Bad Decisions, Good Decisions

At what point in life do we allow common sense and moral decision making to over shadow “the rules” or the almighty dollar i.e. the paycheck? Are some people born with the gift of common sense while others just coast through life being told what to do and when to do it? Are some people so concerned about a paycheck that they will completely disregard human needs or kindness? Oh I know I sound naive, but I wake up thinking I’ve figured people out just to find out sometime throughout the day that I’m not even close.

Before I start you need to understand where I work there are many different companies and or government agencies working together to create a common goal. Although we do not report to one another, and each company or agency goal is unique, working together creates overall happiness of the consumer aka John Q. Public.

My story begins last week while I was gathering my belongings together to end my day and week at work. One of my guys comes to me in a state of total disbelief. He tells me I am not going to believe the story he is about to tell me. He states while he is patrolling the grounds he notices a worker, a young man, from another business pushing a wheelchair with an elderly woman in it. The young man pushing the wheelchair stops at the water fountain to allow the elderly woman a drink of water. While waiting, he looks over the elderly woman’s paperwork, says something to her and then burns rubber on her and walks off, leaving her sitting there in her wheelchair at the water fountain. My guy witnesses this action and decides to stand by giving the young man a chance to redeem himself. Mind you the temperature outside on this day was no less than 110 degrees. It appeared to my guy the young wheelchair pusher dude was not going to return, so my guy approached the woman and asked her if she was being assisted. She stated to him that a young man was assisting her but he told her he was not authorized to do so and left her sitting there. My guy also is NOT authorized to assist her but I thank God he had the common sense to do so. He pushed the woman and her belongings to her destination down the walkway to an interior location with a working air conditioner system. At this particular point, by default, she was assisted by yet another agency obligated to do so.

My guy was right, not only was I sitting there picking my teeth up off the floor but I was madder than hell. I personally called for that wheelchair assist three hours prior. I specifically requested of the young man to stop by a drinking fountain to allow the woman a drink of water during their short journey together. What I failed to do was to verify a piece of paperwork. This small piece of paperwork invisibly states that the company (employing the young dude) is exempt from helping the company the elderly lady did business with. AT ANY GIVEN POINT the young man could have told me he didn’t have proper authorization to help out, but he didn’t. AT ANY GIVEN POINT he could have brought the elderly woman back to me and told me he didn’t have proper authorization to help, but he didn’t. AT ANY GIVEN POINT I would have put in a call to the originating company for assistance had I known I needed to do so, but the young dude never said a word. He just made a conscious decision to ditch his charge in the heat, leaving her with no means of communication in a very remote location, albeit only 100 feet around the coner from my location..

I’m glad I did not see the young dude before I left that day. In fact, I haven’t seen him since the mishap happened. I would like to ask the young man if he plans to return to school in the fall, when he tells me “no”, I would like to tell him to rethink his decision because he does not have enough common sense to get through life safely, he will need a college education to survive and assist.

Someday that young man is going to be old, God willing. I wonder what old age has in store for him.

On the way to our cars that afternoon I thanked my guy profusely for going against agency policy and using good common sense to make his final decision to assist a person in need.

This is just another example of why I love my peeps and am proud to be their supervisor. God has been very good to me.

My Peeps

I love to watch the people I work with. Quite often I stand back and watch these crazy people from a distance. They think I don't pay attention because "I'm not watching" or because "I'm not there with them", but they'd be surprised just how much I see, how much I hear, how much I know about each of them. They think I don’t pay attention when in reality my entire focus is on them. They don’t see the smile on my face when my head is down, buried in paperwork and they’re being silly, or my raised eyebrows behind the computer monitor when they’re out of line just enough for me to not have to interfere.

I’m proud to say they are all brave and they protect many, even though they are few. They take the nature of their job for granted. They think it’s easy, at times monotonous because they do the same thing day in and day out. What they fail to realize is that they are the cream of the crop; the job is easy and at times monotonous because they are that good at what they do. What they forget, that I never forget is that every day, their job in reality is not easy or mundane but full of life or death decisions. I thank God every day that they are that good.

I thank God every day for the proud feeling I feel as I walk out of the building, by their side, listening and laughing, on the way to our cars at the end of another successful day.

I look forward to going to bed at night because I look forward to meeting up with this great group of people again in the morning. You see my day is never easy or monotonous; the unique nature of each of these individuals keeps me busy from beginning to end.

They have no idea how much they’re appreciated, cared about, or sincerely loved. Because I’m their Supervisor and that’s just the way it is.

Every day they help me to experience the colors of the rainbow and allow me the luxery to be able to love my job. Every day I wonder what it is that I can do for them in return.