One of my favorite movie lines of all time is from Cool Hand Luke: “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.” As intoned by the nasty chain gang captain, it really meant, “For some reason you have failed to follow my rules, and now you will be suffering the consequences for not attending more carefully to my message.” I’ve used the quote often, but usually not (I hope) with that same subtext. I’ve said it to my husband, my kids, my siblings and even my students when I felt the frustration of sensing that I was not making myself clearly understood.

That quote was running through my head today as I surveyed the landscaping work in progress in our unfinished back yard. This is the first time I’ve been able to build a garden from scratch, and I’m not willing or able lay sod or to install an irrigation system, retaining walls and a patio. So we hired a young man and his landscape construction firm to do all the work. David lives just down the street and has worked on several of the yards in our neighborhood, so we’ve been able to see the good work he does. After talking over what we wanted to do and walking through the space to establish where things were going to be placed, we signed a contract and waited for the work to begin. I think it was right about there where the failure to communicate (adequately) started.

 Although I’m a neophyte at working with landscape and construction workers, I’ve heard and seen enough to understand that it isn’t always possible to stick to a hard-and-fast schedule. This is a busy time of year for outside work (even in the slow housing market), and there are several tasks to be accomplished, each with several steps in the process and often with different crews working from day to day. Still, I did expect that at the very least I’d be given a head’s up the day before someone would be showing up to work, and then that someone actually WOULD show up and accomplish something. I also thought that when they were done for the day (whether at 10:30 am or 4:30 pm), someone would knock on the door and let me know they were leaving, let me know what had been done and what the next step would be. Right now I’m sure those of you who are more experienced than I with this sort of thing are probably shaking your heads and saying, “Geez, she IS an innocent, isn’t she?”

Luckily, I work from home and am here most of the time, so I’ve been able to step outside and correct where the line of a rock wall will run or how far out I expect a flower bed to curve. I stood outside today, though, looking at my lower-than-I-expected rockery and the underwhelming depth of the topsoil in the beds and wondered if the guys figured they were actually done with those projects or were going to return to finish up . . . at some point. (I fearfully suspect the former.) Will I be home to catch them when they return so I can express my concerns and make sure I get what I want before they move on to something else?

And so, my sense that “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.” I need to communicate to David my concerns and also my expectations for future communication on his part. As is the case almost always, the failure falls on both parties’ shoulders, and the solution will also rest with both. It’s a scenario that each of us faces, whether at home or in business or social situations, over and over again. The key, it seems to me, is recognizing the need to express our wishes and concerns clearly as soon as possible instead of “letting it slide” but continuing to let the issue fester and grow.

I guess I have a phone call to make first thing Monday morning!

–Patty Vanikiotis, proofreader

Global Traveler has joined the world of social marketing. For breaking news, special offers and much more, fan us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @ Gtmag!