Being Ignored

I kind of figured that by this stage of my career I wouldn't be ignored so often. Yet, when I emailed one of my best friends last week to say hello and inquire about something we were working on together, I got nothing in response. This wasn't the first email. When, a week ago I contacted a prospective client to ask if they had any questions about a bid we gave them, I am still waiting for a response. It doesn't seem to matter that the bid consumed well over 40 hours of my time as well as many hours from my fellow business owners who perform various sub trades.

Being ignored is dispiriting, even to someone who has a pretty full and meaningful life. You almost feel like you don’t count. This time of great uncertainty, I am convinced, is causing many to crawl under a rock and hide or to stick their heads in the sand like an ostrich. Perhaps ignoring someone has become easier with the electronic age. I know I get lazy sometimes with my email responses and if it is something I would rather not deal with I tend to put it off or IGNORE it. Maybe the sender will just forget and I can always say I didn't get it or it got caught in my Spam Filter. I find myself constantly emailing people several times to get a straight up answer. In most cases (when it comes to proposal acceptance/rejection) I would much rather have a simple NO as opposed to nothing at all. After all, every NO is one step closer to a YES.

And if you’re one of those people who feel ignored, please take comfort in knowing that unfortunately, in our ever-faster-paced society, the human touch is often lost on us. There are plenty of very worthy people who are also being ignored these days. I suppose the best thing we can do is to not feel sorry for ourselves and try and keep your antennae out for opportunities to bring a little humanity into other people’s lives.