I hate waiting. Hate, hate, hate it. I am NOT a patient person and I like my gratification immediate instead of delayed. Picture me stomping on the floor and flailing around my arms to get the real picture of how I feel about waiting. Yeah, I totally realize that you’re staring at your computer with a total lack of surprise on your face.
My point is I feel like even though our world has gotten so much faster with all of our technological advancements, some things just seem to go soooooo sloooooooow. Of course, it could just be that my expectations of how much time things should take have shrunk due to me being plugged in 24/7. Now when something takes what would have previously been a ‘normal’ amount of time, it feels like it takes forever.
Anyways, long story short – I still don’t know anything about whether that person is interested in my house. I spoke to my Real Estate Agent on Monday and was enthused/massively hyper/6 year old with a mouth full of icing ecstatic at the thought that a contract would be coming in this week. Maybe even THAT DAY! Of course, this is all in my head as nobody actually said that a contract would come in that quickly.
I haven’t heard anything. Nothing. Zilch. Nada. In an effort to contain my crazy, I have not called my agent because if something happens she will obviously call me. Of course, it is very possible that they said they weren’t interested after all or even that they’ll be holding off for a week because the person is out of town on business. Without communication though, I’m just left to sit here and imagine what might be going on.
That is my other point: people feel a lot more relaxed when there is communication.
Let’s say you order an expensive item off of ebay and an automated email tells you when it’s shipped out. Days and days and even a week go by without the item arriving at your door. At this point, you’re freaking out thinking that you’ve been scammed and you’re getting ready to leave the seller negative feedback. If the seller would have just sent you an email saying, “I delivered the item to UPS on Friday and it is expected to take 5 – 7 business days to arrive,” then you wouldn’t even worry.
How many of you have applied for a job in the last couple of years? You see the job description and think “Wow, I’m perfect for that position.” So, you work really hard on writing a great cover letter, tweaking your resume to better highlight the experience they’re looking for and email it to their HR department paying special attention to your subject line and spelling. Then you wait. And wait. And wait. You wonder if your email was lost in cyperspace or maybe just got accidently deleted. Your excitement about the position turns into negative thoughts about that stupid company that couldn’t even let you know it received your information. After a while, you totally forget that you applied for the position at all. Most likely you never hear from them. Or, you could be totally surprised (like my husband was) and receive a call a year later asking if you’re still interested.
Obviously in either of the above situations you could follow up and ask when your package will arrive or if they received your resume. But wouldn’t it be nice if people communicated a little better so that you didn’t have to follow up with everyone?
Think about your expectations and give other people the same considerations you’d like.
Oh yeah, and buy my house please.