Finally tonight I went through the steps on amazon to do a return and got a message saying, “Can’t just return this item punk! You gotta talk to someone in a foreign country who is awake this late.” or words to that effect. With great trepidation I called the 800 number and got someone whose name I didn’t understand but his name was NOT “Peggy” and he did NOT tell me I couldn’t turn my airline miles into cash.

It was a guy, with an accent yes, but he was super friendly. Very helpful and never once asked if I’d dropped it, thrown it across the room, left it in a car overnight when it was eleven-degrees outside, shipped it across the country twice in a shoe box or anything else that might cause problems. He simply apologized for the problem and asked where to ship the replacement item. I told him and while we were talking an e-mail showed up with a link to print a shipping label. When the new one arrives I’m to put the broken one in the box, hand it to any UPS driver or store and toddle off to enjoy the replacement item.

No muss. No fuss. Free 2 day shipping to me. They couldn’t have been nicer, more solicitous, helpful, cooperative, or excellent to deal with. Seriously. I can’t imagine anything he could have done to make the experience more pleasant.

To answer your unanswered question: Would I still recommend someone get a Kindle Fire? The answer is absolutely YES if you have wi-fi at your home or work. If you don’t have wi-fi it’d be a harder sell for me. But with the wi-fi I have available to me at home, work, and the coffee shop it’s as good as always on for me.  I love it for movies, facebook, comics, and reading websites. I don’t love it for books because the battery doesn’t last 2 weeks like my Kindle 3. But I like it for books at night when the lights are out and I don’t want to turn on a table lamp.

Thank you Amazon.

I call foul. If a person is truly an entrepreneur they’re starting up a business. They have a stake in it and they are trying to get it off the ground. I would think if they were engaging in a social network they would want to advertise their business, you never know when you’ll find someone interested in helping a fledgeling business take off. These people aren’t talking about a business though. They’re talking about a mindset and that mind set isn’t a job.

There are entrepreneurs I look up to. Myspace Tom is one. He was Myspace for a lot of years. He didn’t say he was an entrepreneur. He said he was Myspace. Today he says he’s retired but he continues to look for an idea he’s passionate about that he’ll do next. He doesn’t call himself an entrepreneur. He recognizes that it’s not a job to be an entrepreneur. It’s a calling. It’s a way of life. It’s the way you’re wired. It’d be like saying you’re a Libra (well… except that Libra isn’t all that real but you get my meaning.)

Imagine you’re an entrepreneur starting up a new business selling widgets and you’ve got three employees in your start-up. You’ve invested all your money in it. Mortgaged your house, cashed in your 401k and your wife’s 401k and you’re making a go at it with all cylinders. Would your business card say “Entrepreneur” or would it say “Widgetopia!” My guess is it would say “Widgetopia!” And that’d be in 20 point type.

What’s it mean to your employees, those three people you stay up all night with working with to get things done by a deadline, what’s it mean to them if your business card says “Entrepreneur?” It means to them as soon as you can get the business off the ground and sold for a profit you’re going to hit the road. You’re not in it for the long haul. You’re in it until you can monetize them and run. It’s one thing to have the entrepreneurial spirit or to think like an entrepreneur. It’s another to claim to be one all the time.

I wonder if they’re really entrepreneurs or if they’re dilettantes? If they don’t have the attention span or commitment to do the running of a business. Or maybe they’ve got an idea that’s good enough to sell during a bubble, but not sustainable and they hope to get out before anybody notices? Or maybe they’re unemployed and don’t want to say that. I don’t know what it is. But I don’t know if “entrepreneur” as it’s used today by those people calling themselves “entrepreneurs” means what they think it means.

I get that it’s today’s go-to buzzword way for a person to indicate they’re creative, think outside the box, and are able to do a wide variety of tasks to get things done. But it’s not at all indicative in it’s spirit of sticking to a project. It doesn’t portray to an employer, a person who is in it for the long haul. If you want to be thought of as creative just use that word, and then show it. BE creative. BE thoughtful. BE civil. BE polite. BE the person you’d want other people to think you are.* Don’t just say it. And, if you DO say it, use the word correctly.

At shift change today my clerk that’s been there six months and the new girl were talking and the six month employee said, “Rich is the best manager I’ve ever had. You know some places have like good cop assistant manager and bad cop manager? Well Rich is totally good cop and he’s the best manager I ever worked for. He really cares about his employees and it’s awesome.” The new girl said, “Whose the bad cop?” The six monther said, “You don’t need a bad cop when everybody looks out for each other. The assistant is more gruff or short or rough around the edges, but he’s not a bad cop. Rich likes to think he is but he’s totally not.” I was counting my drawer down while they “girl-talked.”

I interrupted from my counting, “Don’t believe her, I’m a jerk if you mess up.”

Six-monther said, “You won’t want to mess up. It’s like you let him down and he doesn’t yell at you at all, he just goes all quiet and talks about how he knows you can do better and how did he mess up in the training or the communication of what he wanted and by the end of it I’m all, ‘Just yell at me! I’m sorry!‘ He’s great. I don’t ever want to work for anybody else. I wish I could have trained you one day, but I’m not management though.”

I interrupted again, “If the schedule had worked out I’d have totally let you train her. You’ve got an excellent work ethic, you do your cleaning really well, the customers really like you. I’ve got total confidence in your ability to be an excellent example to anybody I hire.”  That’s true too. I wasn’t just saying that. She’d have done an excellent job.

“See! Isn’t he great? Now how awful will I feel if I mess something up tonight?” Six-monther laughed, “I won’t though. He makes it easy to do good.”

Now, I’m not saying this because it makes me look good or makes me look like a push-over. I’m not… but there are a LOT of ways to manage and expecting good things, encouraging good things, and rewarding good behavior works for me, a LOT better than just punishing bad behavior. Which I DO do when it needs it. But it’s nice when an employee is bragging about how great it is to work at a place. I’m super excited for my crew and for the new employee being excited to join a crew that’s excited to have her and doesn’t see her as a threat to their hours.

If any of you manage anything/anybody I want to recommend a friend of mine, a super nice lady from Hawaii, Rosa Say. As the economy does what it’s doing and seems to steadily ignore what we want it to do Rosa’s post are encouraging. (When I say nice in this context I mean that as a compliment. She’s been encouraging and friendly to people all over the Internet and takes time from what I know is a busy schedule to encourage people whether she’ll ever meet them or not. This is a hugely good character trait in my book.)

http://talkingstory.org/2011/10/3-job-options-of-merit/

I am in favor of encouragement in the face of adversity for a couple of reasons.

1) If looking down the barrel of a bad situation being defeatist or negative won’t help at all. Just the opposite, hope, optimism, and mutual encouragement can make the going smoother even if they don’t address the problem at hand. Attitude is everything.

b) Sometimes weathering bad times isn’t a function of anything we do at all… sometimes big giant things happen to us, hurricanes for example, that we can’t really do anything about and we just have to wait for it to go away and there are times when being open to new ideas, optimistic, and encouraging foster and create an atmosphere where the community going through it all comes out the other side stronger because of the relationships or ideas formed during the hardship. It may be that sitting around a campfire in the devastation of a tornado brings up conversations that “When this is over we should…” and those things, those building blocks actually come to pass.

iii) Encouraging small behavioral changes, things we CAN do helps build things in areas we can change. I can’t personally impact the nation’s economy. What I can do is help my employees with savings and maybe with opportunities to increase their pay with sales incentives and bonus programs. I can’t help everybody, but I can help those I can help and just because it doesn’t stem the tide it does start a ripple that can add to other ripples and maybe that will be enough to change things… or at least moderate things a bit.

IV) Being pleasant to be around is a good thing.

There are a lot of opportunities out there to tear people down for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it’s just fun to be an ass. I’ve met people who sincerely believe that by bullying or threatening they can help a situation. I happen to really enjoy a debate online as long as nobody resorts to name-calling or takes it personally and starts acting bat-poop crazy. Can all situations be dealt with by applying a healthy dose of Pollyanna-juice? Not all, not all the time. But I can’t think of a situation where being a jerk or making threats was more helpful than being supportive or helpful and encouraging. Maybe it’s time to start a random act of kindness campaign if nothing else.

Take a minute, go check out Rosa’s blog and http://talkingstory.org/2011/10/3-job-options-of-merit/ think of what you can do to help the situation of yourself AND someone else.

So, I’m at a store not listening to the background music… that’s what it’s for. It’s in the background… and then I heard it… they lyrics to Bob Dylan’s Hurricane:

And to the black folks he was just a crazy nigger
No one doubted that he pulled the trigger

Do you care to guess what the first word I heard was and what the next words were? Just on a guess?

Now, the song’s about… I’ll let songfacts.com say what it’s about:

This is about Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, a boxer who spent 19 years in jail for a murder Dylan felt he did not commit.

That’s the short version. The longer version is a black man was convicted (his conviction was eventually overturned) of killing some white people and his jury was made up of all white people… in 1966. Bob Dylan didn’t think he did it and wrote this song to draw attention to the injustice of the situation and hopefully do something to get Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, out of prison.

That’s all very cool But that’s not the part of the song anybody who has heard it today hears. What they/we hear is,

“crazy nigger No one doubted that he pulled the trigger.”

So, I’m not asking if it’s legal to play the song or if it’s a good song. I happen to believe protest songs and such are a powerful tool for change. I happen to think this song is NOT a bad song. It’s not all that entertaining or anything, but it’s a protest song it’s not supposed to be fun. I’m not even going to debate if it’s still topical today or applicable, especially when crap like this is happening where power-crazy police attack minorities (disabled lady in this article) just because they like the power. (no implication of racism here for obvious reasons.)

What I’m asking is, just because someone CAN play a song does it mean they should? What does it say about them when they do that? Does it say anything? If I were listening to the lyrics from the start of the song it wouldn’t be shocking. If it were a contemporary song getting enough radio play that I’d recognize it if I came in during the middle of the song it wouldn’t be an issue… but no radio station is playing this song with any regularity in 2011 and almost nobody 40 or under is going to recognize the song at all even if they’re told the name and who younger than thirty would know who Bob Dylan is/was?

Is it good judgement to play that song? Is it OK for the employees to sing along with the music on their corporate radio? Is it OK for them to sing at the top of their lungs the names of this song? If it’s not… should they choose to play that song? Bob Dylan’s use of the words is protected as freedom of speech. It’s being used artistically. But the same word can be used during the course of a crime and change it from a simple assault to a hate crime… when a word carries that much baggage with it is it a good idea to identify one’s self with it or, if someone complains about it, to defend it’s usage?

I’m a big advocate of the freedom of speech… some battles though I ask myself “are they worth fighting?” What is gained by their insisting on playing this not terribly entertaining song in their stores?

That was a note that greeted me recently when I came to work. I was confused. In the whole time I’ve worked with this employee I’d never been mad at them. I couldn’t think of a time I’d been mad at another employee in front of the one who left the note and drew a complete blank. I’m not saying I never get upset or angry with employees. I do. But it’s NOT for doing an assigned task. I also almost never get angry with an employee for breaking a rule (unless it’s one of the fatal four that’ll get you fired at once).

What I get is disappointed. If someone doesn’t meet my expectations I’m disappointed in them. They let me down and the rest of the crew and themselves. That’s often what they mean when they say “Don’t be mad.” Which is strange. How is it that they confuse those two things? I’m not going to go all philosophical or anything, but anger and disappointment aren’t the same at all in me. It’s possible there are people out there who, when they’re disappointed, they lash out… angrily at those around them but I don’t think that’s something I’ve seen in a good manager and I fancy myself at least somewhat in that camp.

If you’re curious what WILL make me mad it’s when an employee tells me they’ll do something and they don’t. If they say they’ll take on a job and they don’t. If they say they will work X hours and then they back out of it… That irritates me because it’s a lie and a violation of trust and it does more that disappoint me it undermines my trust in the individual.

I guess the only other thing is if you call in five minutes before your shift and say something like “I’ve been throwing up since Thursday…” Then why the heck didn’t you call before now?!? I’d have had time to find someone to work. ARGH! That’s pretty rare though.

When I’m training a new employee part of the conversation I have with them is about volunteering for things and offering to do things and how important it is for me if they say they’re going to do something that they do it. If they want to impress me with almost no risk of it back-firing if they wind up unable to do it… do something without telling me ahead of time they’re going to do it. But don’t, oh my… DON’T!!! tell me you’re going to alphabetize the widgets in descending date order and then not do it. That’ll make my hair stand on end. I won’t yell. I won’t rant. I won’t shake my fist at the heavens… OK. I might do that, but not when there’s anybody here. But I will be upset. Telling me you’ll do something and not doing it makes me mad. Failing to meet expectations doesn’t make me mad. It disappoints.

I’ve been asked if I’m mad if I have to fire someone and I’m mostly not. Mostly I’m disappointed they chose to not do the job. One of the things they used to go over at supervisor meetings was that we needed to hire better people and I always looked around the table wondering who out there was intentionally hiring turds. None of us do that. All the background checks in the world won’t tell us if an employee is a good one or not. The calibre of employee isn’t decided by whether or not they’ve passed a background check. Adding the background checks hasn’t decreased turn-over or employee theft. It’s added an expense and delay in the hiring process but that’s it. So when it comes to hiring I tend to hire people I think are capable of doing well. When they don’t and they wind up being let go… I’m more disappointed than angry.  Again… unless they’ve done one of the fatal 4 things… that irritates me because I tell them what those are every day of training and I tell them every day what will happen if they do them so it’s just STUPID of them to do those things… and the part where they obviously think I’m stupid and won’t catch them… that’s the part that makes me mad. I hate being treated like I’m stupid.

So… if you don’t do your cleaning list I won’t be mad. I might take disciplinary action if I think it’s warranted, but I won’t be mad when I do it.

Evidently at some point he had a business where his job was to empty apartments.(I remember where I’m being discrete.) In one job, a big one, he knew the guy doing the check writing. He was being paid by a big corporation, we’ll say it was MTV just to be interesting. Maybe they bought a block of buildings and needed them emptied so they could use them for something. Maybe he was being paid by container of crap he hauled out. Maybe his truck would hold 16 containers at a time full… but maybe they billed, say, MTV for FORTY per truck load and they split the money, this guy talking to me and the guy writing the checks.

He was bragging to me about more than double billing a company (It’s a sizable company) for the work he did. He paused expectantly. I sipped my green tea and looked at him. He made a sort of “enh? enh?” noise, looking for a response.

“Aren’t you glad I actually gave you what you paid for when you gave me the money? I suppose I could have defrauded you of half of what you’d paid for. But we don’t call that good business here in Iowa. We call it stealing.” I took another sip of tea, looking over the rim of my tea-cup and feeling like Wesley Crusher in that episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (Justice) where he said, “I’m with Star Fleet. We don’t lie.”)

“Yah, well, they’d under cut me. They’d paid less than was standard!” He said, defensively.

“You didn’t have to take the job. I’m not going to argue with you. If you want to brag about stealing that’s fine. It takes all types. Just don’t expect me to think it’s good or think I’ll ever do business with you. I’ll probably warn everybody I know to avoid you like the plague. Thank you for showing me your work truck out front when you got here. I’ll remember the name.”

“You can’t go slandering me!”

“I wouldn’t dream of telling them anything you haven’t told me yourself,” I indicated the three video cameras aimed at him and sipped more tea, “on camera where audio and video are being recorded.” I took another sip of tea while he pulled his pants up as if girding himself or gathering up his dignity. I’m not sure what all the belt tugging is supposed to do honestly, but he looked at me like I’d just called him an insulting name.

“It’s business. People do it all the time.”

“I’ve been in this business 16 years and not done it. You appear to not be in either that business or that state any more. One of us is doing things for the long-term and one of us isn’t.” I sipped my tea, “But seriously. I’m not arguing with you. I’m just not recommending you. Was there something I could help you find? I promise to charge you what’s on the price tag and not a penny more, other than tax.”

He left.

Now. I could have kept my mouth shut. I do that sometimes when people are being political I smile and nod and send them on their way. I do it when they’re talking sports… I didn’t want anybody in the store listening to him and me to think I agreed with that type of business and I sure as heck didn’t want him thinking I thought that sort of nonsense was OK. He was gross… and yes. I’m being judgmental.

We were setting up a store once upon a time and our technician needed a piece of paper from the office. I don’t remember what it was. It isn’t important what it was. The important part was he had been waiting for this paper for two days he said. He’d called his contact person and been told they didn’t have it someone else did so he left messages daily and called and waited and two days had gone by. Two days where he’d been unable to do his job. He really really needed that piece of paper. It was a map of some sort showing where things went.  When I got tired of watching him do nothing while I was busting my butt I finally asked, remember I’m a manager. There’s a much bigger shot on site, but I was the one that got tired of watching tech-guy spin his wheels.

Me: What’s up?
Tech: I can’t figure out who to ask for this thing and I have to have it. I’m wasting my time here without it.
Me: What’s it called? Who did you think had it?
Tech: Store layout schematic.  Mongo
Me: Grabbing cell phone and calling.
Tech: I’ve tried that. I keep asking for it, nobody knows who has it.
Me: I’m not asking.
ring ring
Contact Person: Hello.
Me: Hey Mongo. It’s Rich. I’m in Podunk and we need the map for Roy so he can get these things put up. Would you e-mail that to me before lunch so he can get going on this for me?
Contact Person: I don’t know if I have it.
Me: I know, but  you’re there and I’m here and I really need your help, could you track it down and e-mail it to me please? 
Contact Person: I’ll see what I can do.
Me: I knew you were the go-to-guy! I owe you a soda. I’ll let you know as soon as it arrives. 
Contact Person: Anytime.*click*
Tech: He told me he didn’t have it.
ten minutes later my phone alerts me I have an e-mail with attachment from Mongo.
Me: Dialing the phone to Contact Person: Thank you! It’s here and he’s off beavering away! Drinks are on me next time I’m at the office!

There’s no reason he should have done it for me instead of the tech. The tech’s bigger than me in the pecking order of things. I’m just some guy. But I asked like I had a reason for asking. I asked with an assumption it would be done and my asking was just a polite way of telling him what needed to happen. That part sounds jerky but it’s not jerky. The thing with being manager is if you have an employee you can tell them to do things or you can ask them to do things. It’s really the same thing when they’re in your chain of command and you’re higher than them. Polite requests are just politer orders. I learned that in the Navy. It’s still true in the real world. The trick, and it IS a trick… is to do it to someone above you.

We were doing a store setup and the person I was calling knows I’m “just a manager” but he also knows I’m on a special project at the request of the owner and CoO (Chief of Operations) that doesn’t happen by accident. The person I was talking to doesn’t know if I’m talking with the authority of a store manager or with some sort of weird temporary project manager authority by proxy from the CoO or the owner… he’s not sure. I’m an unknown. The tech is a known. He can back burner him all day long. As far as totem poles go the tech carries about as much weight as… well… not much weight. It’s safe to put off the tech in this situation. Me? I’m an unknown and for me to be talking as if I had authority… it is safer to assume I have it and do what I ask than to risk not doing it and finding out the CoO had me do the calling for him because he was busy.

Authority is so much perception by the people involved. Authority is a trick kind of. People will often let you have more than you do on the assumption that if you’re acting like you have it you must actually have it or someone else would have stopped you. Someone higher, for example. Nature abhors a vacuum and so do power structures and authority will expand to fill any gaps in a power structure. I’ve often done jobs that were above my pay grade by virtue of the fact that I saw they weren’t being done and they needed doing. I offer to help. I help. I expand my authority as far as it will go. It’s surprisingly rare that I get push back. Now, I’m not a pushy person by nature. But things need doing, and sometimes in businesses, in corporate structures, there’s inertia, there’s empire building, there are gate-keepers and there can be people working to make sure certain egos are stroked before the genie is released from the lamp… if you let those people have authority over you… if you submit to their pretend worlds you’re playing their game, and once you are submitting to them you can’t change it up later and be the one with authority over them.

I’m not saying that you should engage in power fights are outright wars… but mostly I ignore them when they don’t suit me. If someone decides to be a gate-keeper I go around them. I’ve got no problem ignoring chains of command if someone is trying to play silly buggers with me. I start by doing things the right way. But if I have someone pushing back for what I think is a stupid reason I will go around them. I don’t throw them under the bus. I just go to their boss and ask them the question I needed their subordinate to take care of for me. If they find themselves doing their subordinate’s job for them frequently… that’s something they can fix.

What’s the point of the post? Asking for something with your hat in your hand is only good for hat holding practice in my opinion. If you need something to do your job ask for it as if you’ve already gotten it and thank them for their help as you ask them. Ask for their help. Point out that you NEED their help. People like to feel helpful… but end the conversation with them knowing you’ll get back to them with a thank you as soon as you’ve gotten it… and then call to thank them. Even if it’s screened to voice-mail. They’ll recognize the implied, “And I’ll call back if I haven’t gotten it too” in there. It’s frequently easier to just make you go away by giving you want you want.

Hey all,

Last trip for a while, honest! I’ve been called back to that store I just left. Evidently they can’t find the pencils or something.

Thank you for holding it together for me while I was gone last week and thanks in advance for doing it next week as well. I appreciate the work you all do to keep things going well in my absence.

It makes me proud as a manager to have a crew that steps up and allows me to take a week off TWICE in a month to go do special projects… not just to go, but to not worry about our store. I know y’all will take care of the store, the customers, and each other while I’m gone for another week.

Thank all of you. It really means a lot to me!

Rich

So, they’ll all step up. They’ll all get more hours and more work and I think… when I get back… I think we’ll have a crew meeting as an excuse to all have pizza together so I can tell them what we learned at the new store. We? Yeah.

The COO (Chief of Operations) asked me and my assistant manager to go out and help. He’s there now so he ran my store last week, is working there this week and is running my store again next week lol. It’s good to be wanted but I bet he’s going to want a nap soon. I was thrilled when the COO asked for him by name. It’s a pretty big deal when someone three levels up knows who you are and wants you to come help and then shows up and works with you, side by side… for days. Yah. My assistant was thrilled. My boss was there and said he did really well so I’m beaming like a proud dad. I couldn’t be happier for him, not threatened by a competent assistant manager at all. It’s why I picked him!

“How long have you worked with Mongo?” I asked the person who’d come up from our Connecticut store with Mongo (who was moving there to manage the new store we were opening.)

“He’s worked at the store as assistant manager for I think a year? Maybe a little over a year.”

“Were they a good assistant manager?” One of the people who’d come from our corporate office to help asked. At these store projects we try to bring a couple of people from corporate, get them out from behind their desk, let them help build a store from ground up (well, walls in), and meet and work with us field folks. It’s a morale thing… and important for them as well to know what we do and where we do it. We tend to get tunnel vision with our jobs.

My ears perked up as the person answered with alacrity, “Oh yes. I was thrilled when they promoted Mongo.” The speaker was the manager, we’ll call him Roy, who Mongo had worked for. So the speaker is the manager. Mongo is the assistant manager (Yes, we took the store’s entire management team to another store. There were other stores nearby and they were used to helping each other out.)

My eyebrow went up. “They promoted him? You didn’t get to pick your assistant?”

Roy looked at me like I’d burped out loud in a nice restaurant and then patted my belly and grinned. “No. I might only promote my friends. My supervisor picks who gets promoted.”

“Oh. That makes sense. So you tell him your choices and he picks then. I can see that.” I couldn’t, but I wasn’t about to say so.

“No. He picks.”

“Ah. But Mongo was good then.”

Roy nodded and lit another cigarette, “Way better than my last one. The last one was always after my job and out to prove something. Mongo’s not. He just does what he’s told and isn’t a threat at all.”

“What happened to the eager beaver go-getter so that you got Mongo?” I asked, morbidly fascinated.

“I finally ran him off. He’s running some store at the mall now.” He said with a slight grin.

I stared at the person from the office who quietly stared at a knothole in the table and licked her ice cream trying to catch her eye. I swear I could see her ears growing as she mentally tried to record all this for later. I died on the inside a little.

“Oh.”

“Well how would you like it if your employees were always after your job?” The manager asked, a little defensively.

“Well.” My boss shifted at the table and flicked her cigarette into the sand bucket. “I’m going to go to my room and we’ll meet here at 6:30 for dinner right?”

“I have two employees who want my job right now and I’m trying to find another one who wants it. The manager of one of my stores is sort of coasting and so is their store and I think it can grow more with someone with a little fire in their belly.”

“You want people who want your job?”

The office person was looking at me as I took a bite out of my ice cream cone… vanilla, from McDonalds. “Yes. If I’m not the best employee there they deserve it. If I don’t have someone pushing me from the bottom where’s my reason to get better? If I ever want to get a promotion or a transfer I have to be able to say I’ve got a line of replacements to choose from. If I only hire people worse than me I’m stuck… even worse… if they only hire worse than them it’s a spiral of death. It’ll kill a store. I want people who want my job because I might want my bosses job one day.” She was still there and heard it. Roy’s head snapped over to her for a reaction.

She shrugged. “The day he’s better than me he can have it. I think I’m better than he is so far.” She turned and went inside with a shrug.

Roy shook his head, “I don’t think that’s any way to run a business. It sounds cut throat. People jockeying for positions instead of settling into their jobs and doing them.”

The lady from the office inhaled to say something, closed her mouth. Ate some ice cream and pushed herself away from the table. “I’ll be back down in a few. I’m going to freshen up.” I said I was going to do the same and followed her in.

As we climbed the stairs, “You know that’s not how we do things don’t you?”

She said, “I know it’s not how the midwest is doing things. But wow… just wow.” She could say that because it was the midwest district supervisor who’d been there when I said I wanted her job.

“Yeah.”

“His takeaway from all that was that being good at your job and wanting to grow with the company is destructive?”

“Some people are just comfortable. They’ll never be great managers, but the doors will open on time and whatever you tell them to do will mostly get done.”

“Would you want him working for you?”

I laughed as she slid her keycard into the door. “The one I’m working to replace is just like that. I can’t stand it. I don’t mean everybody has to want my job… but the idea that they’d only hire someone worse than them? Ugh.” I shuddered.

“No kidding. See you in a few.”

So we went to dinner and any time anything like that came up again I talked about basketball. I don’t know anything about basketball but I don’t care about it at all so people’s opinions on it didn’t make me want to scream and run out of the room. I was a young supervisor when that happened. I had 5 stores and had had them for about a year. I’m not sure how that conversation would go today. I might try and make it into a coaching opportunity… but maybe not. I had another week working closely with them. Maybe I’d just keep my mouth shut to keep the peace and make sure their bosses knew.

None of those people are still with the company except the lady from the office and my boss. We’re a stronger company for it.

(My blog software tells me that my use of the word “lady” here is bias language. It was a female human being who was there from the office and since she’s still with us I didn’t feel I should use her name… so, I didn’t. What should I have called her if not lady? She is and was a lady.)