What Happens at the Credit Union, Stays at the Credit Union

It’s been awhile since I last posted on this blog of mine and I can’t say it’s because I have nothing to discuss. For several months now, I’ve been expressing my thoughts and comments through my regularly featured column on CUinsight. The Credit Union Times, too, has been running my op-eds, yet even with both of those superb media channels, I am still finding a need to express my insights and ideas on a more routine basis, particularly when I come across thought-provoking material through my work and travels, including all that I see occurring throughout the credit union system. Laskos On Credit Unions gives me that opportunity and I hope to take more advantage of it in the months to come.

I was at the San Diego Airport last week waiting to board a flight to Albuquerque where I would produce Operation Best Wishes at Kirtland Federal Credit Union for military families associated with the adjacent Air Force base. What caught my eye in the terminal was something I’m sure you have seen somewhere during the course of your travels as well.

This man was marching back and forth talking, or should I say, yelling into his cell phone at such a level that it dominated all conversations in his immediate area. Of course, by the expression on his face and the tone of his voice, he must have been someone very important in the sales chain-of-command where he worked, or at least that’s what he wanted everyone around him to think. If only I had a mirror to show him just how ridiculous he looked! Naturally, I figured his ego had to be more evolved than his brain because had I been a competitor, I would have learned all the major sales strategies, secrets and tactics used by his colleagues and company.

What’s sad is that this experience was not an anomaly. Later that week while at the Oklahoma City airport, I encountered a similar situation. This time a guy, sitting behind me in the terminal, was talking to his boss on the cell phone about one of his direct reports who had been causing him a lot of grief. What he was saying in the public forum was just too much information for anyone outside of his company to hear! Really, what should have been a confidential conversation from a more private corner of the terminal was conducted from a soap box.