The Manager 169 - Signs of life
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"The Manager" Newsletter
Hi,
I hope you are doing safe and well. This will be the last newsletter before the New Year. I just want to say thank you to you all. The comments, replies and subscriptions are what keeps me doing this labour of love. I do hope I can continue to serve you well into 2022.
This edition will be a little different as I include a short story based on a real life observation (possibly a chapter in the incoming book) and some rap lyrics (bare with me). Interesting links is also back!
A few mini announcements:
I am launching a 31 day pop-up newsletter on LinkedIn starting on 1st Jan. 31 days of creativity and then it's gone. It's now live but the content won't start until 1st. You can sign up here.
Over on Stationery Freaks we are doing 12 days of advent fun where we talk about goal setting, routines, minimalism, journaling and more.
I've just published a behind the scenes video about being a nervous presenter.
I aim to have my new ebook "Take a Day Off" ready for general release on Amazon in January! As loyal readers of the book I will be providing a free copy for you all.
Stop doubting yourself
Long time readers will know I am a big fan of hip hop. I took my Mazda out for a sunny spin yesterday and was listening to Verb T on the CD player - yes a CD player. And there were two lines from his song 'Nothing is new' that resonated with me. It ties to how my 2022 goal is to get on top of my health - because without it, I'm no use to anyone.
"Stop doubting yourself, your health is worth more than an amount of wealth
Gotta love who you are, be proud of yourself, ready for the next round at the sound of the bell"
Being healthy and prepared for what life throws at us is important - and this, at least for me, is a focus of 2022.
Looking for signs of life (a story)
His job was to check for signs of life, to observe the office space for anything that could signify a sign of life. There didn’t even need to be a person at the desk to constitute a sign of life.
Signs such as coats, bottles, food - anything that signified life - all counted.
What has this great company come to?
Where once there was fun and laughter, now there is someone checking for life.
Believe it or not, this was a job. And it was the job that Leroy was paid to do.
For the first month he enjoyed it. He wandered the vast complex of corporate HQ, looking for signs of life. If he saw a sign of life he’d place a tick in the appropriate box on the map. If he saw no signs of life he’d place a cross. At the end of every cycle through the office, of which he had to do at least two each day, he would scan the completed maps and they would be electronically filed away. Where? He had no idea.
At the same time twice a day the phone would ring in his tiny cupboard office. Has was expected to answer it within three rings. The voice on the end offered no pleasantries but merely asked a straight forward question; how many signs today?
Leroy would give his observations. 360. 400. 335. 478. Yada Yada Yada.
After two months though, he was starting to wonder whether this really was a job at all. Three months in and he started to fudge the numbers. He spent longer hiding from the security cameras than he did looking for signs of life.
He’d memorised the entire office HQ floorplan and security camera location. He was on autopilot. Some days he’d wake up rejuvenated and full of verve and he’d take his job seriously. Other days he contemplates the meaning of this role.
He didn’t even know why he was doing this. Nobody had explained what this activity was for.
But he continued, day after day, looking for signs of life.
A can of coke on a desk, a sign of life.
A coat on a chair, a sign of life.
A laptop on a desk, a sign of life.
A pair of glasses on a desk, a sign of life.
As he wandered the HQ, people would stop him and ask what he was doing. This inevitably led to the question of why he was doing this? He didn’t have a solid answer.
After a month of saying “just because”, he would make up stories to amuse himself. They became more outlandish as the months went past.
He told stories of anti-corruption, office close downs and redundancies. He spoke of government surveillance and anti-protest planning. He talked of alien invasions and Cold War prepping. He led people to believe they were removing all the desks in a forthcoming experiment. He even said they were planning for a forthcoming visit from the Queen.
He had a lot of fun.
That was until his wild stories led to mass rumours and panic. And Leroy was called into his supervisor’s office. He was read the riot act. He promised not to do it again. So, he went back to taking this role seriously. He went back to checking for signs of life.
But soon he lost enthusiasm for a job with no obvious meaning.
Tired of explaining that he didn’t know why he was doing it, he soon reverted to his wild story telling.
Only this time, his supervisor didn’t give him another chance. That was it for Leroy. Back to the job market. The rumours had become too much for his supervisors to handle.
The following week Sonja started looking for signs of life. Leroy secured a job as an office manager for a company where there was already plenty of life and meaningful work.
Cultivated Management Pocket Reminder:
Avoid gossip at work. Avoid starting rumours. Avoid saying something you will regret or have to say “sorry” for. These things have a way of coming back on you.
If you're a manager - explain to people what their work is for and what it leads to - and why they are doing it.
If you don't know yourself, why are they doing it?
Meaningless work drives people mad. Pointless work is a waste of a human life. Without meaning and purpose, people will invent their own, and it might not be right.
And if you are planning secret squirrel activities don’t be surprised if gossips and rumour start. There’s no such thing as a secret at work.
And yes. This story is based on real life events. I did indeed encounter Leroy checking for signs of life - and still to this day, I have no idea why he was doing it :)
Have a great Christmas and New Year.
Rob
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Interesting Links
Note: I listen to all the feedback from you awesome readers. So, I experimented with including some context of how long the articles were to read based on a request. I was in two minds but ran with the experiment as it seemed fair. However, it did open up further challenges. Some people read faster / slower than others - and what I class as a medium read some people found to be a long read, whilst others found it to be a short read. I could start using word count but then it's an added amount of energy and attention to pull the word count for each article I link to. Also, words alone don't articulate the energy needed to read it. 100 words of academic text are very different to 100 words from someone like Seth Godin.
As such, I will be dropping the context of how long articles are from this edition onwards. I will leave it to yourselves as to whether each one is worth your energy and attention. This newsletter is a labour of love and it already takes about 2 hours each Sunday to bring it to life. I hope you appreciate why I'm dropping this experiment. Thank you to all comments, feedback and suggestions - I am always listening.
All the stuff. Very short. Very sharp. Very on point from Seth.
Interesting read on how people are setting new boundaries.
Decent advise on three email you could send after attending a job interview. I personally would make the template text a little less formal, but play to your own style and the company norms you're applying to.
A businesses exist to serve the society they are part of. Some business owners truly get this, many don't. And here we have data that suggests that 2 in 5 companies would sack an employee who was made homeless. Sad.
How the ancient Greeks battled distraction.
Journaling for self care.
What some managers wished they had known before they became a manager.
Remote work should be asynchronous, mostly.
Gender pay gap and the fact many businesses have made no progress at all. I was involved in measuring this a number of years back and it always felt like a checkbox exercise. Until the executives and board members start to really believe in equality of pay (and other things) nothing will change. How very sad.
Until 2022
Rob
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Thanks
Rob..