Who's in Charge?

"Who run the world?" My friends always answer Queen Bey in unison, "Ed!" It's not true, I do not want to run the world. That's what the lackeys are for. And I am not helping my argument here, but seriously, there's a reason lackeys exist and that reason is to do my bidding. Same thing when it comes to work.

We spend 1/3 of our lives at work. 1/3. Think about that. We don't have enough time to sleep or make enough money to pay our bills but somehow the boss can take Friday's off and drive around in a new leased company car. For a long time that drove my ambition. Then I learned if I want a car, I can call it in and schedule it with Uber.

Most of my 1/3 of time at work goes to making sure things are operational. Sometimes that means stepping outside of my comfort zone and complaining about people not pulling their weight. My supervisors. I am that guy. Sorry, not sorry.

When something isn't right, when something needs to be addressed, why not address it head-on? Supervisors try to sugarcoat things today so as not to offend someone. We're talking about work performance, not how acrobatic they were in bed last night. Seriously.

One supervisor was really bad at answering his email. This would not have been an issue, if his whole position wasn't built around (you guessed it) answering his email. It became a problem when he didn't answer mine, and it was a time-sensitive issue. Thankfully I knew other people who led me in the right direction. But what if I hadn't? Then the client would have been late and a deadline missed.

I would have been written up. Even though it was not my fault. Yes, I keep every piece of email I get. Even the junk. Never know when I need to prove a Nigerian Prince is getting ready to hand me my $50 million. More than that though, I hold on to it this time because this was a testy client.

After showing this was an ongoing issue, the big bosses let the smaller go. There had been other issues like threatening staff with firing if they didn't get to the right quota or if they didn't like his attitude. The threats did not work against me, and he knew they wouldn't.

In those emails, it showed that I would mostly take charge. It was something thrust upon me. Stop laughing. I did not want to be in charge. It wasn't in my plans. Yet, my coworkers came to me for advice and wanting to know how to deal with the hard to please clients. Work, not sex. Dirty people.

Dirty, dirty. One evening I spoke with a retail manager. She talked about how she aspired to be in charge. How she lusted the chance to create change in an organization. Telling the staff what to do and making sure they did it. It was a thrill for her. It seemed odd to me or at least it should have seemed weird to me.

When I told her not for me, she laughed. So, I told a few more people and they laughed. "Ed, you took over two writing groups without us even noticing. You're efficient and great. We love you, but you like to be in charge. Stop denying it." It wasn't like I was trying to deceive them. Being in charge was not part of the plan. It was something that I shunned... mostly.

Maybe some people are just natural-born leaders. Others are not.