So my Boss tells me Mr. Smith wants to see me in his office tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. Mr. Smith is THE boss here at Shoreline Medical. He's the CEO/ President. My heart skips a beat.
"Um, why does he want to see me?" I say. What did I do wrong? I want to say.
She says, "He just wants your take on why the hospital internal survey of employees was so negative."
"Why me?"
"I don't know. But I think you should go to this."
I'm excited and nervous at the same time. I immediately start working on a list. I draw a line down the middle of the page. On top on the left I write "Things I like." On the right I write "Things I don't like." As I'm working I add to my list.
At the end of the day I'm happy to see the "Things I like" list is longer than the "Things I don't like" list. Assuming Mr. Smith is going to give me an open floor, I prepare a pithy presentation.
After eating dinner I'm sitting with my co-worker Sammy in the cafeteria.
"What are you going to say," my coworker Sammy says when I tell her.
"I'm going to say the truth," I say. "I'm going to say something like, 'SMM has a nice down home feel to it. I love the people I work with, they're like family. So the method of hiring is great. I'm going to say some nice things, you see, before I list the negative."
"Why would you do that," she says.
"Because I figure anyone else in this position will just list complaints and be negative."
"I think you're wrong. I think anyone else will be positive because they'll be afraid they'll be fired."
"If they do they're foolish. I think if you have a rare opportunity to speak with THE boss you should be honest. Obviously he wants advice to find out why people around here are so unhappy, and I'm going to tell him what I think. Then I'm going to tell him what I think he can do to fix the problem."
"You're gutsy," she said.
"No, I'm doing what's right."
Of course all this is assuming I'm allowed an open floor. Tomorrow I'll clue you guys in on what happens.
Note: Due to an RT Cave Editorial Board decision, the second part of this blog post will not be published. You can just imagine what you would say if given the opportunity to speak to your top boss. However, excerpts may be published at a later date. Oh, what the heck: here it is.
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2 comments:
Did you at least get to speak your mind? The kind of courage and honesty that you have is rare in today's world. And it should also be appreciated.
It was a rare opportunity, so I had no choice but to do it. I ended up publishing my discussion with the CEO. It actually went quite well.
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