Читать книгу Comfortable Chaos - Carolyn Harvey & Beth Herrild - Страница 23

Carolyn will never forget the time she was working in a very challenging job and learned the hard way that more work does not equal more appreciation. She was in a unique job called skill team support manager — a human resources position where she was required to coordinate staffing issues with managers from various programs by bringing them together in weekly or biweekly meetings. The problem with this job was that every manager considered himself or herself to be a customer and a critic. As you can imagine, it was nearly impossible to satisfy all of them since they represented very different programs and agendas.

At one of the weekly meetings, a discussion occurred about the need for a selection process and succession plan for the second-level managers. This topic had come up in the past but Carolyn had always held it off since the group was barely able to get through the processes for first-level managers. Carolyn had also worked on executive succession planning and found it frustrating due to personality challenges and lack of control.

This particular Friday she relented and did what all good skill team support people did — offered to draft a process. “We’ll need that right away so that we will be prepared for upcoming promotions,” came a familiar and annoying voice from the back of the room. “I’ll call a special meeting to review it next week,” Carolyn committed. This was late afternoon on a Friday, and she was swamped with other work and priorities so she resigned herself to working on the weekend.

She researched and she drafted and she fine-tuned an elaborate process. She worked on other projects as well and ended up having to come in on Sunday to finish the second-level management plan. The draft process was finally sent to the skill team members and a meeting scheduled for Monday afternoon. Leaving the office Sunday afternoon, Carolyn felt tired but had some satisfaction in having completed an unpleasant task.

On Monday morning she arrived at her tidied desk and diminished to-do pile but didn’t feel energized for the week. Instead, she felt cheated of her weekend and sick of the four walls that surrounded her. Oh well, she told herself, at least the skill team members will be grateful.

At the meeting that afternoon, Carolyn expected a relatively uneventful review of the process with some minor revisions. She was totally shocked and instantly defensive when the meeting took a different turn. One manager commented that he thought the process was more detailed and bureaucratic than needed. Another added that he really didn’t see the need for a process at this time — there were other priorities. And other managers failed to even show up for the meeting after insisting it had to be scheduled right away!

As the meeting deteriorated and Carolyn’s anger grew, she managed to remain mostly professional, although her demeanor was much more abrupt than usual. She ended the meeting, walked back to her office, and threw all of her materials on her desk. Without even thinking, she grabbed her purse and headed for the car. By this point she was outraged and on the verge of tears. She left without telling anyone and once in the car, started cursing and crying and ended up driving home.

Looking back, Carolyn knows that her extreme reaction was directly related to her physical and emotional condition when she entered that meeting. She was tired, but more significantly, she was mentally and emotionally depleted. She vowed to never over-sacrifice again.