far off the mark. I really should be helping out more. How’s that for a mental massage?
“Once we decide what we’re going to do, I’ll fax a confirmation to you so you can proceed. Then I’ll take the decision to Mr. Jackson at the first opportunity.”
I pause and wait for a reaction, but Lionel just stays quiet at his end. Too much thinking can make your head ache. I’d better push on.
“All right, let’s get started. Who would you consider for the job and why?”
Still no answer from Lionel, but just as I’m about to prod him again he comes to life.
“There are two good candidates,” he begins tentatively. “One of them has been with us a little longer than the other and is probably the better choice, except for one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s a she-type problem. We’ve never had a female manager before and I’m not sure how A.J. feels about it. My guess is. not too good. So we should probably go with the guy, which I wouldn’t mind doing if it was about six months or a year from now. we just need a longer look. Down the road I think he’s going to be good, but he’s not quite ready for it just yet. He needs a little more experience.”
“Lionel, if your life depended on making the right choice… forget about your job for the moment… who would you choose?”
“I would choose the girl, if it were simply a matter of who could do the job best. But if I choose her, A.J. will probably go into orbit. I’m not kidding about this… I think he’ll really lose it. So to go along with your little game, I might lose both… figuratively speaking… when A.J. gets hold of me.”
The sound of his chuckle projects more irony than mirth. Sitting here I can’t help but think that the more things change, the more they stay the same. I have faced this type of issue so many times over the years. Go with the so-called safe choice or go with the right choice. Fortunately, for me, when I was in business I was the leader of the band, so when it came to this type of thing I could do it right. The problem was making certain others did things for the right reasons as well. It doesn’t eliminate mistakes, but it’s a start. Doing the right thing in business should never mean betting one’s career.
It’s a little difficult for me to put myself in Lionel’s place right now. Even in a small organization like A.J.’s there’s fear of the boss’s style and whim. I wonder if it was like that in my business? It probably was without the slightest awareness on my part and A.J.’s most likely in the same boat. What a world we live in! It seems life is a constant process of putting on the other guy’s shoes to find out what it’s like for him. I guess that’s how we come up with all those clichés: the grass is always greener, you have to walk a mile in his moccasins, and so on. Empathy has to be the most difficult of life’s many lessons and it seems to never end. Well, better get on with the task at hand before Lionel wimps out on me.
“Here’s what I want you to do,” I continue. “Call both candidates into your office the first thing in the morning and talk to them separately, the girl first. Appoint her as acting manager for a period not to exceed six months. If we can’t make the appointment permanent by that time, then we have made a mistake, or there’s some problem we’re not aware of. There willbe no change in pay until the appointment is permanent. When the promotion is final, all back pay will be brought up to date. That way we’re less likely to lose a good employee if the temporary assignment doesn’t work out. Back pay in that case would be paid out as a bonus for her extra effort. We want to keep her salary intact until we know what we’re doing. Otherwise we’ll have a lower level person with a manager’s pay scale and you can never back them down. It’s human nature, they understand philosophically what’s happening, but the money blinds them to the reality of the
“Once we decide what we’re going to do, I’ll fax a confirmation to you so you can proceed. Then I’ll take the decision to Mr. Jackson at the first opportunity.”
I pause and wait for a reaction, but Lionel just stays quiet at his end. Too much thinking can make your head ache. I’d better push on.
“All right, let’s get started. Who would you consider for the job and why?”
Still no answer from Lionel, but just as I’m about to prod him again he comes to life.
“There are two good candidates,” he begins tentatively. “One of them has been with us a little longer than the other and is probably the better choice, except for one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s a she-type problem. We’ve never had a female manager before and I’m not sure how A.J. feels about it. My guess is. not too good. So we should probably go with the guy, which I wouldn’t mind doing if it was about six months or a year from now. we just need a longer look. Down the road I think he’s going to be good, but he’s not quite ready for it just yet. He needs a little more experience.”
“Lionel, if your life depended on making the right choice… forget about your job for the moment… who would you choose?”
“I would choose the girl, if it were simply a matter of who could do the job best. But if I choose her, A.J. will probably go into orbit. I’m not kidding about this… I think he’ll really lose it. So to go along with your little game, I might lose both… figuratively speaking… when A.J. gets hold of me.”
The sound of his chuckle projects more irony than mirth. Sitting here I can’t help but think that the more things change, the more they stay the same. I have faced this type of issue so many times over the years. Go with the so-called safe choice or go with the right choice. Fortunately, for me, when I was in business I was the leader of the band, so when it came to this type of thing I could do it right. The problem was making certain others did things for the right reasons as well. It doesn’t eliminate mistakes, but it’s a start. Doing the right thing in business should never mean betting one’s career.
It’s a little difficult for me to put myself in Lionel’s place right now. Even in a small organization like A.J.’s there’s fear of the boss’s style and whim. I wonder if it was like that in my business? It probably was without the slightest awareness on my part and A.J.’s most likely in the same boat. What a world we live in! It seems life is a constant process of putting on the other guy’s shoes to find out what it’s like for him. I guess that’s how we come up with all those clichés: the grass is always greener, you have to walk a mile in his moccasins, and so on. Empathy has to be the most difficult of life’s many lessons and it seems to never end. Well, better get on with the task at hand before Lionel wimps out on me.
“Here’s what I want you to do,” I continue. “Call both candidates into your office the first thing in the morning and talk to them separately, the girl first. Appoint her as acting manager for a period not to exceed six months. If we can’t make the appointment permanent by that time, then we have made a mistake, or there’s some problem we’re not aware of. There willbe no change in pay until the appointment is permanent. When the promotion is final, all back pay will be brought up to date. That way we’re less likely to lose a good employee if the temporary assignment doesn’t work out. Back pay in that case would be paid out as a bonus for her extra effort. We want to keep her salary intact until we know what we’re doing. Otherwise we’ll have a lower level person with a manager’s pay scale and you can never back them down. It’s human nature, they understand philosophically what’s happening, but the money blinds them to the reality of the
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