I find this good advice for life.
When my kid doesn’t get ready fast (she’s 12) and then is in a panic about not getting to school on time, it doesn’t mean I have to panic, or care at all. She made the decision to sleep in and to sit on the couch for 20 minutes and to look at her phone.
Her panic doesn’t mean an emergency for me.
This goes for work too. When a client comes to me with some panic because they didn’t want to get me to update their site regularly, and they didn’t do it themselves and now something broke…it doesn’t mean I need to panic. If I can’t get to it for a day or two, I just can’t get to it. They need to wait or find someone else.
It’s far too easy for people to make poor choices and then try to offload some of those consequences on others. Don’t let them. The only way they’ll learn lessons is if they feel the pain. If it’s painful, they’ll make different decisions next time.