Recess Appointments revisited

Well, so much for checks and balances. Once again our leader "chickens out" on creating unity and working out approvals for his appointees. Instead, he waits for everyone to leave and puts more people on our payroll. Want to know his reason for doing it? The Republicans wouldn't approve the appointee, and getting them on his side was just too hard. Like the "Barbie Doll" and math. Again, if an executive in a major corporation did this repeatedly, as America's chief executive has done, the board would have him removed. His lack of experience in politics and business becomes increasingly evident every day, as evidenced in his ineptitude in bringing both sides together to actually decide something within the usual process. We have hired a rookie idealist to run a super power. When each of you has time, look up the new law that overrides habeas corpus that our chief executive officer signed recently. He is bypassing our directly elected representatives and then fails to protect us from them, when the need arises. Remember, our President is not directly elected by us, the President is chosen by the electoral college. Does this guy realize he won't always be Pres and these rules will apply to him? We are already on the verge of falling into protectionism on a scale not seen since the 30's and the friends we have need us to be the grown ups in the group. While you are blaming the Republicans for not hiring your appointees, please remember that the burden for their success or failure falls squarely and exclusively on your shoulders. These folks are all your fault and no amount of verbal dodging will save you from it. More effort and persuasion up front would have spread out that burden amongst our legislators, when the appointee was approved. Oh well, they are ours now, because we almost forgot that all of us taxpayers (not the voters that don't pay their share) are the ones bank rolling these folks. I guess it is easiest to spend someone else's money, so we need to get much more careful who we elect!!!!!

Happy New Year I pulled out my old journals to work on a project and realized that I never finish using those books before moving on to the next one. The only journal I've filled is packed with notes from business books that I have skimmed. In those partial tomes of emotional rubbish, it is apparent that for many years I have been seeking peace. Looking for ways to get my head straight and begin the new year enthusiastically on board with the goals and expectations of the keepers of my terms of endenture. Those journals cover at least 4 employers, so this is not a reflection on my keepers. I should pity them for having to manage me. We all have a beast inside our heads harboring maverick thoughts and periodically enacting them. One of my sisters calls that the inner B$#*&. Either way, mine is particularly powerful and will drag it's feet behind my personal bicycle requiring a lot of effort to keep up with the day-to-day. It really hates being told what to do and prefers to be allowed to operate without supervision. Good luck being the boss of that thing, because I'm not. If you have stuck with me so far, you are wondering where we are going on this tangent. It is obvious that trying to reset myself every year to play some else's tune has been the error. This year, I'm looking for a way to sing slightly off key and mess up the tempo my own way. I have no resolutions, because being resolved seems very stressful. Maybe I'll go back and use up those partial journals. There will be plenty of ways to improvise, so why bother putting those obstacles/goals in the way. If you are wondering whether or not I bothered to reflect on last year, be assured that I did. That is a colossal mess for another time.

Never Blog Drunk

Ostensibly, one really couldn't blog totally drunk, because you would be passed out somewhere. Part way to drunk, I use words like ostensibly. I'm enjoying an unusual Tuesday off work, due to the weekends that I have to work for the joy of retail. One day off isn't enough and I have become jealous for those in European countries where long days and longer weeks are illegal. My "day off" included doing laundry, dishes, grocery shopping, running errands, catching up Christmas cards and looking for stuff to put in Taz's shadow box. Oh, I forgot to tell you that one of my cats, who we had with us for 15 years, died on Sunday night. Oh yeah, last night while I was getting part way to drunk on the other half of tonight's bottle of wine, I printed about 250 pictures to the local drug store to give myself yet more to do today. The eventual result... pictures are on the table, shadow box still wrapped, can't find Taz's tags, and determined that getting up at 6am on your day off sucks! Why am I blogging under the influence, because I missed you guys. Watching my Siberian puppy play soccer with a tennis ball, doesn't compare with an impromptu poll on the impact of work on holiday cheer. How are you overcoming the demands of your job to find holiday cheer? Please understand, the first vote (mine) is for wine by the bottle. Merry Christmas!

Employee Impersonator

Ghost Writer takes up where Marti left off Pleasing Yourself and Tolerance.

 

Comedienne Joan Rivers is credited with saying, "Being a woman is like being a female impersonator."  I agree.  Every woman who vaguely complies with what's considered normal here in the Western World wakes up everyday, showers, dresses, does her hair and make-up to look like a woman -- not the person she is.  Ok, but that's not what this blog is about, but it's close.

Every day each person who shows up at the front door of a company impersonates an employee.  Some do better impersonations than others -- that person is called 'High Performer'.  Some are less good at the disguise.  People in that category are eventually called 'Low Hanging Fruit' or 'Dead Wood' or 'Under Performers' or any of the other hundred euphemisms for 'Redundant Headcount'.  Then there are others who don't seem to impersonate at all.  People in this group fall into three categories.  The person who seems not to be impersonating and delivers results is called 'Natural Talent'.  If the person delivers results but the company wishes impersonation was part of the repertoire is labeled 'Talented with Issues'.  If the person doesn't deliver and leaves the company wishing for impersonation, well, that goes back to the fruit and wood scenario.

Having been labeled 'Talented with Issues', I've seen what companies do to improve impersonation skills.  'Leadership Training' and 'Personal Coaching' are the best of what I call 'Freak Tweaking'.  I'm a freak.  I'm not like everyone else, but I need to learn to impersonate better, so off for a tweak (or two or ten) I went.  At the end of a long career, ultimately, I was just too big of freak for them.  So really?  Is there a point in sending 'Talented with Issues' out for rehab?  I guess that's a blog for another day.

What drives me crazy is that I work my buns off everyday to do the right thing -- for the business, the customers, and the people who serve them.  So sometimes, I'm 'High Performer', but when I'm in a hurry and just want to cut to the chase and get something done, I become "Talented with Issues".  And then I torture myself, because I know I can be better than that.  I was just trying to call it done, or some cases, call it like it is instead of tapdancing around it.

Sadly, what the business remembers out of 365 days of performance is the one time (or half a dozen times) my impersonator mask fell out of place.  And this becomes my development opportunity, or as a colleague trying to put together peer development for me said, "You're my project for the next year.  I want everyone to see you as I see you."  Is this my next round of tweaking?  And doesn't the tweaker have flaws of his own? 

So as I close this post with a quote from Debbie Wunsch.  "One of the greatest challenges in life is being yourself in a world that's trying to make you like everyone else."  So do I accept the challenge?  Or just reinvest in my good employee impersonation kit?

 

Real Tolerance - irreverent and unapologetic cont'd

Welcome to the holiday season. Pick your holiday, in a given year it could include ramadan, hanukah, christmas,and other holiday activities accompanied by various forms of self-imposed deprivation or alcohol and gluttony. My holiday is Christmas. I was raised in the basic christian tradition, no denominations, no priests, just people meeting to study and share faith. We were raised to understand other belief systems, so we can be clear why we believe what we do. However, when I say "Merry Christmas" to someone that is not a christian, I get corrected or called insensitive. I don't berate them for saying Happy Hanukah or giving me a traditional greeting of any other faith. When did religious tolerance become enforced neutrality? Accepting differences means letting them exist instead of covering them up and making everything look the same. I guess we must have quit reading literature in school, so the lessons of 1984 are becoming predictive of expected behavior in a "polite society". Orwell put his spin on what he saw as the bland, whitewashing of human ability and individuality by prevailing societal norms. The erosion of our unique beings into lock step automatons signals the final stagnation of innovation and growth in the human condition. Seems dramatic for a rant on being able to say Merry Christmas, right. Well, while you are going through all of the phrases, jokes, expressions and writings that polite society have kindly eradicated on the behalf of those that are different, here's my take. Do not compromise on what you believe, but respect what others believe. The first time we underestimate the importance of a greeting or celebration to someone's belief system, we will regret the result. Whether we degrade our differences or become complacent to the machinations of others, we will regret the efforts to make everyone the same. Welcome to my Christmas Season, please blog back your thoughts on your season, whatever it may be.

Pleasing Yourself

Forgive me Dad for not remembering this clearly. I believe Jim Croce sang, "I've learned my lesson well. You can't please everyone, you've got to, got to please yourself." In my life, I clearly remember being compared to others all of the time. Sadly, this form of motivation actually worked in the contrived reality of our lives. It lead to a lot of negative motivators like guilt and inadequacy that translate to anger/fight responses. We love fighters. Those hard workers that battle adversity and find a way to make it work. The fighters always win in the movies, but we aren't Rocky. We want to be the best us as defined by the current group we consent to be measured against. The book The Four Agreements has resonated with me for years. It speaks about our integrity and how things that make us feel bad are contrary to our integrity. I believe that we can adapt to any environment, when we are true to that integrity. The tough part is overcoming 40 years of training in the ugly business of being something we aren't and living with the backlash or our emotional responses. These foreign reactions prescribed by others lead to violations of our internal integrity, which result on counterproductive emotional responses. If anyone thinks this is a tricky way to talk about people I don't like or whine about my work problems, read the past posts. I don't write about individuals at work in my blog; I write about politicians and public figures sometimes. Now, back to the topic, internal integrity. What one says or does is about that person as an individual. Our thoughts and feelings are about us. I blog because my thoughts or feelings may resonate with others. If my advice helps by emboldening or calming another, then this blog has been therapeutic for more than just me. It is tremendously difficult to absorbe the concept that other people's behavior is about them and not you. When a customer tells you aren't worth anything because you are the wrong skin color and your job is to walk away, it takes a lot not to be hurt. Other's perspectives, experience, moods, ego and other personal motivators govern their action and reflect in their responses and assessments of you. If you choose to fully buy into their perspective, please remember caveat emptor, "let the buyer beware"!

Generation Z

My husband and I were talking about a TV show. I made a comment on Generation Y. The Mom on the show was getting ready for a date and her daughter wanted his name to look him up. This is typical Y connectivity. He said, "It is better than Generation Z, they sleep through life and blame us for why it's so lame." In typical HR fashion, I told him that they are called Millenials. Funny thing is that I didn't argue with the description. What are your thoughts on the zzzzzzzz's?
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