“Pardon Our Progress”

I don’t know about you, but the phrase “Pardon Our Progress” aggravates me. It seems as though they are asking for the public to endure the problems associated with construction while they attempt to establish a means of generating more income. The management company of my apartment complex has this posted where they are expanding and upgrading some of the apartments.

Pardon your progress, but I am the one who has to hear the sounds of construction and I am the one who cannot find a parking space because your equipment is scattered about the parking lot. Pardon your progress, I am the one who has to wait for 10 or 20 minutes while your deliveries are made and the trucks block a street where I cannot turn around! They have the audacity to ask me to pardon their progress and do not give any incentives to help me cope during these inconveniences.

I like the way we phrase this request at the hospital where I work. We ask our patients and employees to “Pardon Our Growing Pains.” This seems a lot better phrasing because it admits that the construction creates disturbances and that these enhancements are for the benefit of the institution. We acknowledge that the work is a pain, but we also promise that the enhancements will be well worth the trouble. The brilliance of the phrasing, though, removes the focus from progress and focuses on change; thus focusing on enhancement of services and not on increase in revenue.

Pardon your progress? I certainly will not. But pardon your growing pains? I am certainly more inclined to do so.