The main point to me is that [the players] have to be coordinated, and the 10 people have to support what that 11th guy is doing, and vice versa. . . . The only way that can happen is for there to be discipline, for everyone to be disciplined enough to do their job, knowing the guy beside him is doing his, too, so that you can count on him and he can count on you, and go right down the line.
— Bill Belichick
If a former manager included that title as part of a reference, I’d be fine with it — as long as it came with the “We wouldn’t be here without you!” part he once told me. Of course, they could have found somebody — but would that somebody deliver what I did just a few days into the job? The only way I could pull that off was by going to the right person (as I wrote in a letter to ECOLAB executives in the excerpt below):
When I started as a contractor in [March] 2023, 3 days into the job I was asked if there was any way we could meet their deadline, to which I replied:
Let me talk to the BA and we’ll see
She had never done a digital whiteboard before, but she accommodated my request and I had everything I needed in no time. Rather than wait until Monday to tell management the good news about what could be done, I just went and did it. But my role in that success is secondary to the person who provided the information in a manner outside their comfort zone.
That I never saw such openness in her again is one thing. That she became increasingly hostile toward me (and that this behavior was tolerated by leadership for months) — is something else entirely.
I doubt some other somebody would get up in the middle of the night to check-in with that key colleague during deployments. No matter how I felt — no matter how she treated me: When she asked, “How long can you stay?” The answer was “as long as you need.”
That same letter started with “I contacted HR to raise a code-of-conduct complaint against one of Ecolab’s best, and I was mysteriously fired a month later.” Somehow that experience and all that led to it — doesn’t remotely reflect the image above (which is par for the course in the culture we’ve become). In a world where rigging your own reality has become normalized: You can decorate your walls and website with lofty language (complete with how you care about “Candidate Feedback”):
And then not care one bit about feedback from somebody who actually worked there.
When that somebody is as forthright as it gets with their own mistakes — you damn well better be willing to listen up about your own. Contrary to increasingly popular opinion, quotes of virtue are meaningless without action that consistently reflects them.
And when you fall short from time to time — suck it up and say so! Allow me to demonstrate:
That my experience was nothing like ECOLAB’s claims — is invaluable information in the right hands: As in someone who welcomes what’s real to shed light on what’s not. Someone who recognizes their role in where things went wrong — and wants to know what they could have done to get it right.
You don’t have to ponder possibilities to the extent I do (or as what’s advocated in the book below). But even a little goes a long way:
Who pulled the plug and why is unclear to me. What I do know is that the powers that be did absolutely nothing in the interest of making anyone smarter (or doing anything of virtue at all). I’d never gone to HR in my entire career — but this time, I decided to learn from not seeking assistance in the past. That they took a month to do what should take an afternoon is not what I had in mind for “help.”
Particularly when I was booted out the door — by the binary beliefs embodied by these doors:
That — is not this . . .
In that story from a lifetime ago: It took minutes to make magic from what would have gone to waste in the wrong hands. Dictionary.com defines insight as “penetrating mental vision or discernment; faculty of seeing into inner character or underlying truth.” Lots of people like to think they’re insightful, but very few have that.
And if you don’t have it — you’re never gonna get it by taking the easy way out.
Imagine that manager interviewing for his dream job and he’s asked to tell of a time in how he handed a conflict and what came of it. He’d have some solid gold to share on that deal.
What would ECOLAB have to say on the same question?
We took the path of resistance by getting rid of the guy who asked for help and got none
Once she got word that I’d be taking over her database role (which she wasn’t qualified to be doing in the first place): She went from frosty to frigid in no time. On a global project of this magnitude (particularly with a limited widow to work together when we’re an ocean away): It’s pure folly to think you can run a shop smoothly when two of the most essential people for processing the results — can’t even have a one-on-one conversation.
My managers were apparently powerless in approaching her behavior head-on. But they blew golden opportunities to go around the problem. When I implemented a task-tracking system: Instead of caving into her wishes to not take an active role in QA — they squandered the conduit of communcation that would have come from it. Those managers are exceptional in ways I’ll never be, but they’re so wrapped up in their world — they didn’t see the bigger picture in mine (which has a direct impact on theirs).
In any other project I’ve ever been on — none of this would have happenend (as the regularity of working with her would have averted all this going off the rails). But with the nature of this hurry-up-and-wait project (combined with her long absense on medical leave):
We lost multiple windows of opportunity.
And with someone who clings to even the slightest of perceived slights and never lets go (not to mention making a federal case out of everything — including our interaction in implementing that tracking system).
Work was the way to work it out — by elevating the level of what was expected of her (little by little).
So, they weren’t powerless after all — they just didn’t have the insight to see the moves available to them. A lot of that goin’ around! And rather than learn how to develop it by taking The Road Less Traveled:
They took the beaten-down path so typically taken.
Which is worlds away from what I do:
Lara walked along the tracks following a path worn by pilgrims and then turned into the fields. Here she stopped and, closing her eyes, took a deep breath of the flower-scented air of the broad expanse around her. It was dearer to her than her kin, better than a lover, wiser than a book. For a moment she rediscovered the purpose of her life.
She was here on earth to grasp the meaning of its wild enchantment and to call each thing by its right name, or, if this were not within her power, to give birth out of love for life to successors who would do it in her place.
― Doctor Zhivago (referenced in Into the Wild)
In the spirit of discovery that clarity, curiosity, and courage can inspire:
ECOLAB has no notion . . .
And called nothing by its right name while striving to do their best at box-ticking: Glued to their precious paint-by-numbers protocol. As I wrote in Part I of:
I wouldn’t give you two cents for all your fancy rules if, behind them, they didn’t have a little bit of plain, ordinary, everyday kindness and a — a little lookin’ out for the other fella, too . . .
— Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
But why concern yourself with your fellow man when he’s just a contractor? Why talk to him when we don’t have to? That’s precisely why these people will never have a story like the leader who rose to the occasion above. That I wasn’t an employee was irrelevant to him. He objectively weighed my concerns and responded accordingly from information acquired by inquiry and insight.
As absurd as it was to take a month to make a decision on this fiasco — it seems in all that time, you could have spared a little to hear my side of the story. Yeah, you had a batch of emails (which I provided with utmost transparency). But even if you had all of ’em — they’d never tell you what my voice would (bringing to life the living hell she put me through). And yet that same voice would tell you of her qualities in the same breath of her faults (adding my own mistakes into the mix as well).
And yet the one person who would share all that with such honesty and forthrightness — was fired without even knowing why. To borrow from someone talking about Too Big to Fail — this quote is perfectly fitting for the folly I have seen too many times:
Here’s the problem with what’s happened to our culture: You’re not required to be ethical — as long as you’re legal.
Perhaps you got wind of what I said to Enterprise Architecture and didn’t like my tone in that Twilight Zone of ineptitude being tolerated.
Speaking of tone . . .
As I wrote on . . .
Thanks to the BA doing what she does best, I got what I needed inside of a week. They had 6 and had nothing. How could they when they didn’t bother talking to the people doing the work? What’s all the more absurd is that with existing solutions on a silver platter — you could rebuild it all in 6 weeks. And yet you’re sitting there excusing these people for their pathetic performance. That’s got politics written all over it — as I know for a fact that’s not how my managers really felt.
All the more insulting to my intelligence was the notion that this was a “team effort.”
In what parallel universe?
By furthering this façade with excuses, it allowed them to rationalize their ways (and I’d seen a lifetime of that in the last 6 months alone). And the icing on the cake: Acting as though I’m territorial in my resistance (never mind that’s got nothin’ to do with it). If you wanna replace my work with a new tool — then do it, but do so intelligently. I saw nothing of the kind (not to mention the significant loss in functionality that didn’t seem to be a factor for consideration).
That’s not to suggest it’s a bad tool — it’s whether or not it fits the bill.
When the machine has taken the soul from the man It’s time to leave something behind . . . Oh, wisdom is lost in the trees somewhere Oh, you’re not gonna find it in some mental gray hair It’s locked up from those who hurry ahead
My managers apparently have no such notion of discernment in offering a reference. And right on cue with the entirely transactional nature of our times: An agency rep left me hanging on whether or not one of ’em came through. In any case, the delay was enough to open the door to what happened (as I told him in full transparency). To his credit, he was still open to working with me — but I never heard from him again (even after I inquired on what happened on the references).
I don’t take issue with him passing on me — I take issue with his lack of courtesy. As that — is at the core of what this is all about. Just like my manager’s words below are central to the story. Clearly, they point to the mysterious politics protecting her: Amounting to a monumental obstacle in the way of my managers properly addressing this problem.
Keep in mind — this exchange was in early February. I was still dealing with this nighmare in July:
Rick, I asked you yesterday to step back from this and let me work through this. The escalation of emails has now put me in a very compromising position. . . . I now have to spend my weekend figuring out what to do next.
— [Manager2] 2/9 8:15 AM
Lemme enlighten you on how this game is played by those who think they’re insightful. They love low-hanging fruit like “escalation of emails” — and don’t stop to wonder what’s rotten in the state of Denmark on the rest. To be sure, what transpired in the emails is of vital importance — but that’s a symptom of the problem. What’s going on underneath “very compromising position” is the root of it.
The insightful don’t seek the truth simply by relying on what was said — as their radar is also scanning for what’s not being said. I’ll never know what was really going on there. But what I do know is that if you’re operating in a managerial capacity, you have an inherent responsibility to handle such problems (whether you have authority over that person or not).
I was hired to provide technical expertise — not deal with ECOLAB’s personnel problems. Not to mention how you let her lack of database skills get in the way of me fully utilizing mine (wasting resources, time, and money while you’re at it). And by the way, if a company squanders multiple opportunities to elevate skilled and dedicated resources for the benefit of all parties involved:
It’s time to take a long, hard look in the mirror (or at least look at your website):
Every job comes with a certain degree of putting up with the pettiness of people and politics. But allowing this colleague’s behavior to persist for 6 months is egregiously out-of-bounds. If I were in their shoes, even at the risk of my job (or perhaps putting that entire project in jeopardy): There’s no way in the world I’d allow this to continue on my watch. And that ain’t lofty language — it’s as real as it gets:
Rick’s the type of guy who would lose his job on principle
When a friend and former colleague said that in 2007 — while I knew it to be true, even I’ve been surprised how many times it’s come true. I’ve damn near burned my career on principle, but incredibly — I’ve always managed to come out ahead somehow. I like to think of myself as a connoisseur on silver linings — so I’ve got capitalizing on setbacks down to a science. To be sure, I’ve paid a heavy price for my principles many times over — but the gains far outweigh the loss.
If you can’t see how that applies to America and mankind itself — I don’t know what to tell ya (and I’ve been telling you for a long time). I put it all on a silver platter for you 10 years ago:
When I Saw the Writing on the Wall
You cannot be, I know, nor do I wish to see you an inactive Spectator . . . If we expect to inherit the blessings of our Fathers, we should return a little more to their primitive Simplicity of Manners, and not sink into inglorious ease.
We have too many high sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them.
— Abigail Adams, 16 October 1774
ECOLAB is not at fault for my employment predicament, but their mentality is (the same one the insightful congratulate themselves for in seeing a pattern developing).
There’s a pattern alright — as I’ve always clashed with a culture that increasingly values bullshit as currency. But no matter how far I’ve had to repeatedly lower my expectations — my concessions could never keep up with the pace of pampering that plagues our society. I’ve got an idea on how to change all that and a great deal more:
But “it’s locked up from those who hurry ahead.”
My aim was always to find a home where I could settle in for an ever-evolving future — a quest for belonging in the right company, with a crew that continually hones its craft. I wanted one tiny space in the world where people do right by one another — and rise to the occasion when we don’t.
All I ask for now is that people be in the ballpark of their beliefs, but even that seems too much to ask.
Or even a reference with “We wouldn’t be here without you!” And when they rightly followed with “He could have done a better job of handling how we didn’t do ours”: Would they tell ’em how they didn’t need a “creative solution” to pick up the phone the same day I took issue with Enterprise Architecture? Would they mention how they excused that crew’s incredibly half-assed ways of implementing a new tool and called it “teamwork”?
Not to mention talking behind their backs in sync with what I was saying right in front of them.
This seedless watermelon bit from Seinfeld perfectly captures the aburdity of it all. I don’t dispute that I could have done a better job at containing my disgust with Enterprise Architecture, but in the midst of my ongoing nightmare (not to mention working day and night for weeks): Having to hear their horseshit excuses called “teamwork” was too much to take.
Colleague in Poland puts a person through hell. Refuses do to her job on even the tiniest of tasks I assigned to her. Intolerant and inflexible as it gets. Doesn’t listen and dramatizes everything over nothing. Won’t take a phone call to iron out problems in minutes she’s been dragging out for months.
All that’s perfectly permisslable, but telling these people the truth they needed to hear:
That’s gotta stop! . . .
Right on cue . . .
Let’s not concern ourselves with their haphazard approach and ridiculous rationalizations to absolve themselves: Of paramount importance is admonishing the person calling out the elephant in the room (and never doing anything about the elephant).
Wars have started that way. Look around — you’ll see.
Excuses and pampering is the mark of professionalism to you? Same goes for talking behind their backs to play it safe? How about not reading emails detailing drama that only existed because they didn’t have the guts to deal with it (then blame me when it blows)?
Is that professional too?
How I’d love to work for people who think like this leader below (though in no way am I implying that the BA falls into the second sentence — as I know she works hard).
If you come here, you are going to need to want to be pushed, to be challenged, to work. If you are here to collect a paycheck, or to show up, don’t come.
— Ric Elias, CEO of Red Ventures
I want to work around people who let their actions speak for themselves (demonstating insight instead of advertising empty overtures on it). The ones who’d see what this says:
Coming with the curiosity . . .
To wonder what this says:
And respects the humility in what this says:
And recognizes the limitless possibilities in:
And see how it all fits an incredibly consistent story — where one’s claims square with their record (including where he fell short and what he did to try to make to right):
And see that this guy’s got a story to tell:
That he was the genuine article all along — going up against a world that likes to think they are. Despite it all with the pooh-poohers of possibility (I’d hate to think of a life without them). Forever on the front lines of lowering the bar while I’m trying to raise it — you’ve been a constant companion almost all my life.
Where would I be without you?
Remember that guitar in a museum in Tennessee And the nameplate on the glass brought back twenty melodies And the scratches on the face Told of all the times he fell Singin’ every story he could tell . . .
It was as if they had looked at all the possibilities Rock had to offer, and built their music out of only the best parts . . . Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers made music like the last of the true believers. They gave back to their audience what they took from Rock & Roll themselves . . . the best of everything.
Sounds like a good way to build a company and a country — but that’s me.
The best of everything: Imagine! Yeah, yeah, yeah — I know it would never be like “the best” above or even close. But come on! We could at least do something in that spirit, couldn’t we?
About that dream . . . it lives on and always will:
When you see your ship go sailing When you feel your heart is breaking Hold on tight to your dream
It’s a long time to be gone Time just rolls on and on When you need a shoulder to cry on When you get so sick of trying Hold on tight to your dream
When you get so down that you can’t get up And you want so much but you’re all out of luck When you’re so downhearted and misunderstood Just over and over and over you could . . .
When you see the shadows falling When you hear that cold wind calling Hold on tight to your dream . . .
