Talk is Cheap

Has anyone ever promised you something VERBALLY that he or she didn’t fulfill? Of course you have. All of us have at least once been in a situation wherein we expected only to end up being disappointed.

There are many reasons why people don’t accomplish what they swore they would when they were talking. Sometimes they couldn’t (something is preventing them from doing what they said they would), sometimes they wouldn’t (they just don’t want to do it anymore) and sometimes they simply forget or pretend to forget what they said.

And when they are unable to remember (or pretend to, anyway) the conversation, what can you do about it, really?

Unless you bring around a recorder or even a video camera and document everything that people tell you, you have no proof that it was promised to you in the first place. Because there is something ultimately tangible about anything said face to face or over the phone, if something bad happens, it will only be your word against mine.

If what slipped that person’s mind is something simple like my brother telling me that he will pick me up after school but forgetting that he promised me he would, then it is easily resolved.

However, if it’s something more important like when somebody is spreading a malicious rumor about another person, it is an example of one or both:

1. Gross disrespect, in words or deed, for school personnel or student in authority and conduct unbecoming of a mature and responsible individual.

3. Dishonesty such as academic dishonesty, forgery, tampering of official documents, deception or fraud including aiding and abetting dishonesty

While it is certainly a violation of basic courtesy that justifies a complaint, it’s hard to do anything about it if the person that was spreading the rumors against another person just said it and it was only passed around by word of mouth. It’s always easier to be credible when you have cold, hard evidence in your hands that traces the source of the gossip back to the person.

Sadly even if you had a written statement or a signed contract, you can’t do anything about if the person couldn’t, wouldn’t or is simply unwilling to fulfill his or her promise or face the consequences of his or her actions. Except maybe drag him or her kicking and screaming into a tub of boiling honey and kicking him or her into a pool of red fire ants.