Changing for the Worse

Reference:
"Just Make Sure You're Changing for the Better" by Rev. Tom Wisdom; Newsletter of Faith United Methodist Church of Vernon, Texas. May 31, 2005

Keywords: change, growth

"…I recall a time in late 1998 or early 1999 after leaving the scaffolding company where I had been working to return to college and begin work toward completing my Bachelor’s degree when I encountered a former customer. Jimmy and I exchanged the usual courtesies and then Jimmy asked me if the scaffolding company was closing. The question caught me by surprise, so I inquired why he was asking. Jimmy said, “The person they brought in to replace you is gone. You go in to get scaffold and you always have to await for someone to help you, they are either on the phone, out sick, or gone somewhere.” Jimmy said, “If I didn’t know better I would say they are going out of business.” The next day I stopped by to visit with my former employees and see what was going on. They assured me that they were not going out of business; however things were not the same as they had been while I worked there. They were under new management and the new management in Dallas put priorities in a different order than I had. Some day they would get the weeds cut down, the equipment in the storage yard straightened up and sorted out, and they would clean up the office, but that wasn’t their priority. Over the next few weeks I visited with some other former customers of the scaffolding business and they told me they were tired of not being able to get what they needed when they needed it, as well as not being able to get in and get loaded and back to the jobsite in a timely fashion, so they has taken their business elsewhere. I believe this was one of those times where change wasn’t a good thing."