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Like A Good Neighbor.....
The tree hadn't done well the first year, so I had the tree-selling company (now the tree-advice-giving company) take a look at it. They said that it needed more water, and that I should put a 2-foot-radius circle of mulch around it. So I did what they asked to save both the tree and the warranty.
One Friday evening later that summer as I was loading inner tubes and flippers in the car to head to the pool, my neighbor was watering some shrubs in his front yard. I gave him the neighborly "How's it going?". He answered "Good." Then he continued...."Say, Bob, you know this tree you put the mulch around? Well, the mulch is over on to my property a bit." I walked over to look down what I believed to be the property line and said "I guess maybe it is." (it was about 6 inches over the line). There was a pause in our short conversation and he replied "You know, it doesn't really matter to me, but if someone else were to move in to this house someday, they might say something about it".
With a smile, I told him I was getting ready to leave, but that I would take care of it in the morning.
Early Saturday morning I got out a shovel and the wheelborrow and prepared to remove the mulch. Before I got to the tree, my neighbor came out of his front door. He began to apologize for bringing up the mulch issue and said that the tree and the mulch looked great...just leave everything as it is. I assured him that it wasn't a big deal and would change it, but he insisted and after a short back-and-forth, I agreed to leave it as it was.
Some friends of mine commented that they wouldn't have been able to be that accommodating, that they would have "told him where to go". If I wanted to escalate the issue in to a conflict, I suppose I could have. But after our short Saturday morning conversation, we continued to get along well and it was never mentioned again. We continued to have very neighborly relationship. That probably would have not been the case had I "given him a piece of my mind". It wasn't a big deal, although it may have seemed to be a big deal to him on Friday night. Maybe he had a bad day at work. Maybe he gotten some bad news. I don't think that someone having a bad day should change a relationship.
A good friend of mine uses the motto "Treat everyone like a neighbor that you like". I think we need to keep that in mind in the workplace and on the jobsite. When there is a tense or confrontational situation, think of how you would interact if this was a next door neighbor that you really liked. Emotionally escalating a confrontation usually ends with heels dug in, hard feelings, and no real resolution.
Oh, and my neighbor also pointed out that my underground sprinklers were about a foot over the property line also. Hey, how else am I supposed to make sure the mis-planted tree gets enough water?