Post #10: Reputation

The reputation I have among friends and family is that I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist. When I do something, I want it done right and in full. I don’t want to have to return to something I’ve already done. I’d rather do something all at once than in parts; that way, I know everything is relatively consistent, I don’t have to get back into work mode (the more I work on something, the more focused and efficient I become), and I don’t have to worry or be stressed about whatever I’m doing anymore.

My reputation was formed by a personal characteristic. I wouldn’t say that characteristic controls my life or anything like that. It’s more of a personal preference. Nevertheless, this preference can seem a little irrational to some people, so it has developed into a kind of reputation. It also means I have trouble shirking even if I could get away with it because I don’t like doing any less than my best unless time constraints have made such high standards unobtainable. One such example is this: I was given a job to do by my girlfriends’ parents to stain their deck in preparation for her college graduation celebration last summer. They were surprised by how much time and effort I used, and they told me I went far beyond the quality they would have expected. To be honest, I never intended on spending so much time either, but I reasoned the whole time that if I do a good job now, that deck will look nice for a long time to come. Since it started out looking so well, I wanted to make the whole thing look as well. There were times when I even annoyed myself with how much more time I was spending than necessary.

Not only did this gain me a reputation with my girlfriend, her parents, pretty much her entire extended family, and additional family friends that attended the celebration, but while I was working, there was also a desire to have such a reputation. I was proud of my work. I wanted to be seen as a hard worker. As a result, I was complimented for my work countless times. That wasn’t my intention before I started, but it sure was by the time I finished. Like I said, by the end, I annoyed even myself. I was being paid a flat payment, and the work became tedious really quickly. Nevertheless, at least for me, it ended up being worth it. Furthermore, several people let me know that they’d happily hire me for similar work if the need arises.

I don’t like to cash in my reputation for most circumstances. It’s not worth it if the reputation is any good. The short-term gains simply don’t outweigh the long-term loses. I often don’t like to make exceptions even when nobody would know. It doesn’t really have any effect on my reputation, but I figure if I let my principles slip in private, they may slip in other ways as well. Of course, I’m far from perfect, and sometimes I feel the ends justify the means. Sometimes a small sacrifice in reputation has to be made. I can’t give everything my all. I’d go crazy if I tried.

Bottom line, good reputations are worth keeping. Sacrificing a good reputation may make short-term gains, but I feel that losing a reputation is worse than having no reputation at all. If anything, that would get you a reputation for giving up or giving in rather than having the self-discipline to do what you believe is right.

Post #9 Principal-Agent

An experience I had with this model was while signing with my current apartment complex. Over the summer, I was running low on time to find a new place to live. My sister strongly suggested I research this one place off campus. She told me she had lived there for a year and thought very highly of it. I gathered all the information I could before I called the company.

I ended up talking to someone that I’ll call John for the purposes of this post. Before I committed to anything, I first had a few more questions that I needed answered. John was very helpful in getting me the information I needed. This is in contrast to some of the other apartment companies I called that either didn’t have the information or didn’t communicate the information well.

Even still, I was on the fence on whether or not I would sign a contract. Nevertheless, I took one of their roommate matching tests to see if I’d be able to get a room anyway. They stressed that they can’t place me in one of the three remaining rooms unless I was a good enough match. They may have just been trying to pressure me, but since I needed an apartment, I had no choice but to believe them.

Since John told me there were so few rooms and that I had a short time frame, I had no choice to go to the apartment office to sign the deal. On a side note, I did my absolute best never to sound too eager or desperate. I also never made it clear I was set on signing a contract. Nor was I sure I would actually sign. I didn’t expect to bargain, but if that happened for some reason, I wanted to have some bargaining power.

Again, I ended up talking with John. He was in charge of the tour. Again, he was very informative and he seemed very trustworthy. I didn’t feel like he was lying to me or trying to trick me. Eventually I signed the contract.

All was well and good until a few weeks later. Not long before classes started, I got an email that said my roommates had been switched. This didn’t really bother me because I hadn’t met or talked to my roommates yet, so I had no preference of roommates.

And then, about a day before moving in, I got an email from my new roommate who mentioned having a dog. My original roommates didn’t have a dog, which is a big reason I signed the contract. If I knew there’d be a pet, I would have gone with my second apartment choice. I called the office, but they didn’t think it was unfair to switch me into an apartment with a pet without even telling me.

Since then, the people running the apartment have failed to come through on many different promises. The most notable being the night shuttle program which was discontinued because the person in charge just didn’t feel like doing it anymore. Just like the dog situation, I would absolutely not have signed a contract if I knew they’d do this ahead of time. Thus far, they have been unconvinced by complaints to reboot the night shuttle program.

So in the end, I don’t think the agent was the problem. I think the apartment company who hired the agent was the problem. I believe that John told me what he believed to be the truth, but I don’t think he had the whole truth. He couldn’t have known I’d be switched or that the night shuttle program would be discontinued. I don’t even know if the apartment company could have expected that. Nevertheless, the apartment company filled another room, the agent they hired still got paid, and I’m out of luck.