Friday Reflections

Good Employees are Hard to Find (Happy Boss's Day)

POINT TO PONDER: “The best kind of people (Bosses, Mentors, Friends) are those who come into your life, and make you see the sun where you once saw clouds. People who believe in you so much, that you start to believe in you too. They are once in a lifetime type of people."

STORY LINE: (Originally published on October 10, 2013).The gentleman I am going to talk about had neither a top degree or was a graduate of a top-notch university. What he had was a top-notch heart, a lot of common sense, and a deep understanding of human nature. He had graduated from the school of hard knocks. One of the things he learned was to hold back from flaunting his knowledge (which was plentiful), instead choosing to ask inquiring questions. In turn, we as employees learned through practical experience by doing, making mistakes, and correcting them. Through his approach, he motivated and inspired outstanding performance from his employees. 

It seems to me that his management philosophy was learned from sports, which he dearly loved and played through college until he unfortunately injured his knee. He was not just any ordinary Joe but an extraordinary human being who we affectionately called Joe Z.  I worked for him between 1977-1980 and again when our paths crossed in the early 90's at another company.  

Thanks to the power of LinkedIn, I recently reconnected with him after eighteen years. This time I did not miss the opportunity to thank him for all that he had done for me, so I called him. What he said at the end of the conversation reaffirmed how fortunate I was to encounter such a person in my life. Here is my last phone call with him, which I am recounting from memory:

“Joe, You have made big and significant impact on my life by not only mentoring me (even though it took me a while to grow up and grasp what you had taught) but also you helped in my personal life as well.

 You taught me that in order to be a good engineer I need to dirty my hands. Yes, I did clean diffusion tubes with  Brian, changed vacuum pumps with Hank and replaced metal targets with Bob, all of them were maintenance technicians. You asked me to do CV plots after cleaning the tubes so I understood if I had done proper cleaning job. And you know what, you were there first few times with us helping so I appreciated that you were the general who had fought the battle and willing to be with your troops.

You came to production area at least three times a day and talked to engineers, operators and technicians. ( This was years before Tom Peters wrote Management by walking around or many books on respecting every human being and their job)

Whenever there was a problem in manufacturing area, you held meeting right at that process station to do problem solving. (Now a days they call it LEAN practice)

When I wrote my first operational specifications, you asked me “What does Chu, Sharon and Jeannie think about it?” Those three were operators. From that day I never had any specifications passed on for signature until I had gotten the operators approval that they understood it. Not a single one of my spec was held up in production manager’s office, him wanting to ensure that the operators would understand what I had written. (Now a days they call it understanding User Experience)

And on personal side: You came to Immigration with me for my Green Card call and when the Immigration officer asked me to leave the country (due to company’s HR error) you went out of the way to call corporate on the east coast for help. Then when I chose to go to India instead of Mexico or Canada to get my visa, you not only paid my entire trip and a month salary, you also let me go to Philippines on the way back to India to meet my childhood penpal. That childhood penpal (since I was 16) is my wife for the last 35 years and wonderful what it has been.

Well that was not it. Later that year (December 78), when I went to Philippines to get married, you and your boss (John E) made sure that my air ticket was covered, salary was on and when I checked out of the hotel, the bill was covered. Then our paths crossed again at another company and even though you were very high up in the ranks in a different department and not my boss, you still sponsored many of my ideas. That made all the difference.”

REFLECTION

When I called him and recounted my memories and thanked him, this is what he said. "Good employees are hard to find. So I did everything possible to keep them. Looking for new ones (unknowns) is like betting in Las Vegas.” “So you don’t have to thank me for all these.”

He is long retired but if he ever called me and asked me to work for him again, you can guess what my answer is going to be.

Looking back at my work and life, I have been fortunate to have met great people (starting with parents then teachers, bosses, mentors and friends). But today is for the Bosses.

Let us all thank them and wish them, “Have a Nice Boss’s Day!"

 

Bias Bar at Nobel Peace Center in Norway

 

 Point to Ponder: Prejudice is an emotional commitment to ignorance.- Nathan Rutatein

Story Line: As we entered the main exhibit hall of Nobel Peace Center in Oslo last August, my eyes immediately noticed a sign that read BAR in one corner of the hall. Curious why would anyone need a drink to proceed further in the museum, I headed straight to the BAR.  As I got closer, I noticed that it was really called BIAS BAR and that there were some cards on a nearby shelf. Two girls were sitting at the bar writing something inside the cards.

I immediately went to the smaller shelf and noticed twelve cards on them. One of them caught my eye. It read: Bias: Have you had a bias that has been disproved?

That specific card drew me into deep thought and a memory from my past resurfaced. 

Our son is an actor and writer. Since he was young, my wife and I used to go to all of his plays and wait after the show to pat him on the back, appreciate what we liked, and give him a hug. Then one day we went to watch a play he was in San Francisco at the New Conservatory Theater. This play was about a young man who hates gay people and beats a gay man to death one drunken night in the park. The young man is arrested and convicted of a hate crime and sent to prison. While in jail the young man comes to terms with the motive of his hatred- that he is gay and could not deal or understand it. An inability to accept that part of himself manifests itself in violent and self-destructive actions. Our son played that young man struggling accepting those parts of himself. There were scenes in the play where our son had to portray that emotional conflict, that struggle, and we witnessed him kissing another man on stage. It was a hard hitting play in of itself, but even more unsettling in watching our only son embody that role.  

When the play was over we waited in the hallway outside the lobby, by the stairs that would take us quickly out of the theater, I watched as he emerged from the theater with enthusiasm to meet us, as if the play hadn't left the same residue in him as it did with us; there was a joy in his face I couldn't fully understand. He looked around the lobby looking for us, a bit of that joy dissipating from not finding us there. Then he caught sight of us and noticed us standing on the stairs in the hallway, looking totally frozen. I could see the disappointment as he approached us. He asked, “You didn’t like the play, did you? Was I bad in the role? Do I need to work on some things?” I couldn't answer, I really couldn't find the words. I was shook up. He thanked us for coming and we said that we'd see him at home at that was really it, we left.  

After a couple of days and having some time to reflect on what I had seen I had a talk with my son. I told him I couldn't understand why his character had to go through such a difficult turmoil. I told him it wasn't his performance but the play itself that bothered me. Then I asked him to quit the play. I reasoned that it was not a good play and that playing those types of characters could reflect poorly on my son as an actor- that he might even get typecast as playing only gay parts. I asked him if he wanted that stigma. It bothered me when he responded that he would be proud to play roles as complex and revealing as this one. He believed it was a play that begged for understanding and tolerance. And then he said what really scared me; he told me he didn't care what other people thought of him and didn't much care if people did think he was gay. He said that was their problem to bear, not his. I tried to reason with him, telling him I was only looking out for his best interests and that he was young and didn't understand what he was saying or doing or how the world really worked. I told him that he would see the truth in time.  

My son did not quit that play. He kept performing even though now he had to do so in defiance to me but not really me, he was defiant to my prejudice. Still, I was his father and he continued, but with a shame that I had put in him and anchored in my profound disapproval. He did another play with that company shortly after, a lighter type comedy, but never worked with them again. I never thought much about it and to be quite honest at the time, I was relieved.  

So many years have passed and the world has changed. My relationship to my son has changed. I have changed too. Standing at that Bias Bar in Oslo I wondered about that period in my life. I thought of my son. And that play. I had told him that with time he would see the truth. But I look back now and realize it was I that needed to see the truth all along. 

Reflection: Going back to the Bias BAR, I stood there for 30 minutes reading many notes. Many were about hidden prejudices, some achingly visible. It's easier to see and point out in others but very difficult to recognize in ourselves. We often don't look at them in that glaring way; we reason that they are our views, justifying them with our limited set of experiences and try to sell them to others as fact. 

I still have a long way to go. There are still many times when our children and my friends call me out when I make what I think are innocent and simple statements; not fully knowing or understanding that I am harming others whose history and struggle I do not know or understand.  

I leave you with the words of Maya Angelou: 

"Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible."