My point?
How do you handle being wrongly accused? Especially by big names such as clients, peers, companies or corporations?
Several months back I was accused of having a "history of submitting reports with 'multiple errors'" for a specific company. I asked to be shown the reports that had 'multiple errors,' and requested to know what reports they were talking about. And as of yet have not been told which reports those were or for that matter gotten any confirmation as to what my 'multiple errors' are/were. I further asked, if I had been making such mistakes, why had my reports not come back to me with ROV's or revisions, or for corrections, or with questions or for additional commentary about the report like my other clients do. I never received any significant conditions from this client in over 1 year that would warrant this accusation. After several weeks of trying to get further info and to try and resolve this accusation, and having no one following up with any PROOF of what they told me, my last call to my client over this issue, I was instructed to not call them back on this issue anymore, and that I could no longer work for them, and was hung up on. I tried one last phone call to my personal contact at the company, and she basically told me (in not so many words) to shut up and go away and that there was nothing she could do for me and she hung up on me too.
Not only am I upset that I can not get a straight answer from my former client, but "Where is the G.. D... proof?" All I have been told is a generic statement, and no-one at my former clients office will step up and tell me the truth or give me proof. Are they just really PO'd that the value came in less than what they needed? Was there someone in the office that made a deal that fell through or did something wrong and so they are making me the scapegoat or trying to cover up something?Of course the list of self doubt questions and situations have all been played in my head. I'm really at a loss with this client.
I just can't help feeling like I did when I was in grade school and feeling that I have been wrongly accused of something without any proof and nobody believes in me. I'm not searching for sympathy, but my gut was in knots for weeks, and I really started second guessing myself and my work. I asked several of my early mentors, current peers and educators and come to find out, at some time or another, each one of them had similar experiences with clients in the past, that for their own reasons, decided that they (my mentors, peers, educators) could no longer be an approved appraiser for them. Some of them got answers, some did not. Its a hard pill to swallow and tough to stand wrongly accused of something without the proof. Even harder to try and defend yourself when no-one will listen, and even harder when the evidence is not produced.
The one thing I pride myself in is taking responsibility for myself and my work, which was evident by my desire to resolve the issue with my client and to find out what my errors were and to rectify any wrong doing. Did I need to take a class to address an issue and improve my competency? Was I really an incompetent appraiser? I know I'm not incompetent. But false accusations still sting no matter how old you are!
Your thoughts/experiences?
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