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Greetings from Behind the Electrified Pencil folks...
In just the last few days a firestorm of vicious comments and gut-tossing has prevailed our fine
STARFLEET Listserve, and in many of the posts, the words "doing without" and "makes me
want to leave", and my favorite, "Fine: Maybe I should leave?" have graced all of our screens,
creating an environment of ugliness and rage, while most of us sit idly by, or hit the delete key.
Let's touch on one particular topic that really burns my butt: Speaking of butts, I would like to
issue this disclaimer:
DISCLAIMER:
While I may not agree with many folks words via the listserve and think that probably 99% of the
most recent posts should have been private, I think that taking your toys
home/leaving/threatening to leave/etc is childish. I still love you guys, but stop being
weiners. ;) Thanks.
That said, lets move on...
When I was a mere 18 years old, I can remember working at a record store on the corner of
Wisconsin Avenue and 4th street in downtown Milwaukee, WI. I can also remember a bunch of
other runny-nosed folks about my age that thought they ran the place and that the fat, money
grubbing owners that "didn't know jack about the place" would have the "financial nightmare of
their lives" were those bratty 18 year olds to disappear one day.
One day, Greg Mulligan, the leader of the day shift and one of the most displaced souls on the
Earth felt that he wasn't being paid enough for the job that he was doing, and so, he went to
Manny, my then Boss (the fat, grubby-etc guy above...) and threatened to leave and take
everyone else with him. Did the Money-grubbing, greedy-oriented
governor of that sizeable record store cringe at the comments? Did he toss open his hidden coffer beneath a couple of
deck plates in the floor and toss money Greg's way? The simple answer is no.
The more involved answer is that Manny, my now valiant, and might I say determined boss
waddled into his office, grabbed a small piece of paper that I could SWEAR was blaze red and a
pen, and sat down in the brown rickety chair that was located just behind the main counter.
Manny scribbled with his chubby hand for a few moments on the paper, and when he was done he
turned to Greg and with one flesh-colored-brown-and-serve-sausage-looking digit he motioned to
Greg to come closer...
Greg stepped up and strided like a giraffe in the Sahara toward a bountiful leaf-filled tree. Did he
find Manny there with a new proposal of more money, unlimited breaks, and free records? Nope.
What he DID find was a piece of paper that said " I Gregory Lamont Milligan quit from
Streetman Records", right next to a line that he would fill his name into to verify his newfound
joblessness. Did Greg find new light at the end of the tunnel or did he follow thru with his
proposed threat?
Nope.
Greg found a new light that had Manny as the bulb folks. While it was just a
stocking/clerk/I don't yet have a college education position, he stayed. Manny let him stay: Why?
Manny knew that he didn't have to explain the insights of economics of the world and small
business to him to ensure his employment: Manny knew that if he or any of us there ever left,
there were 50 applications that he collected in June that year, all of which were just chomping at
the bit for a cool "listen to music all day" job.
Hence the learning part of the story...
NO ONE IS IRREPLACEABLE.
We all appreciate the work that people in STARFLEET take to make STARFLEET a better
place to be a member of, and unfortunately, crabbing, complaints and bullshit are part of the job
requisite. one of the things that I mentioned WAY BACK WHEN all of the Fun with the new
administration took over was that people need to learn how to have tougher skin in our
organization. In the days of instant gratification of Email, cartoons and WWWpages, we ALL
forget that sometimes and I have high hopes that this edition of the AREA will help teach us the
lesson of letting things slide, and going back to the grind.
Remember that if someone sends a post on the serve, and it's hostile to take it PRIVATE.
No one cares if you feel ONE-UPPED, but they DO know that they don't like you tossing some of
the same crap, full of those fantastic phrases above, and some other choice adjectives that you
feel fit the persons character traits. Get up from your computer, hit the CANCEL on your Email
response, answer the "are you sure you want to disgard changes?" in the
affirmative and continue doing the good job that you all are capable of. Here is to hoping that Allyson keeps that
whip of hers idle for a long, long time...
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