Sorry, No One is That Busy

Every three months or so, my health club sends out an online survey asking that its members rate the facility on several fronts – cleanliness, condition and availability of equipment, quality of staff assistance and the like. It also leaves a comment box at the end for whatever is top of mind in terms of complaints.

In the five years that I’ve belonged there, my comments/objections have never wavered from the initial poll – curtail the use of cell phones on the exercise floor and certainly in the individual conditioning classes.

They once tried placing a sign at the welcoming desk that asked that cellphones not be used on the main floor, but that had about as much effect as a no smoking sign in a longshoreman’s lounge. 

Unless you’re a trauma surgeon on call, work for the Department of Defense, or are a 911 first responder, there’s no reason you need to be talking on a phone while on the treadmill or exercise bike.

None.

I’m sorry, no one is that busy. No one.

I was once training with someone when a chatty member began yammering away on her phone and I told her that she obviously mistook the room for the teacher’s lounge. I received a look like I had just handed her a $150 speeding ticket.

I guess the same logic can be applied to the 9-15 and 10-15 deadlines.

No one, least of all someone who has been either covering or consulting with the accounting profession for 18 years, would trivialize how stressful that month can be for CPAs.

But it also has proved to be a gigantic momentum stopping obstacle for firms negotiating a merger. Practices that were going full bore into meetings during the summer and into Labor Day go into a brief hibernation and suddenly your phone calls and emails go unreturned for days.

Forget about scheduling any type of meeting. To them, that’s analogous to taking a week-long cruise on Royal Caribbean.

So, my response to them is, well how about a lunch meeting? You do take at least an hour for lunch don’t you?

“No, I eat at my desk” is usually the response I receive.

Well instead of your desk, how about meeting at a diner or similar establishment?

That’s often met with stony silence on the other end of the line – and this is actually when I get them on the phone.

Sometimes you just have to throw your hands up and accept the unpleasant fact that you can’t effect change.

I may not be able to change a CPAs mind, but I will never stop trying at the gym.