Career
St. Patrick’s Day Lesson From Gazoo
Boomerang, Cartoon Network’s retro channel for old cartoons, decided to connect St. Patrick’s Day with Gazoo, the snarky, little green alien on The Flintstones. In one episode, Fred gets tired of being kicked around by his boss and asks Gazoo for help. Gazoo’s suggestion? Why don’t you try to be boss for a day. Great idea, right? Fred thinks so. He thinks a boss’s job is all about spying on him (particularly when Fred is at his laziest), smoking fine cigars, eating a lavish lunch in the executive cafeteria, and generally keeping him down. He soon finds out the Mr. Slate isn’t actually the big boss, but the underling of the chairman of the company board of directors. And man…Mr. Slate’s life must really suck.
The Great Gazoo taught our guy Fred some interesting lessons.
1. No matter how far up the ladder we are in an organization, we always report to someone. That’s the fallacy of the increasingly anachronistic hierarchical org chart. So perhaps a better way to think of this is that we are always responsible for something or someone else. Even a CEO is responsible to her Board, as well as her employees; responsible for the welfare of the organization.
2. The management life isn’t a walk on the beach. When I first started working, I remember how much I pined for a management gig. I wanted the power and privilege without fully comprehending the responsibilities that naturally tagged along. Eventually, I got that management gig and I know now how challenging, frustrating, inspiring, and overwhelming that just being a good manager can be. I can now look upon my own manager and company executives with a sense of empathy.
Here’s a thought: what would happen if organizations would allow employees and managers to swap work for a day? For a week? It might just change a few perspectives.
3. Find appreciation for whatever work you do. At the end of the episode, Fred finally gets to go home. He’s exhausted and dispirited. Gazoo decides that Fred has experienced enough and returns him to his normal life. Once he gets home, Wilma says she has supper warmed up for him and he’s just in time to tuck Pebbles in. It’s here that Fred realizes that he’s got it pretty good. Too bad his taste of management is so sour.
Hope you’re wearing your green today.
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Happy St Patrick’s Day to you over there from us over here
Maybe you too can be Irish for a day eh?
Thanks, Annette. Technically, I’m a wee bit Irish so I got that going for me. But then, I’m also a wee bit French, Swiss, German, and English. I can trace my lineage from across the ocean to Wales. Unfortunately, we don’t really celebrate Owain Glyndwr over here.
Forget about swapping work - let’s just swap genealogy or better still - cities! St Patrick’s Day here is much less interesting than it is elsewhere..always easier to work out who you are from someone else’s shores (or shoes, to keep the theme of the post in focus)
I totally agree. You learn a lot about who you are when you change locations, particularly when that location is outside your native country. Other than a few trips to Canada, I haven’t been out of the States in nearly 10 years. I need to remedy that soon.
Guess St. Patrick’s Day isn’t nearly as festive there as it is here, eh? This St. Patrick’s Day was rather tame. I’m working on the Chris Bailey Reclamation Project which means I’m on a strict diet and exercise regime. I even have Guinness in the fridge to taunt me. But I need to get back to some heathly ways.