Jason was a man with a plan. Immediately after graduating from college, he created his own cleaning company.
He started off cleaning houses doing all of the dirty work by himself, but over time, he grew his company to include commercial and retail cleaning, and he employed almost three dozen employees. The business was lucrative, and by the time he was 32, he sold the company for a hefty profit. He knew he wasn’t ready to retire, but it was nice to have a chunk of change that allowed him to be picky about his next career move.
Within 6 months, he heard from one of his old fraternity brothers, Seth. Seth had followed the traditional route after college; he got a job with a small firm and spent his time moving from company to company trying to make it up the corporate ladder. By his early 30s, he was fed up and frustrated with corporate life.
“Bro, I am so done with this crap,” Seth told Jason. “It’s soul sucking. Seriously, every day I go in and do something pointless, not because it should be done, but because some overpaid drone needs to check a box somewhere.”
Jason couldn’t help but smirk. “That’s why I opted out, man. Be your own boss. Then if you have an idiot for a manager, it’s your own damn fault.”
Seth groaned. “Woulda, shoulda, coulda. I wouldn’t even know where to start. How did you even come up with the idea to create your own business?”
“You know me, dude. I’m a nonconformist. I knew that corporate life wasn’t for me, so I started thinking about a business with a built-in demand. One look at our old fraternity house, and it became very clear to me,” Jason laughed.
“What are you going to do next,” Seth asked.
“I dunno. Maybe travel the world and see what strikes my fancy,” Jason replied.
“Why don’t you come visit me in Tampa? I’ll buy you a beer or two and maybe you can lay some wisdom on me.”
“It’ll take more than two beers, and I am not laying anything on you, but sure, sounds like fun,” Jason responded.
A few weeks later, Jason headed down to Tampa, and he and Seth hung out on the beach and brainstormed about business ideas. Over time, Seth became convinced that starting a cleaning company in Tampa made sense —not only were there plenty of homes, stores, and offices that needed to be cleaned, but the area had plenty of hotels that might magnify the business opportunities. Jason wasn’t convinced. First, he had been there and done that with the cleaning industry. Second, he suspected that the area was already saturated with cleaning companies because of its reputation as a vacation destination.
Seth, however, had latched on to the idea and wasn’t about to let it go. Rather than starting as a “one man show,”
as Jason had, Seth wanted to start with a full staff. He had the expertise to develop a website and marketing plan, he had a lot of professional contacts, and he wanted to jump into the market with guns blazing. He also wanted Jason to stick around and serve as a consultant to help him to bring the business up to speed. Jason was a bit dubious about it all, but he wasn’t actually investing any money into the venture, only time and expertise, and he wanted to help out a friend.
It was a rocky start. They had a few contracts for housecleaning, and they got an office in a strip mall in return for cleaning the other tenants’ spaces. They hired four employees on that basis, but since they weren’t actually being paid for cleaning the commercial space, there was not much money coming in.
Jason learned that Seth was more of a talker than a doer. He also learned that Seth’s “professional contacts” were friends who did not have decision-making authority to hire a cleaning company. Every time Jason tried to schedule a meeting with Seth in order to develop a strategy, Seth would tell him not to worry.
“Bro, it’s under control. No worries,” he would assure him.
But Jason was frustrated—he wanted to know exactly to whom Seth was talking and what sorts of results he might expect. Seth, however, wasn’t willing to share that information. “I’m networking,” Seth would say. “The only way to grow this business is networking.”
Over time, Jason was spending more and more time in their small office, while Seth was out drumming up business. “How the hell did I end up sitting in an office all day,” Jason wondered. “I was the one who knew that I wasn’t an office person, and yet, here I am!”
Things began to come to a head when Jason found out from a mutual friend that Seth was actually out partying with his buddies and not selling their new business idea. Jason immediately called Seth’s cell, which went right to voice mail.
“Seth,” Jason yelled. “Gimme a call immediately! We really need to talk about this business of yours.”
Seth never called back, but the next day he came into the office and sought to reassure Jason.
“Look, Jason, I know things aren’t going the way you would like, but I really need you,” Seth explained.
“Without your expertise, there is no way this can happen. I know you don’t need me and my business, but I need you. Please, would you just stick it out for another month? One more month, and you can go back to travelling the world.”
Jason had no reason to stick it out other than his friendship with Seth. But Seth seemed ready to work.
“One month,” Jason replied. “But that is ONLY if we spend the next few hours mapping out a game plan, which includes who you will be speaking with and what you will be talking about. No more partying with friends. That is NOT how you are going to grow this business.”
“Totally,” Seth agreed. “Just . . . uh . . . don’t tell anyone else that it’s only going to be a month, okay? The workers seem to really respect you, and I don’t want them to mutiny before we get everything straight.”
During the remainder of the day, Seth was focused, and he agreed with all of Jason’s suggestions. Jason left at the end of the day satisfied that the business could work, and that he would be out of it in just a few short weeks.
Within a week, however, things went back to the way they had been before. Jason had prepared the payroll, and he needed Seth to sign the checks. But Seth seemed to disappear for days at a time, leaving Jason to try to explain to the employees why they were not being paid.
The final straw was when the same mutual friend who had informed Jason that Seth was out drinking with buddies contacted him again and told Jason that Seth was bragging that he was “living the dream.” According to the mutual friend, Seth gloated that “I’ve got one guy doing all the work, and he isn’t even getting paid, and I’ve got a bunch of illegals doing the cleaning, so they can’t complain if they don’t get paid!”
Jason paid the employees out of his own pocket, went back to his hotel and packed his belongings, and left Florida. The next day, Jason started getting voice mails and texts from Seth. Jason tapped Seth’s number, then tapped “block caller” on his phone.

Questions for Consideration
1. What politeness strategies did Jason use with Seth? What politeness strategies did Seth use with Jason?
Use politeness theory to explain why or why not these were appropriate.
2. Using social exchange theory, consider the friendship between Seth and Jason. Identify the rewards and costs for each person. Using the concepts of comparison level and comparison level of alternatives, why did Jason end the friendship?
3. Identify any internal and external dialectics that appear in the story. What strategies were used to manage these tensions? What strategies might have been better?
4. What private information and privacy rules exist in this story? How was boundary coordination used by the various characters? Did anyone violate boundary ownership? If so, who, and how did they do so?
5. What ethical issues emerge from this case? How might insight from any of the theories help navigate these challenges?
6. Do any of the interpersonal communication theories provide a better explanation than the others? Why do you believe this to be the case? What additional factors might have been included to make a different theory or combination of theories better at explaining the situation?