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| Blogs > rm_mazandbren > The Complaisant Husband |
Possibilities
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Possibilities During the week I undertook an exercise designed to identify my strengths and weaknesses and how best to the make the most of them and improve them. I don’t usually do this sort of thing but I had an hour to kill and the boredom factor after five weeks was high enough for me to try it. Much to my surprise I found that the final analysis was pretty close- in some areas a little too close for comfort. My strongest standards are in the areas of accountability, direction and organization; there were plenty of suggestions of what to avoid and how to use them better. My worst standard by a long way was in personal engagement. I know I have a few issues with this- but this exercise suggested I have a bigger problem than I thought I had. This was a bit of an issue because it was also this week that I finally decided on which of the job offers I was going to take up. It finally came down to two- one was a small organization that wanted me to run one store and assist in opening another- the other a large organization offering the same job. There were more opportunities for advancement at the latter but I would be starting relatively higher at the former. I would imagine that the moneys will be roughly the same at the end- I don’t really like to admit that it’s a factor but I suppose it is more of one this time around. I certainly intend to make sure that my achievements are properly rewarded this time. Finally I came down on the side of the greater opportunities; but if this is going to rely on my ability to engage with my staff then I could be in for a bit of trouble. I was thinking that I may have made a mistake and that perhaps I might have been better served going into a smaller organization where my foibles might be overlooked- until I realised that the smaller the organization the greater the need for personal engagement. A few mistakes in the initial stages at the larger organization would be more likely to be overlooked until my other talents shine forth. The problem with that rationalization is the seeming requirement from everyone that you be emotionally attached to the people around you; that you ‘get’ them. I don’t know that I actually want to change the fact that I don’t ‘get’ them- especially given the various and crazy staff members I have had over the last twenty years. The problem is that I don’t normally get a long term appointment to a store; and there is usually at least one nut job in every department- with a new nutty problem for me to get to terms with. One woman had an<b> infatuation </font></b>with the storeman, which suggested that her husband falling through the shower screen in a drunken stupor was not all that it appeared to be. Two staff members were what might be generously called intellectually challenged. Another needed to have a bucket of water handy on busy days to dunk his head so he wouldn’t get out of hand- one day he forgot and we had to talk the knife out of his hand. Another staff member kept calling in sick when the American fleets were in- if I was lucky; occasionally she forgot to ring. I could go on and on. I don’t know that I really need to change my style all that dramatically- perhaps I need to concentrate on the benefits of my way. I may not know the first thing about most of my staff’s private lives but the simple fact is that in twenty years I have only had one staff member lured away by another store; some of the offers might have tempted me to go. I have high standards and my staff is always aware of those standards; they seem to accept that the standards are generally a lot higher than what the company mandates. I may not be the picture postcard people manager but I don’t have a lot of problems dealing with my staff either. I have found that people perform better when they know that they all have to measure up to the same standard, and where they stand in relation to that standard. As an aside Watching an SBS news story on the subject of ‘Sexting’ I thought that the respondents were a little short sighted. The two 13 year old boys featured in the story, from Massachusetts I believe, had swapped the image of a naked 13 year old female class mate with friends. Apparently this is the first of 9 similar cases across the United States and is cause for concern across a far wider area with police in Australia quoted as being ‘concerned’ by the ramifications as the practice spreads here. The projected sentence for the distribution of childhood pornography was not so much the issue as placing the boys on the sex offender’s register. There are two issues here- privacy for the involved and the legal ramifications of redistributing the original image. If a woman sent me a nude picture of herself do I then have the right to redistribute that picture? I am not sure of the actual legal requirements but should it not be looked upon as a breach of privacy if I subsequently forward that picture by any means without the express permission of the person(s) in the photo, with consequences to match for that breach of privacy. Even if we accept that an adult loses privacy protection in such circumstances surely those under 21 years should be protected. Since the basis of the argument for not imprisoning these is that they are too young to understand the consequences of their actions in trading such images surely the person in the photo has not fully considered the consequences! As for the criminal provisions- if my 13 year old cousin sends me a picture of his girlfriend why is it that I should be arrested and charged for possession of pornography and he gets away with it simply because he is under 18? I would never request such a thing but under the current terms of most such laws I am going to gaol. In this day and age surely these have some idea of the consequences, legal and moral, if they distribute such images? We limit these ’s access to pornography so they must realise that there is a consequence to trading such images of their friends. The simple fact is that these are setting themselves up to be exploited and the current state of most laws do not protect them. They do not protect the adults either. I don’t think that there is any need to make a special case for in this matter- all such images traded without the express permission of the person(s) involved should attract a penalty. In truth is there no beauty? I am not in love; but i am open to persuasion. |
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