2003-05-16 - 8:59 p.m.

Talking To John

I had a great conversation with one of the guys I work with today.   His name is John and he is one of the nicest guys I have ever met.  He is a little older than I am.  He is married and has two sons.  He was once a mechanic and now is a programmer.  He writes code and sets up systems and, basically, fixes everything that goes wrong with our product.

John works very long hours, has lots and lots of tasks piled upon him all the time and always helps when he is asked.  He is excellent in his job, has a real knack for tracing down problems, and works very, very hard all the time.  Normally I don't have time to talk to him during the day.  He is always busy and, when I am at work, I have only a few minutes a day to fraternize.

But today we both wound up in an office in the back, away from everyone else, away from our desks and all the interruptions.  I asked him this question, "Is there ever a time when you just want to throw up your hands, say 'screw this, I'm out of here' and just walk away and never come back?"  He started laughing and told me that pretty much describes every day.

Now, John is not the sort of man who complains.  He only has positive things to say about everything.  But for the past few months I have watched him as the stress was building.   It looked like he was going to crack.  And by crack I mean snap at someone and say, "I can't do that now. Can't you see I'm busy?!"  It sounds really mild, but for John it would mean he had hit the roof.

He is very even keeled so when this opportunity came up to talk to him about the company where we both work I jumped on it.  He and I see it pretty much the same way.  It could be a really great place to work.  It is staffed by people who take pride in their work and really care that things are done right.  But we are not allowed to do our jobs correctly.

John spoke, without naming names or pointing fingers, about how frustrating it is that he noticed a need for our company over two years ago and everyone shrugged and said it was not important.  Time passes, it becomes more than obvious that we have fallen behind in a very important area and suddenly they are all working frantically on this thing he tried to tell them about way back when.

We agreed that it made no sense.  But it is normal for our company.  We could have been ahead of the curve, but no.  Ok.  Now here we are reacting to another fire than has to be stamped out.

I feel the same way in my job.  If I had the time, if I were not overworked, if we were not drastically understaffed, I could do so much more and solve so many problems.  But now my strength is gone.  I don't want to fight anymore.  I don't want to "show them the numbers" and I don't want to justify anything. There is no way to win that argument.  I don't want to butt heads.

You know what I want?  I want the people who run my company, the ones who have all sorts of free time on their hands, to see what is needed and make it happen.  I don't want them to spend all of their time making sure we have a water filter and making sure the birthday list is up to date.  I don't want anymore pamphlets to read about customer service excellence.  I want someone to intuitively know what is wrong and fix it.  Someone who can see that the real purpose for a business is to increase the quality of life for everyone, employees and customers alike.

Many successful businesses do this all the time. I have read about them.  I have seen them featured on news reports.  And it is always the same.  Some business maverick decided to invest in the people who work for the company and it paid off in spades.  Usually it is a company that does not report to stockholders.  And the owner of the company sits there and scratches his head, says it is very easy to do and does not understand why all business are not run that way.

Still, American businesses work pretty much the same way. The people at the top cash in, the work force is expendable, and when things get tough they start laying people off. It is a strategy.  An unimaginative, spiritually bereft strategy. It is a shame.

Anyway, it was great to get a chance to talk to John.  I have always liked him, and respected him.  I knew there was something going on inside him.  He has a very analytical mind and it would be foolish to think he had not analyzed the dynamic of our company.

I say our company.  I hope soon it will be their company.  I interviewed at that place on Wednesday.  I know they will interview a few people for the position.  I was hoping I would hear back from them today, but that is too soon.  It will probably be next week.  Will I get it?  Will I not?  What will happen?

Tune in again to find out!

Jimmy
 

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