We Already Know…

I had a telephone call recently, early in the evening, from someone I had spoken with earlier that day. Readily recognizable by Call Display first, and voice of course, the hairs on my neck bristled. Quelled panic, the flat edges of concern, and concise enunciation…Moments later I was out the door and on my way to help the caller in need.

It’s amazing how our involuntary reflexes sure to the fore, examples of which are a person’s amazing strength when another may be pinned under a vehicle or other weight. An adrenalin rush that’s inexplicable. Good Samaritan efforts by passersby when it’s clear immediate help is needed. The fight-or-flight response of reflexes contributes to “being calm in a crisis, then letting go after it’s ended” – a good cry, trembling and sometimes nausea or lightheadedness.

Several years ago while vacationing I was aboard a catamaran when the captain alerted to fellow mariners in distress. A personal watercraft had capsized and all that was visible was the snout bobbing above the surface. Clinging desperately to it were the driver and passenger, one of whom could not swim and was paralysed with fear. Two crewmen from our vessel dove into the water and swam to the rescue – literally prying his hands off the nosecone. Once aboard they were all rewarded with a tot of rum, hard-earned, and the sobbing man shivered despite the blanket thrown around his shoulders on a tropical day!

When we’re abed and in a deep sleep, roused by the ringing of the telephone in the still of the night, our reflexes bound us upright and on instant alert. Unless it is mistakenly a wrongly-dialled number intuition acutely messages to our conscious and now wide-awake self what We Already Know…

  

No Growling or Whimpering…

Every employee, no matter where on the planet, ranks as a minion the hands of those who supervise ineptly.

 My first job, at a large company, included nearly 100 other willing and capable computer input clerks who stoically drudged daily under the eagle eye of a relentless supervisor. We would cringe if she approached and apprehensive of both her bark and bite; hers was a fearsome presence!

Quality control was and is the intention, and rightly so; however, bully boy tactics are still prevalent. In customer service industries, the front desk receptionist is the first introduction to the company. Dress codes may be included in the policies and procedures manuals, sometimes necessarily enforced on the disrespectful or thoughtless. Most front line workers recognize the importance of both deportment and pleasantries and are an asset to their employer.

Regardless of the role people represent, everyone has goals they want to eventually achieve. Persistent good performance and excellent behaviour sometimes earns a salary increase and/or new opportunity to step up the ladder.

Lip service paid to a wannabe is sometimes a foil by more senior staff to patronize their ambition, without intention of ever enabling that person to move forward in their aspirations.

It’s a sad state of affairs when someone’s sunny smile and goodwill to their employer is dashed in the blink of an eye. Collusion to favour someone less worthy sometimes may eventually contribute to the downfall of the bully whose own thought was self-aggrandizement…hence the proverbial “Wait till the real boss finds out”!

I think one of the reasons that the T-V series Undercover Boss is so appealing is that the real people who count can identify and reward the underdog who is true to the company without growling or whimpering.