Sunday, March 27, 2005

An open letter to a friend...

Your parting shot at me last week was "post it to the blog, I'll read it later". You were adamant about that. Normally I wouldn't bring the world into this discussion but you prompted it. No, you encouraged it and in fact demanded it. "Let the whole world see. We'll all be so much more enlightened. I want you to do that. I want the others to read it. I want them to read the results of our discussions".

Soooo, after several days of "should I" or "shouldn't I" arguments with myself and after our Saturday afternoon telephone conversation prompted by you I've decided to honor your request, your insistence that I "post" the "details" to the blog... of course, not all of the details will be posted. No need to air your dirty laundry to the world. That wouldn't be appropriate. You have enough challenges ahead of you and the "friend" part of me won't let me do it.

How do I start this without sounding calloused, offensive? You know me. I wear my heart on my sleeve. We've been friends for quite some time and early on you were chosen by me to help solve puzzles. Hand selected because of your attitude, abilities, confidence and dedication. What happened? I know we talked about it last week. You offered a myriad of excuses... yes, just that... excuses. I'm not the first to use the line but "the maximum effective range of an excuse is from the tip of your tongue to your lips". You're a good man with good intentions. At least, you were. You've let things slip... check that!... you've let things collapse around you, professionally and (my belief) personally...

(03/30/2005 3:00 p.m. The rest of this post was deleted after having left it online for awhile. I did what you requested... let the others read it but I see no positive need for keeping the remainder of it on here. As we discussed earlier today, you have to work through your "issues" and get back on track. If and when you make your decision let me know and we'll work with it. However, time is of the essence and I need a whole team before April 16).

Enough said...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Uh Oh, someone's asked someone to do something that someone shouldn't have asked someone to do.

The moral of this story is that when you insist that stuff which is normally be kept in confidence be exposed for the whole world to see, it will happen. The whole world will see.

I, for one agree with fyrcop. Do your part or get off of the payroll. I just don't understand why this person insisted this post should occur.

There's no sentiment from me here. Even if I haven't heard the whole story (but would love to). Fyrcop wouldn't have posted it if he didn't feel he was right. The other guy needs some adjusting evidently.

Anonymous said...

ask and you shall receive.

Anonymous said...

Fyrcop. I do know you. I know you and ylour strengths and weaknesses because we've been part of the same team for over a decade. You do wear your heart on your sleeve. You tend to tell people just how you feel and you don't usually use that much tact when you tell them, myself included. We've come to accept that and expect that from you. I actually appreciate being told everything up front without the trimmings and niceties that have to be scattered in there now adays. By doing that it's quick, open, gets to the point and can be put behind us sooner so we can get the job done. That's the way you are and that's the way you expect to be treated too. Simple, frank and to the point. We all admire and respect you for that.

But, when you took that supervisor's job so long ago I knew you couldn't change. None of us wanted you to change. We know management sent you to those kinder gentler touchey feeley courses to educate you on political correctnes and supervision. But in our profession there's no time for that crap. We all agree on that. Besides we're all adults and know our jobs. If we didn't know our jobs we wouldn't be working with you. I don't think G's setting you up for a lawsuit like poi said in the previous comment but that is a possibility. You are one fantastic crisis leader. You make the right decisions at the right time on the right things and we go home safe and the job always gets done right. Don't take this wrong but you are not a good garrisson leader. You are callused like you said and you don't always take into account other peoples feelings. You don't openly take their feelings into account. You do follow up later to make sure we are okay and can move on and you are more than respected in your profession. In fact, you're probalby at the top of your profession. You're the goto person for getting things done because people know you will get them done alone or with the help of others.

YOu're very task oriented and have an uncanny ability to stay keenly focused on the mission or missions. You care about us but you have an odd way of showing it. We all know you and know how you show it. Even G. I know he's going to be reading this and wondering how he can get back into the fold. I'm going to say to him what you've said to all of us at one time or another "get your shit together, we have work to do"!

I wasn't looking forward to your post but I also wasn't looking forward to the friction and more mistakes being made by G. He knows that. He's also the one who called me and told me to read the blog. All we want is for things to get back to the way they were and for all of us to be able to focus and trust one another again. We can't do that if others aren't carrying their weight and are making bad calls that we have to go back and fix. You don't have time for that and neither do we. Besides, it can be dangerous.

Poi's right, he doesn't know you so I won't take him to task. We know you tried fixing things some time ago. Management stepped in and protected him. When G saw he had management's insulation he openly rebeled and we all suffered for his bad work. He knows that now and we know it.

This may not be the appropriate "forum" for this but you know what? It's on here and will probably get the job done. At least the rest of us know some of what took place and can rest assured the problem is being taken care of one way or another.

So, from me thanks again for stepping up. We all need to be brought back around from time to time, yourself included. And we accept that or get out.

Anonymous said...

Well. I read what was on there earlier and thought it would have been okay to leave it. It showed how frustrating it can get when you work with egotisticle fools.

Too bad you took it off of there.

jim