TGIF

I sent my friend the acronym, TGIF, meaning Thank God It’s Friday. Although I have been retired for over 10 years…I have not forgotten the significance of the blessed last day of the work week. I not only have not forgotten it, I vividly recall the lighter mood in the office and the workplace and the abundance of smiles that were plainly visible for all to see and enjoy. Work is necessary and fruitful and engaging…and it is…stressful. During your career you are forced to spend an inordinate amount of your time pursuing excellence and success. There is so much more to life…and you pursue that on Friday night and the weekend.

Through the years I have witnessed more than one administrator who is virtually carried by their staff. They exhibit no working knowledge of the areas that they oversee and are at a total loss when crisis occurs. Of course this is another reason to provide the staff that support the Figurehead…a living wage.

Plain talk is as scarce as hens teeth. Obfuscation and George Orwell’s ‘Newspeak and Doublethink’ from his famous book, 1984… is all too often the rule of administrator and management communication to their loyal subordinates. The failure to recognize the mental acuity of members of your team is demoralizing for hard working and dedicated staff.

Trust is a sacred covenant between supervisor and colleague in the workplace. Trust is painstakingly earned and can be frittered away with one lie or misrepresentation. When you are a manger or leader…everyone is watching you. I remember telling a manager I was not going to tell my staff his third change in story over three days. I went on to assure him that once he had settled on his narrative…I would inform our colleagues of his story.

Colleagues and coworkers are precious. Many of them are shouldering burdens that no one knows. Some are ill. Some are at the breaking point from Covid and reversals in their family and challenges that they wonder if they will be able to bear. Managers and administrators have staff that are better educated than they are and who have unique skills that they do not possess…in other words they are blessed with the riches of loyal and diligent colleagues that want to see them succeed. How sad when the leader does not realize that they are squandering a Horn Of Plenty of human potential riches…for the sake of their hyper inflated ego… The old fable of, The Emperor Has No Clothes is a lesson for today.

I have seen the naked Emperor…on several occasions…and it is a visualization that is difficult to put our of your mind…