Telling you to ‘Treat others as you would like to be treated’ may seem obvious, but apparently it isn’t.
I’ve heard two stories this week that show people don’t tend to think this way. Even trying to give them the benefit of the doubt, it still seems like they don’t get it.
The Tale of the Stolen, uh, Everything
I’m not going to go into the nitty, gritty details of the situation. The gist is that there is a person that in the VO community that is making claims that are untrue. Using testimonials that aren’t real. Repurposing logos from other VOs. That kind of thing.
Maybe I was raised oddly. I was taught that stealing or ‘borrowing’ without permission is wrong. And in fact, it’s illegal. Besides that, it’s just bad for business.
This particular person has lost a lot of valuable contacts, and possibly agents, due to this behavior. People tend to recommend others they like and trust for jobs that don’t fit their talents. For example, I might recommend a different talent if my voice doesn’t fit the spot.
Guess who won’t be getting recommendations from me, or a lot of others.
Bad reps can follow you for a very, very long time.
How NOT to Treat Others
A friend recently got fired from a job. Okay, that happens.
Allowing the person being let go to be harassed by others in the vicinity, however, is unprofessional behavior on the part of the other people and on the part of the business owner that did the firing.
Letting employees go is a tense situation even in the best of circumstances. Why make it worse and burn bridges?
This seems like another bad business decision to me.
Conclusion
In business, relationships are crucial to success. Why would you opt to treat people badly when there are other options?
No one says you have to like everyone you come into contact with. There’s a lot of choices between stealing and being rude and gushing all over them.
How about simple civility? It’s a start anyway.
