TitleBytes News & Happenings
April 2022 President’s Report
Apr 11, 2022
Eileen LaPlante-Elliot, MLTA President
“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothin’ at all” – Thumper from the movie Bambi.
While that may be overly simplistic, as the world we live and work it in sometimes requires the delivery of bad news, it is still possible to present and discuss undesirable information in a professional and respectful manner.
In my humble observations it seems that since the onset of the pandemic, with people being isolated due to social distancing, many working remotely, and relying on more email communications and less face to face, or even screen to screen interactions, there has been a rise of general rudeness and incivility. Social media debates often seem to add fuel to fire. People perhaps feel they can be rude and unkind because they are hidden behind a screen.
I am sorry to say I have seen this negative behavior increase in our industry too. I suspect it is a combination of being busy as an industry, the stress of the issues facing the world today, as well as those additional “layers” that seem to empower people to be more sarcastic and critical than they would normally be.
We all need to remember that we operate with the same stresses and pressures as our peers and colleagues. Buyers needing to move, sellers needing their proceeds, lenders with expiring rate locks, realtors wanting to get transactions closed, we are all very familiar with these types of demands. There are days when we all have too many balls in the air and every one of them is the most important to somebody. There is incivility everywhere in the world, but we don’t need to be uncivil to one another. Through MLTA and ALTA I have met literally hundreds of the finest people I know, and they all work in the title industry! These are people who I would and have reached out to for advice, assistance, or a second set of eyes. These are kind, helpful, caring people who support others, from their own team members to the communities they are part of as well as worthy national charities. We are an industry of good people, let’s always strive to remember that and behave accordingly every day.
Remember stress does not build character, it reveals it.