You Better Have A Good Excuse!

I worked for the same company for nearly twenty-four years. I became a part of the management team in the early 1970’s. My boss believed in a baptism by fire approach in providing management training. My first supervisory position involved overseeing a data entry operation with 60 female employees working two shifts per day in two locations. Wow! During my two-year stint, before moving to a new assignment, I heard a cornucopia of excuses relating to tardiness and absences. Showing up was a major part of this operation since we had a huge workload and needed every warm body in their seat keying their 15,000 to 20,000 keystrokes per hour.

I was fortunate in that we had a reasonably good team and typically we met and exceeded targets for control of absenteeism. I recently read a management survey identifying the most critical issues in the current available workforce. The overall most significant element was the need for better skills in the entry level individual. The second was identified as being the current attitudes of the younger workforce that reflect a serious lack of commitment to the job. This problem manifests itself through unscheduled absences and sloppiness when on the job.

I will admit that I see both of these every single day here in a high-demand manufacturing environment. I’ll let the experts try and figure out all the reasons for this but I will go on record in saying whatever it is, it certainly is different than what it was just twenty years ago.

After a good long run, I left the big company having missed very few days during my sojourn there. A major reason for that was the fact that I had been super blessed with good health. Some were not that fortunate and had no choice but to deal with serious health issues. But for the most part we all understood what it meant to take our jobs seriously. While leadership models are all over the page today, I preferred doing what I did by example. People knew where I stood and I reinforced where I stood the best I knew how in the way in which I demonstrated it every single day.

Sure, I’m not necessarily proud that I left with more than six months of lost, untaken vacations and had used up way too much of my life in practically living at the Company at times. But in reality, everyone for the most part carried their own load and when they did miss, they typically had a good excuse. I missed one day because I had been in a head-on collision and my secretary was so concerned when I wasn’t there she called my wife who panicked because she knew I had left much earlier. One day I secluded myself in a conference room at 4 a.m. getting ready for a presentation to upper management but no one knew where I was. My wife had a need to contact me and everything fell apart because no one could find me. What’s the point here? They expected me to show up, they expected me to be there.

My very best story about having a good excuse for not showing up involves an IBM employee. This guy was one of the most excitable people you would have ever met. He loved his work and it showed. When he did a song and dance presentation on a new product or service you had better shield yourself because when he got wound up he was likely to get so excited he would spray everyone sitting in the front row. He was a delightful fellow and we used to joke about needing one of those salad guard things whenever Pete came to give a talk.

One day he was scheduled to introduce a new product and we had reserved the conference room for him. Our local IBM support group showed up but no Pete. Meanwhile, he had been scheduled down the street at another business before our meeting. One of the IBM people called down there and they said the lady in charge of information technology was throwing a fit. She was on a rampage because Pete had not showed up, and her time was valuable, and she had never seen such a lack of respect, and she would know the reason why, and he had better have a really good excuse for all the time they had lost waiting on him to show.

Well, turns out Pete had a really good excuse. He had been in San Antonio that morning and had missed meetings there as well. They had finally contacted the hotel where he was staying and went to his room and when they opened the door, there he was, all dressed and ready for work, except for his coat and shoes, leaned back on his pillow, a copy of his presentation notes in his lap, dead as a door nail. Pete had suffered a massive heart attack and that’s why he did not make the meeting.

One of the IBM people later told me that whenever they finally got the word, someone went into the conference room down the street where the lady was still foaming at the mouth, and reported that it turned out that Pete really did have a good excuse, he was dead!

A couple of days later I read his obituary in the paper and it was just what I would have guessed. Pete was a legend of sorts in being known for his great zest and enthusiasm for life, this was demonstrated in his family, his Church, his job, and his friends. May we all be known for something other than just taking up space here on the planet and may we always have a really good excuse for not keeping our commitments! Here’s a verse: Colossians 3:23 And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men,… More later…..