Let's talk politics for just a moment, shall we?
I saw this post over at Pete's place, and loved it. My knee jerk reaction was to agree 100%. EVERYONE has a right to let their hair down, vent a bit.
But then I started to really think about it all. And realized it's very similar to some of the crap I'm dealing with right now.
It all boils down to one thing. Everyone bitches. EVERYONE. No one can honestly say they haven't unloaded after a frustrating day or event. We have to. If we don't we'll explode.
But, that being said.....management, leaders as it were, have to be VERY discreet. And I'm discovering you can't even really trust those folks that call themselves your friend.
And you have to be cognisant of what your role is EVERYWHERE you go. Sound old fashioned? Unfair? It is....a little. But it's also decorum. The right way.
When you work for a major organization, public or private, people watch you. They listen to you. And if you take that position of leadership and don't believe that, well......you'll learn sooner rather than later.
For me? I'm probably a little paranoid about all that. I never go to the grocery store lookin' less then pulled together. No tshirts, the very basics of make-up, and I always strive to be pleasant. (Strive being the operative word here).
And when it comes to venting, well my friends outside of work get the brunt of that. And Cuz. Cuz hears everything.
Now, I'll admit, that's not how it's always been. In the beginning I did vent with my peers. But found out quickly that gets turned back on you muy rápidamente. So now I vent outside of the organization.
What happened with General McChrystal's staff is similar to that, and I love the way Pete lays it out. But I do have to raise my hand on one thing. They vented in front of a reporter. Ummmm, not to be disrespectful, but that's just a little, well, dumb.
That would be like me, sitting in my office with the door open (the office located next to my boss btw) and loudly going off. You know damned well it's gonna be heard.
And there will be consequences.
So I don't do that. I don't even vent on the phone inside. I walk out to the parking lot if I'm fixin' to explode. And you shouldn't be surprised to hear I've logged a lot of miles in that parking lot these past 18 months.
But let's boil it all down. I hate all this brouhaha that's gone on this past week. It's distracting when we have a very important mission going on. When lives are at stake. And because change is so stressful, so unsettling, it's the VERY last thing we need our military to be dealing with.
Leaders are leaders - on the job and off. Are we perfect? No...no we are not. But we do need to realize that and accept the fact that we are held to higher standards.
Now, if we could just get that President of ours to understand that - not to mention his wife - things might eventually calm down and we can deal with the things we need to deal with.
I quite agree. There are times (a lot of them) where you need to say exactly what you think.
ReplyDeleteThere are also places (like the parking lot) where it is relatively safe to speak your mind.
Three places strictly out of bounds are: 1) Reporters: 2) Your Boss: 3)Anyone else who could turn your words against you:
As in Poker, you gotta know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em.
Agree totally!
ReplyDeleteI confess to wondering if McC had fallen on his sword to bring new ROE to Afghanistan... then I found out that he set those rules... so no. I'm pretty clueless about the way the military works. ;)
Get Barry O to understand? There is nothing in his history that he has ever understood anything but "you're a special kid!"
ReplyDeleteObama has never done any work in any job he's ever had, he has gravitated to "jobs" where no work is needed (or tolerated), now that he is finally in such a job, he doesn't know how. So, no progress on the oil spill, despite the help offered by countries with real expertise on oil spills being offered. No kind of real progress on the wars while our E-4 Corporals are more experienced in warfare than the Majors of 1965 when I went to war.
It's funny, when I wore Uncle's suit, few officers had advanced degrees, most enlisted had, at best, high school. Many staff NCOs were barely literate. Today, most E-5 Sergeants have BA or BS degrees and by the time a guy (and now gal) gets to First Sergeant there is mostly a graduate degree. Yet out "educated class" still calls our troops uneducated.
Trillions spent on "economic recovery" while real unemployment is around twenty percent, not that rose colored near ten percent the news tells us. This whole Administration is worse than middle school student council. I swear, if Obama can find one staffer that could pee on a burning boot to prevent an entire city from blazing, he's not only fire him but probably try to jail his whole family down to the third cousins, twice removed.
The funny thing? Google still gives the red "mistake underline" to the word Obama. Yes, Google, we know he is a mistake.
I still contend that firing McC may well have been the way to go, but not for words said in a bar. My whole deal is that the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force are military services. The idea is to kill people and break their stuff. The idea is not to deny troops the right to conduct operations at night as is being done over there now. If the idea is not to kill people and break things the military should not be there, some other organization should be.
I agree with you 100%. Dealing with that right now, my boss is a whiner, big big whiner.
ReplyDeleteRight in front of her employees too.
I have no respect for her, I don't respect a boss that whines about things about the company to her employees. Take it home and whine there.
Oh and I hate your comment stuff, won't let me comment with an ID without it checking it out first.
ReplyDeleteSo the above was posted by me ... Quality Weenie
In the defense of McC's boys, they needed to vent, and reporters are good listeners.
ReplyDeleteThey still screwed up by talking to the enemy, I'm just saying I can understand the temptation.
Jeepers, lady, will you post something before I have to slap your puss onto a milk carton?
ReplyDeleteMaybe you could cross-post your Facebook stuff for your Luddite blogpappy?