed his lack of integrity by simply employing the other company.
This was the first time in our 30 years of business that a client had the cheek to line up a crew, then cancel at the last minute. As the Millenials like to say, “Extreme Fail.”
Yay
Later that day, we informed all the crew members that their services would no longer be needed. Who knows what jobs they had turned down in the meantime? Because they reserved Saturday for Off-the-Mark. And then our postal carrier delivered the snail-mail.
A parcel arrived from another client at Company “B.” In it was a zoom control which one of our crew members had left behind on a shoot a couple of days earlier. Also enclosed in the package was a check for our video production services. It was a full 28 days prior to the net-30 term allotted to that customer.
That, dear readers, is Integrity defined. Off-the-Mark Productions has been erased from our data base and asked to never call us again. Whereas Company “B” holds a dear space in our hearts, and on our Christmas list.
