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Posted on

no mañana

… You’ll live like there’s no tomorrow … ain’t gonna waste this life …

I came back to work today after one of the hardest days I’ve had. Yesterday, I arrived at work and the company had about 130 employees. When I left, we were down around the 80 mark.

With the economy the way it is the whole world over, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that a layoff might happen at your company. I wasn’t surprised because I knew that it was going to happen, and that, as a manager of a group of about 20 people, I had to participate.

Speaking to the people that remained was extremely difficult. I’m supposed to be their leader. I’m supposed to be strong. I’m supposed to be their support. Yesterday, I tried to be all of those things, but I don’t think I was successful. Someone whispered to me later in the evening, when we were all (some that were laid off and some that weren’t) at a friend’s birthday bash at a nearby pub, “you seem to be taking this harder than anyone else here.”

It’s hard telling people that their friends are being asked to leave. It’s hard asking people to go home so that those being laid off can pack on their own. It’s hard being asked to walk around while they are packing and offer whatever support you can, while keeping an eye on them also. I didn’t know what to say to people, but to offer them whatever help I could.

Our CFO said to remember that “it wasn’t personal”. People just lost their jobs. People’s lives were just thrown into disarray. And not everyone, just some of them. To me, that’s personal.

I haven’t been a manager for very long, but I feel that to help people achieve their best you have to invest a lot of time in them on a personal level. My team is strong. They work together. They go out together. They look after each other. I am responsible to them and for them. They give me their support and I give them everything I can. Yes, it was personal.

I don’t know if the people from my team will want to talk to me. I think that they will probably blame me. I have to let them blame me. I can’t tell them that it wasn’t me that made the decision, as I am their manager — the buck stops with me, and while I didn’t make the decisions, this is not about me making myself feel good. I did know it was coming, but I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone. So in that way, I am responsible.

Tomorrow will never be today as yesterday once was.

Posted on

contagious

… I need your goodness … and I love your smile … I love your optimism … You say everything’s gonna be alright …

You know, it’s times like these that people take stock of what they have, that they realize just how much they cherish the people around them, that they tolerate the mistakes and annoyances of people around them. It’s amazing to see people being courteous, generous in fact. At the supermarket, on the freeways, around the office — people are acting like they should.

The sad part is that it takes something terrible to affect people to this extent. And the saddest part is that it won’t last. “Time heals all wounds,” they say, which means that in a few weeks you can expect to see the worst in people start to surface again.

At some point, people stop feeling guilty, stop focusing on the sadness and anger and start to go back to their normal lives. For some, that doesn’t mean much, but for others, it means that they will be prone to their normal attacks of bitter and twisted behavior. Thankfully, there are people who are happy, pleasant, courteous and just downright nice (like Sez, for example) that make going through your day a pleasure.

There used to be a bumper sticker back home that read, “Courtesy is catching.” In the time ahead, I hope that people live and breathe that mantra.

Especially those who normally wouldn’t.

Posted on

ketchup x 6

… you can’t always get what you want … but if you try sometimes you just might find … you get what you need …

So if you’ve ever been to a McDonalds (Mickey D’s in Yankee speak, Macca’s in Aussie speak) in the good ol’ U.S. of A, you’ll remember being asked, “ketchup?”.

Now, this is not like the legendary question, “would you like fries with that?” No, that question is valid, and typically your answer will be accepted.

But, “ketchup?” is different. It doesn’t have a correct answer.

You see it doesn’t matter what response you give, when you open up your bag, amongst the 50 napkins that seems to be thrown in with every order, you’re going to find at least 6 ketchup packets. My research says that answering, “no”, tends to indicate that they won’t add any extra packets while you’re watching and that the 6 in the bag will suffice. If you give a positive response, you’re going to get another handful, most likely taking you up to the dozen range.

Americans may like their fries with ketchup, but most Aussies don’t care for it.

“Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun”.

Ketchup?