For the last couple of days I’ve been at an industry convention, and seeing so many people we know caused a colleague and I to start musing about one’s personal and professional reputations. The first apparent anomaly we worked over was the case of the known rascals who somehow manage to keep going. At least for a while.
But then we moved on a bit. I remembered a revelation I had early in my career. I got hired right out of college by a privately held, by an incredible meglomaniac, somewhat legendary independent oil company. Thoroughly green, I began to assimilate my corporate culture, and soon started to learn how my bosses dealt with partners and vendors. They were hard traders and I began to learn to pressure, dodge and weave, stonewall, etc. I really didn’t think of myself as acting in the manner of a scoundrel - they were just showing me how to do business.
Since I appeared to be absorbing my lessons well, I was handed certain responsibilities early on. While I don’t remember the particular business at hand, I do remember that the revelation came all at once as I sat in my office one day, getting ready to make a likely to be cantankerous phone call. I thought, “Hmmm…, ol’ WSK might just spit me out on my can any minute, and rapidly forget me, but if I stay in the business, these people aren’t going to forget dealing with me.”
Immediately, I shifted gears towards a more make-it-work-for-all-of-us approach. This shift had to be conducted in somewhat of a stealth mode, but I did it, and quickly noticed a change in my business relations. While earning the enmity of certain parts of our accounting department by walking certain checks through, which trumped our standard net due +90 late pay policy, I managed to build a base of industry acquaintance that served me well when I later (something not on the horizon, then) started my own company. Circumventing the late pay policy was only part of it; negotiating services, rights, etc. became a much more viable proposition when dealing with me.
WSK did eventually become aware that I was, in his eyes, “kid-glovin’” certain transactions, but things ran well on my watch, so he tolerated my “weakness.” Often enough he accepted my explanation that some late pays might be advantageous, but if they killed off our contractor/subcontractor infrastructure, they were counter productive.
That was over twenty years ago. When I went to work for WSK, people still thought in terms of getting a job with Acme, Inc. and staying there for the rest of their working lives, or at least retiring from that company. That all changed in the 1980s.
I can’t really say if that thought, oh so long ago, was a bubbling up in my awareness of some inherent sense of fair play, or perhaps the early stirrings of the awareness that nobody besides WSK was really on his team. One way or another, the last couple of days have had me renewing acquaintance with many, many folks upon whom my livelihood has been dependent, and made me so glad that I paused to reflect before making that phone call.
So, how about you? Have you found yourself in the position of being somewhat compelled to hard trade on some employer’s behalf? Were you able to do anything about it?