| Hi, Richard. I'm glad I caught you here. |
| Can I just talk to you about something? |
| Our new flatmate - Anders - is not quite what I had hoped |
| I was wondering if you shared my concerns about some of his behaviour. |
| Ah, yes, Tom, I know what you mean, but we can't be entirely negative. |
| He has good points. I mean, at least he's quiet. |
| He doesn't play loud music all night, or bother others, or turn his TV up, disturbing everyone. |
| Sure, he's quiet, but remember our last flatmate? |
| He'd say 'hi' to you, and smile, and treat everyone politely. |
| In comparison, this new guy is very impolite. |
| He just grunts in reply, and sometimes ignores me altogether. |
| I guess that's just his way, y'know, just his character. |
| I don't think he realises he's being impolite, and it shouldn't matter to us too much. |
| We can just ignore him, too, and quietly live our own lives. |
| But his friends are hard to ignore, when they visit. |
| I know what you mean, but how often does that happen? |
| I rarely see them, maybe once or twice a month. |
| If they came more often, it might be a problem, |
| but as it is, such rare visits don't matter so much. |
| Wouldn't you say so? |
| Well, I'm not sure, since it's very obvious when they're here because of all the cigarette smoke in the house. |
| It stinks up the place, and you know we don't allow smoking on the premises. |
| Well, I've never seen them doing this. |
| Maybe they do it outside. |
| Perhaps we can talk to Anders about it. |
| Always remember, though, in one respect, he's a good tenant. |
| And it's the most important aspect. |
| The previous flatmate would always pay the rent late. |
| I know what you're going to say. This guy pays promptly. |
| But there's more to being a good tenant than prompt payment. |
| I mean, you need to turn off the TV, clean up your dishes, dress respectably, be polite, and so on. |
| I guess what I'm saying is that, basically, you need to co-operate with the others, |
| and this new guy fails significantly in this respect. |
| Okay, I suppose you have a point there. |
| I tell you what, Tom, why don't we talk to our new flatmate, Anders, about these issues? |
| If we throw him out, we'll have to go to all the trouble of finding another flatmate, |
| who might not necessarily be much better. |
| So, let's give the current guy a chance. |
| Here. I've got a piece of paper, so let's make a short list of issues to discuss with him. |
| Get it out into the open. |
| Sure. We'll give him one more chance. |
| So, write, 'Communication', and let's tell him to... |
| Well, we can't change a person's personality overnight, |
| so why don't we have a weekly tenants' meeting, and we can just ask him to attend? |
| That way we can get to know him better. |
| I'll write 'attend meeting', and we can take it from there. |
| Okay, but we have to tell him about his friends. |
| They can't just do whatever they want. |
| Write a heading 'friends' and then write 'don't smoke, anywhere, inside or outside'. |
| Well, instead of being so direct, and possibly causing offense, |
| I'll just write, 'follow rules', |
| and verbally mention the rules: |
| TV off by 10 pm, no loud music, or bad behaviour, including smoking. |
| Okay, do that, but I still think we need to specifically mention that last issue. |
| You know how I can't stand the habit, |
| so I'd like this to be another and separate point. Cigarettes! Strictly forbidden! |
| And it's important to include the 'strictly' here. |
| We can't pussyfoot around too much. |
| Sometimes directness is necessary. |
| Okay, I'll write that... 'forbidden'... |
| Okay. And what about cleaning duties? |
| Anders is a little too relaxed about that. |
| Dishes are sometimes not washed, dirty tea cups are left around the place, and so on. |
| So, write 'must do better!' |
| Yeah, again Tom, he might take that personally, and it could cause a scene. |
| I'd rather be general. I'll write 'must be done' |
| and I'll tell him that that's for everyone, not just him. Okay? |
| Okay. As long as he gets the message. |