Transparency or TMI

In this issue of Contents Solutions we are extolling the virtues of transparency in business interactions, but there are times when discretion and privacy must supersede being open about certain aspects of the job.

Imagine a small group of structural workers carrying equipment into a home, when a neighbor calls out, “What’s going on fellas’?”

And one of them calls back, “Sewage backup,” continuing on into the home.

It sounds like a casual conversation one might hear on any job… to everyone but the homeowner inside who just heard the exchange. She had been hoping to make up a story as to why a bunch of workmen were in her home during the early hours of the day, but now she is humiliated because the entire neighborhood will soon be talking about her usually immaculate home and how it is now flooded with disgusting effluvium.

There are dozens of incidents on any assignment where the contents specialists let prudence and good judgement become the rule. Many contents companies proudly display before and after images from their jobs, but never when it might embarrass the insured, the insurance carrier or anyone involved in the case.