If I were a man...

So one of the things I didn't mention in yesterday's post was the big technical problem which was the new floor guy. As some of you may recall I was given the opportunity to rent-to-own a new dance floor by a friend in the dance world who had been lobbying hard to get me to sever my decade-plus relationship with my current dance floor rental company. Well, the opportunity to possibly own a floor - saving some $13,000 plus a year - and have the added benefit of renting it out on my own - was too good to pass up. 

Over time however we mutually agreed to just keep it a rental agreement since he was concerned the plywood might break down and he didn't want me purchasing a floor that wasn't going to last. Ok, fine.

The upshot was the installed floor was very sticky. Like, twist your ankle, I think I'll sit this one out kind of sticky. Which begged the question - did he even put one foot on the floor before putting it in? Obviously not. One toe on the thing and you knew it was all wrong. This may not sound like a big deal to non-dancers - but let me tell you: dance floor is everything. People complained incessantly all weekend and quite a few people got hurt. It was the biggest technical problem I've ever had in seventeen years.

Was this guy falling all over himself to apologize to me? Nope. He pulled me aside on the second day after talking to my main door person saying he needed to speak to me. He was all shaking and wound up and I thought for sure he was going to say how sorry he was that he screwed up so royally. Guess what the first words out of his mouth were? "First of all, I don't like that bitch." Yup. He was pissed that my door person had the gall to pass on people's complaints and tell him one of the students had twisted her ankle in class. Then he went on. No sorry, no let me give you a discount. Just that he's not enjoying his weekend, he doesn't like how people are treating him, his friends all say the floor is fine, etc. I felt such intense rage against him that I swear if I were a man I would have hauled off and decked him - but I told myself to just keep quiet and let him dig his own grave. Eventually he did come around to talking about solutions and saying he hoped I'd be willing to work with him again. But man oh man. What a disaster!

I wasn't planning on kicking him to the curb...but as the days have gone by I have to say that despite the fact that I'm sure this floor will be fixed by next year and we'll never have this issue again, I just don't want to be in business with this person. He's a Vietnam Vet with major PTSD issues, is quick to anger, and has always made me feel like I owe him for his doing me this big "favor" of making me this floor. I find myself always feeling like I should be profusely thanking him, and I hate it. And he called my staff member a bitch. 

I called for my sister's opinion. It was short and sweet. "Does he make you uncomfortable?" "Yes." "Get rid of him." Done and done!

Once again I have to ask myself, if I were a man, what would I do? Fire his ass, end of story. I wouldn't give him a break because of his emotional issues or back story; I probably would have smacked him. It's just that stupid people pleasing want everyone to like me always see their side-chick thing that gets in the way when it comes to business. There's no place for that here. He didn't deliver a quality product and reacted badly when confronted about it. The end.

So I left a message with my old floor guy and drafted a letter to this guy, telling him I am severing our business relationship because I was offended by his language and attitude towards me. Hopefully he'll learn something from it. Hopefully he won't have grounds to sue me.

I had a bad feeling about him when he first approached me. Once again not trusting my gut. Ugh. If I were a man...