Many years back, when I was working retail, I got a customer service award in a store-wide meeting; I had gone to a customer’s house to hook up the television and video game system she had bought for her young child, and she was very grateful. At this meeting, after giving me my award, the store manager said that everyone should take “ownership” of the part of the store they worked in as I had just been rewarded for. She also announced that, because of the poor inventory we had just gotten, there would be no new hiring for quite some time, part-time hours would be reduced, and people would be expected to work harder during the hours they DID work. I thought that actually voicing this sentiment was a recipe for disaster and said as much in the meeting, to his face and in front of the other employees. Not a few people opined that I had just screwed myself out of a job.
I don’t think it counts because I had come in that day to give my notice; I was about to leave retail for a CSR job in a bank. I had two weeks or so of vacation accrued, and even if I was fired for cause the store had to give it to me anyway; I preferred to take the vacation before starting the new job. So in fact I was risking nothing.
I especially like how God so nobly and justly murdered all the newborn babies during the Flood. Not to mention the rape of Canaan. Go Yahweh!
Same here, except I was either blacklisted (my previous pay raise was the last I was ever going to receive, and, in fact, the bosses were contemplating relocating me to part-time apprentice mail-room clerk) or abruptly let go a short while later for unspecified, “at will employment” reasons.
Good for you, Winston. The People have their American Idol and Monday Night Football, so they don’t give a flying fart in a hurricane; besides, Room 101 blows chunks, and Big Brother doesn’t really love you.
Many years ago, my boss, an elected public official, was witnessing to several of his employees in the office on work time. Even worse, he was trying to use Pascal’s_Wager, a unsavory argument to belief, to persuade his employees to attend his church.I told him his actions were inappropriate and from then on he looked for a reason to fire me. He did so on a trumped-up cause a few weeks later.
I once told my boss some unpleasant truths, and she looked at me and said, “You’re on of those people who can’t tell a lie even if they want to, aren’t you?”
I’m fairly direct and don’t have a problem with telling my bosses, etc., when they’re wrong.
2 examples:
At the last company I worked at my CEO came up with an absolutely awful sales promotion idea. I told him it was a bad idea and explained why. He was really fond of his plan, though, and still wanted to try it. I explained again why it was a bad idea. We went back and forth like this for several minutes until I said, “Jesus, Gary, what the fuck do you need? Sock puppets? It’s a bad idea and here’s why…”
Back in 1997 I worked for a business phone system manufacturer. At this time Voice over IP was a coming thing. The technology existed but all the hype about what it was going to do was exactly that. The company I worked for spent a kazillion dollars to develop its own VoIP switch and another kazillion dollars to market it. Very early on I wrote a report that I gave to the CEO, VP of engineering, VP of marketing and both senior market and product managers detailing exactly how and why the effort was going to fail (basically the business public wasn’t educated enough about the technology/benefit and the quality of calls wasn’t high enough yet to warrant switching from a standard system). I recommended that we continue product development but not roll it out for 2-3 more years.
The only person I heard word one from was my VP who chewed me out for violating the chain of command. I explained to her that I had given her every piece of information that was contained in my report and that she’d failed to carry any of it upstairs. I further explained the project was likely to sink the company and would result in at least a 50 percent drop in share price.
I didn’t get fired but I ratcheted up my job search. Sure enough, within 2 years the share price went from $32 to $8 and the company never fully recovered until it was bought out by and incorporated into another firm.
A while back when I was in seminary, some lecturer who kept parading up and down the hall (albeit softly) going on and on about petitioning the Lord with prayer. I told him he couldn’t.
If you need sanctuary, a place to hide, and/or soft asylum from this guy, some of us might be able to help out.
I have no great stories, but one time working in a bank I got a bad customer review. They would randomly call a small percentage of customers after a transaction and ask them to rank 1-5 things like “employee cared about my concerns” or “tried to give me the best service.” I ended up getting a bunch of 1s, all from a transaction some random day in the past where there was no way of me recalling the exact transaction. I could have given shitty service, or the customer was an asshole, or they were mad because I blocked their attempt to commit fraud. The manager wanted to talk to me, and I expressed that without any written instruction on what I did wrong, a bunch of numbers with no context isn’t going to be something I can change. And keep in mind this was after several perfect or near-perfect ratings. Nothing came of this, although I might’ve made some vague promises.
pfft Nothing to see here, move along. Average week where I work.
Boss: Customer complained you were rude and unhelpful.
Me: Customer demanded we replace his out of warranty product for free, deliver it to his house TODAY, and give him money for his inconvenience. I said no.
Boss: (A bunch of bullshit about how I can allegedly make those people happy without giving in to their demands)
Me: :rolleyes: Do you want me to give you that call next time so you can show me how it’s done?
Boss: Um, no. Carry on.
Yes, it has pretty much been a regular component of my career…
At Business School - a top one, where my marketing prof had a national repulation - we presented a Case Study. He gave us a B and, in front of the class, I said “no way” and engaged him in a positive discussion. My team mates were freaked - but he agreed with my position and we got an A.
While a Management Consultant, I had to finesse this regularly; your job is telling your client that their approach has not been working. Sometimes it was as simple (and obnoxious) as leading a Board Meeting discussion, watching as two Executives chat with each other, interrupting my presentation and saying “hang on - am I gonna have to separate you two?” Did this a few times, got an awkward chuckle - but they shut up and heard my points. Other times, you have to deliver your deck and tell the heads of the billion-dollar company that their strategy is wrong. Fun times.
Speaking Truth to Power is a skill and an art form. The more you can start with objectives that those in Power share with you (“we need to grow, right?”) then you can show how the issue you are raising impacts that objective…a lot harder than it sounds…
Not me, but this story about my flatmate always makes me smile:
Back when Gordon Brown was still the Chancellor of the Exchequer he was visiting Glasgow for whatever reason. My flatmate was walking home from work when he spotted the general commotion that accompanies a senior member of the cabinet.
Upon discovering the man behind the security was Gordon Brown, my flatmate was delighted; a perfect heckling opportunity. He opened his mouth to unleash a pithy, scathing outburst all that came out was: “GORDON BROWN! YOU’VE FAILED SOCIALISM, YOU’VE FAILED SCOTLAND AND YOU’VE FAILED YOURSELF!”
At that moment a policeman toting an assault rifle approached my flatmate. The policeman said: “you want to take the political protest elsewhere, pal?” Bearing in mind we are not used to encountering armed police officers in the UK, my flatmate’s response was “aye… okay…” and off he went, feeling like an idiot.
My favorite example of this is when I was working as an auditor for the city of New York. I was in a meeting with my audit team and our Division Chief, a few levels above me, but not the brightest light on broadway. We got into a pretty heated discussion over some statistical analysis, and I fefused to budge from my correct position.
About an hour later I was headed to lunch with my usual group of lunch mates, and as we were headed out, Division Chief was headed in through the revolving doors. So he stopped me before I was able to get out, and right in front of all of my friends, he said, “So do you understand what I was trying to say before, or do you think I’m a jerk.” Without missing a beat I replied, “Well, I think you’re a jerk one way or the other, but I think I see what you were getting at.”
The entire hallway fell silent, and he went into the elevator, and we left for lunch. My friends were all saying things like “Wow, I can’t believe you just said that to him!” Clearly I had meant it as a joke (although there’s lots of truth in jokes), one which my friends and I would be laughing at for several years.
I recall it was conducted by a person over the phone, who presumably clarified. Even so, the thought crossed my mind, and I had no way of knowing if that was the case or how to respond to it.
Amen. I love the way Jesus just spoke the truth. Todays truth is usually a mocking the truth. No one has the courage to say the truth lest they offend someone.
