What’s been grinding my gears is the garbage collection. They broke the wheel on my recycling bin last month and then left a tag on it saying they can’t pick up the recycling because the bin is broken. Then last week they broke a small chip off the lip on the front of my garbage bin, and again left it full with a tag.

Both cases I am sure it was the garbage collector because I put my bins out late and we get our connection around 7 am, and they were fine when I put them out.

Sometimes it does. Some businesses are slimeballs. It’s human nature writ on different scales.

I once paid my neighbour’s kid $20/week to cut my lawn. I’d pay them sometimes for two or three weeks at a time. One time I paid them for three weeks in advance because I was going to be away and didn’t want to have to worry about being in arrears. Well, instead of cutting the lawn, the kid just stopped and I came home to knee high grass. Cash in hand, you know. I subsequently stopped hiring them and brought lawn cutting back “in house”.

So the important lesson is: structure business agreements such that you only get paid when work is provable and verifiable. The same pattern repeats anywhere people are involved, and on every scale.

I didn’t sue my neighbour’s kid though.