The kids are in the other room talking about the 5 stages.

Where do they learn this stuff?

• Denial
• Bargaining
• Anger
• Sadness
• Acceptance

These can (apparently) apply to more than just grieving…they can apply to customer service – or at least, today the 5 stages were nearly applicable and quite unfortunately part of a customer service exchange. When the bank told me that the funds would not be available today, even though our other bank said they would be…I started with denial then became sad that I had made the wrong choice, it took just moments before we started to bargain – this didn’t work – as banks are known to do, they stood firm on their current policy (and denied my negotiation to get funded by Friday instead of Tuesday). Finally, we realized that we were asking the wrong question. Engaging a few more people and clarifying ourselves was the route to get to acceptance and the right answer.  It could have gone the other way, and then, I might have been angry…but that was thankfully averted. It usually does come down to communication, and that’s a better place to start.

~ Dawn aka Hat Girl