Tilting Towards Windmills!

"The Quixotes of this Age fight with the Wind-mills of their owne Heads."
John Cleveland

Just then they came in sight of thirty or forty windmills that rise from that plain. And no sooner did Don Quixote see them that he said to his squire, "Fortune is guiding our affairs better than we ourselves could have wished. Do you see over yonder, friend Sancho, and thirty or forty hulking giants? I intend to do battle with them and slay them. With their spoils we shall begin to be rich for this is a righteous war and the removal of so foul a brood from off the face of the earth is a service God will bless."

"What giants?" asked Sancho Panza.

"Those you see over there," replied his master, "with their long arms. Some of them have arms well nigh two leagues in length."

"Take care, sir," cried Sancho. "Those over there are not giants but windmills. Those things that seem to be their arms are sails which, when they are whirled around by the wind, turn the millstone."
Cervantes' Don Quixote

In this “automated world” There are some things that have to be done by hand. I like things that are hand crafted not matter if it is new or old as I know it has that Human touch. With all of its beauty and “Craftsmanship” there are things, flaws and imperfections that make it that way.
Take a task I must run each day. I understand that it is supposed to be scheduled and run automatically but things being what they are, I must do this one myself.
If I can I run it from home (on my way out the door) and off to work I go! Some times this cannot be done and is the first thing I do each day.
The Customer, Jorge (not his name) sends an e-mail upset that the “temporary fix just does not work and we are not doing anything about it!” HAHAHA! I am the fix for now (can I go home since I do not work?)
I work! I am getting e-mails now after I run the task, saying it doesn’t work and I send Jorge the e-mail telling him to check the process.
Oh how I want to send this instead.
Hey how is it you , you missed me running this thing? Go look it is there! So calls us and be rude again, I really like it when you attempt to have each of us feel small and cheap. But being a professional I don’t
Dealing with rudeness is difficult at best. But once something goes wrong or not done right on time (Stuff happens) This, they do not want to hear.
I had a Death in my family not too long ago. I missed some time from work and a project I was working on was left to sit for 3 days. I was the owner of the ticket and management would not allow the job to someone else.
I got back to work and contacted my customer (a man much like Jorge) and explained the situation. He did not acknowledge why I was not right on the task, just that the task was not completed. This taught me not to go fishing for empathy and makes for akwardness when haveing to dispence some when needed.
We get calls from clients that have the same situation and Empathy flows like water. We train on it we practice it. We do our level best to identify with our customer so they feel better about the product and us as technicians ( note that I did not say individuals).
We do it because it is the Human thing to do! It helps to alleviate stress on the caller’s part. Helps them learn to look at a situation before calling it a problem. We feel better in the process.
Then there is Jorge! We all have one. That one customer devoid of empathy, or any concept of understanding.
The problem is "The Quixotes of this Age fight with the Wind-mills of their owne Heads." By Hollering at technology Created by Humans yelling at machines doing things for Humans that get yelled at by humans for being Humans.
I love irony!

Company Loyalty or Self-Reliance?

I pondered company loyalty and came across this letter and thought it very fitting. I am very proud of the company I work for we do lots of good things for our customers, My job is not taxing and I work with a group of fine professionals. To that end I owe more gratitude to my position than loyalty, I save loyalty to my friends, family and faith.


Loyalty isn’t a good term for describing the relationship between an employee and an employer in an industrial organization. When did your company ask you to take a loyalty oath? When did your company pledge loyalty to you? I think you’re confusing terms. Integrity, honesty, and compassion are noble attributes that you and your employer have every right to expect, but not loyalty.

My dictionary defines loyalty as “being faithful in allegiance to one’s lawful sovereign or government; faithful to a private person to whom fidelity is due; faithful to a cause, ideal or custom.” Your company or any other company is neither sovereign nor government. Nor is it a person, a cause, an ideal, or a custom.

You and I go to work each day, and we are expected to put out our best efforts and use our talents to their fullest. Perhaps we are even expected to serve above and beyond the call of duty (or at least beyond what we feel our current pay justifies!). In turn, we expect a fair wage, or at least an agreed wage. That is where loyalty begins and ends; we give our service, and the company pays us for it.

When any employee works through a whole weekend to repair a machine so the factory can open on Monday, this is not an act of loyalty to a company. When an individual or group works arduous hours to prepare a persuasive presentation to a prospect, this is not an act of loyalty to an employer. When a lawyer works nights to complete a brief, it is again not an act of loyalty to a firm. Rather, these are acts of loyalty to ourselves, to us as individuals who are making the sacrifices.

People work hard and extend themselves because they expect something in return. They expect to be paid for their efforts and eventually to receive a promotion, a bonus, or even just a pat on the back.

I would not be disloyal to my employer if I failed to do my best; I would be disloyal to myself. And if a company retained an employee in spite of mediocre performance just because he or she has 20 years' service, supposedly out of loyalty, it would actually be disloyal to other employees and the stockholders.

Remember when you and I worked with Ed What’s-His-Name, who had been with the company 10 years longer than we had and was earning ten percent more than we were? You and I wondered why we weren’t all paid the same salary since we were doing the same work. We questioned the fairness of a seniority system that resulted in Ed’s higher rate of pay. We never did resolve that question of fairness, but you and I both ended up with better jobs than Ed. So in the long run, what good did Ed’s loyalty do him?

Loyalty to or from a company isn’t something to give or expect. Loyalty is an act each person gives or shows to himself or herself. When an employee says he or she has been loyal to a company, I hear this: "I haven’t changed jobs or sought another job. I have (without being asked) devoted my time to this organization.”

"Loyal" employees want to avoid the pain in cutbacks, but was this deal in the original hiring agreement? Did the company ever promise that "X" years of service would ensure a job until retirement?

A while back, The Wall Street Journal reported that a 12-year veteran with a soft-drink company was leaving to become executive vice-president of a competing company. Was Mr. X disloyal for leaving his company for a better job? Was I disloyal to our employer when I left 10 years ago? Were you loyal because you stayed on for another 10 years? Would someone who stayed there 40 years have been twice as loyal as you, who were there 20?

If we must be loyal to our employers, then any new company must be composed of employees who were disloyal to their last employers. After all, they left that job to work for the new company.

I've had several employers, and I would like to think I gave to each above and beyond the call of duty. But I was acting out of loyalty to myself. I was striving for advancement, for rewards, and for the security that comes only from being valuable to my employer. I’ve left companies to take new jobs that offered advancement in responsibility and money—but not out of an act of disloyalty to my employer. It was an act of loyalty to myself, to my cause, to my ideals.

None of this is to say that long service shouldn’t be recognized or protected. But companies must be explicit in saying that long service will be recognized or protected, and not have it as an assumed policy—an assumption made by employees. From my vantage point, compassion and understanding usually aren’t a part of the human resources development program. (The term human, in industry, does not imply humane.)
Remember that what you owe to your employer is honesty, integrity, and hard work.


Source: http://www.winstonbrill.com/bril001/html/article_index/articles/151-200/article175_body.html
From: What Price Company Loyalty?
by Harvey Gittler

Mr. Gittler, of Oberlin, Ohio, is a retired manufacturing executive who writes and lectures on management issues.
Permissions pending