Sunday, July 29, 2007

Crazy bosses

I am reading a book right now by Stanley Bing entitled "Crazy Bosses". It is interesting, mainly because I work for one.

Some of this crazy man's favorite lines are "you just don't understand" and "shine a light on it from a different direction". He is so abusive that he has been known to drive subordinates to tears.

Why is this ok? Why is it ok for bosses to belittle employees or drop the "f bomb" in meetings? Is it because we are so afraid for our jobs, or because we have been trained to be "team players"? While both of those things may be part of the reason, I think the real reasons go deeper and are societal issues, not just corporate ones.

One of the root causes, I believe, include the death of politeness. When I was growing up, I was taught things like "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all" and "using vulgarity is rude and shows that you have no command of the language". Unfortunately, all of those teachings are no longer in vogue. What we hear now is "express yourself" and "be true to yourself", who cares about the feelings of others! So, the next time you are belittled by your boss, or cussed at by a CEO, think about how you are raising your own children......


Sent from my BlackBerry wireless handheld.

The summer of our discontent continues

Weather delays......
TSA stupity
UA customer disservice
FAA failures

This summer has been a travel nightmare worse than I have experienced in many years. Flights have been canceled more frequently than I've ever seen before, UA maintenance, not to mention morale has plummeted and flights arriving on time are the exception, not the norm. Is it possible that this melt down may preceed a customer revolt? Unfortunately, probably not.

You can tell by security lines who most of the flyers are. This morning leaving Denver, I saw security lines over an hour long, however the priority lines are empty. To me, this signifies the majority of the travelers are infrequent fliers, thus they do not have to experience travel snafus delays week after week. It is the business travelers whose nerves, not to mention free time, are being stretched to the breaking point. Unfortunately, there are probably too few of us to make any difference.....


Sent from my BlackBerry wireless handheld.