I just received an email from a colleague that has worked as a contractor for my organization over the course of several years. I worked directly with him for about two years. Although not hard charging (much like I am), he was consistent in producing consistent meaningful results. Of greatest value to me, was his ability to scrutinize a situation or process and ask, "Why?" In this way, he was able to challenge the status quo and get our group to see if we could not think about things a little differently.
I knew his contract was coming due, but did not expect him to leave because he had been able to get his contract renewed at least once that I know of. I was suprised to see a notice from him in my inbox entitled, "Farewell to friends and colleagues."
I read his comments and they gave me significant pause for thought. I include them here:
"To my friends and colleagues,
"I wish you all a fond farewell. It has been a great privilege to work for [Comany Name Redacted]. A company that I believe exemplifies integrity and innovation in the pharmaceutical industry. In the brief time that I shared here I had the great fortune to work with a number of extraordinary individuals. I wish you all continued good fortune as you continue to play your role in bringing life saving drugs to the patients that need it.
"As for me, I’m going skiing. Though few may be aware, in April of 2008 I experienced a bit of a health related wake-up call in the form of the autoimmune disease Rheumatoid Arthritis. My experiences over the past year and a half have compelled me to radically reorganize my priorities. Under the care of an open minded physician I focused on anti-inflammatory factors, nutrition, and stress reduction. Though not clinically “cured” I significantly reversed a condition that was, at times, very debilitating.
"So, as I make my journey East to Vermont, I leave you with something to consider. I believe health care reform starts at home. It starts with the simple choices that we make every day. Great companies like [Comany Name Redacted] will always be needed to produce drugs that save people’s lives. However, we have a choice each day to seek balance in our own lives and reap the reward of growing older, well.
"Best regards, [Name Redacted]"
This made me think of a time years ago. My son was only 7 years old, if that. I was working full time and going to school full time. In addition, I was helping run the family farm. Time was at a premium. I decided I would take the day off; from everything. At the time, I raced ATVs in the desert and my son rode as well. I put on my riding gear, loaded up the truck with our machines and went to his school. I went to the office and signed in and then went to his room and signed my son out. We went out on the west desert and camped and rode for two days. It is one of my, and I hope his as well, most cherished experiences. The image above is one I captured one night when we were goofing around.
I wished my colleague best of luck in a personal response to his communication. However, the provocation of thought from his email still lingers. How often do we stop to consider those things that are really and truly important? We have business needs that must be met. The organization does not stop and we must continue to produce for it. At the same time, we must also consider family, friends and loved ones. Are we building lasting relationships and meaningful experiences and memories? Or are we just going through the motions?
Each of us can only answer those questions for ourselves. What will your answer be?
It is simply put...
A Question of Priority.
In the fight for dominance in this global economy, companies are demanding more and more from employees, travel, weekends, late nights, 80 hr work weeks. My father and Grandfather never had work demands like we do today, which is also why we are seeing more people making career changes and “stop to consider those things that are really and truly important?”
ReplyDeleteMy father and Grandfather never changed careers, they finally got good in their careers at the same age that today we are making career changes. It seems we are moving through the ranks faster than they did and getting to our highest level of incompetence before we reach an age or stage of retirement.
Being a competitive company is key today in this global economy and what made the United States in the past so strong was our use of ingenuity.
We have a new generation of leaders that want to believe they know it all, making more money than their fathers, holding higher leadership positions but who are not using ingenuity and are not utilizing the experience that surrounds them.
We are an uneducated lot, most of us, who constantly forget that all the great leaders we know are not great by themselves but have become great because they surrounded themselves with normal hard working people, people on the side lines getting the work done, people with a lot of experience.
These new leaders, because they lack experience but not power, are too proud to admit they need help and have forgotten that all great leaders were only successful because of the people that believed in them and did the work to make them successful.
These new leaders are making decisions alone and are cutting jobs and programs and putting the squeeze with in their companies without thinking things through completely, who just think that pushing your employees is enough and working them long and hard will get the results. Who was it that said “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing but expecting a different result.”
Today too many business leaders have the attitude of use them up, burn them out and get a new one. employees are experiencing burn out from insatiable employers always demanding more but never changing the play book. Employees have become the new consumables.
I think unless we start using some of that old fashion ingenuity we are going to start to see a lot more employees pulling out of these high stress, high demand jobs. Employees with a wealth of knowledge leaving companies. I believe in 10 years we will see that the winning companies will be the ones who use old fashion ingenuity and experience. Companies that keep and take care of their greatest asset, their employees.