No Attrition

A co-worker of mine (Greg) was looking for a woman that hadn’t been in the study for years. I generated a possible address for her and Greg was off. When he pulled up to the address, he saw an older guy working on the front garden. Greg said “Hello” to the guy as he walked up to the front door. The guy gave a grunt and kept working. Greg knocked a couple times. No answer. As he started to knock a third time the guy stopped working.

“There’s nobody home,” the guy snarled.
“I’m trying to get ahold of Julie Ferguson,” Greg said.
“There’s nobody here by that name,” the guy barked as he went back to the garden.

Greg paused and started to walk back to the car. Then Greg turned to the guy.

“What kind of flowers are those?” Greg asked.

The guy stopped and glared. Then he dropped the tough guy routine.

“These are a rare kind of Magnolia,” the guy responded.
“I do gardening too,” Greg stated. “They look good.”
“Thanks.”

Greg turned to walk towards the car.

“Julie doesn’t live here, but her mom lives in the upstairs apartment,” the guy shouts to him.

Greg left a card and spoke with the mother the next day. She got the message to Julie, who lived an hour away. We performed a phone interview shortly after.

If Greg would have turned and walked away, how much more time would he have spent trying to find Julie? A lot. Especially since we had no idea she lived out of town.

Lesson: Be human. Also, stop and smell the roses.