Common Sense Via the Repo Office

[edited july 19th, 2005]
I tried Blogger's 'next blog' feature the other night and came accross Ms. O, a nice woman who works in a repo office, bakes great looking pastries, lives with her adult son, and was not really convinced by Supersize Me.

Reading her blog is kind of like sitting next to a stranger on a plane ride and re-discovering that there are things that people just have in common. I guess that's what common sense is. Her take on first impressions, from the POV of a repo office, could apply to anyone in corporate America:

"In my line of work, I see all sorts of people. Most people who have their cars repossessed will either find the money to pay enough to get the car back, or they suck it up and go on with life and get a different one. It's just a car.

"Sometimes we have to deal with the Highly Indignant people. How dare we come to their job and steal their car? It was there, we took it, should be end of story. But the Highly Indignant person wants to redeem themselves in the eyes of their family and friends, so they put on A Show.

"The problem with putting on a big show is that the person presents a poor first impression of himself, and we react to the impression. This could cause a 10-minute business exchange to drag out over the course of days, because the Highly Indignant person is more concerned with their performance than with getting the proper information they need in order to resolve the situation."

Well put, Ms. O.