A colleague was lamenting that volunteers kept backing out of a service project she was leading. One had a sudden illness (obviously a good reason to decline), but others were rescinding their offers for reasons that existed when they first said yes. One realized it was the same date as his son’s wedding! Another had a vacation booked already. Both seem like dates they should have remembered.
It was one of my biggest frustrations when I made an offer to candidates and was turned down. I heard things like: “It’s too far away” (even though our campus hadn’t moved since they applied), or “my spouse doesn’t want to move” (a conversation that should have happened before the application).
It can be easy to say yes with good intentions, but it’s better to say yes intentionally and mean it.
