Number 6 of 52 Lifelong Communication Lessons: Get the elephants out of the tub
February 10, 2015 |
| Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin |
The year was 1970.
Jimi Hendrix and Janice Joplin die that year. (Jim Morrison died the following year) Matt Damon and
Tina Fey are born. IBM comes out with the floppy disc. The old spaghetti
factory opens in Gastown.
I was sharing an apartment with my best friend from high school.
We both had jobs at Eaton's warehouse. She was in shipping and I was in
receiving. Getting a job at one of the most iconic stores of the day meant a
guaranteed paycheque for life, if you were so inclined. I was not so inclined
but was happy for steady money and an easy workday.
I was the receiving department secretary. I came in as a
temporary worker. The woman who had my job, reportedly had a drinking problem
so it ended up being a permanent position for me. My lucky stars.
Well, not totally lucky. I sat in the centre of an office that
was composed of four unhappy women who worked the "tub files", a
growly warehouse foreman and a chain-smoking extremely nervous woman who was responsible for recording damaged
merchandise. My boss had a closed-in office. He was the lucky one.
The tub file ladies pulled manifests from these huge deep
washtub-like basins, put the documents in glass tubes that were vacuum sucked down to the
warehouse men on the floor. There was one younger bubbly woman among the group
but the rest were older and cranky. The atmosphere was frosty. People
barely acknowledged each other. One of the orneriest tub file women slammed her
files around ferociously and swore like a trucker. No wonder my predecessor drank. I am not sure why
they were so pissy. I don't think they even knew why. It was just the culture.
I brought the issue forward with my boss quite a few times. I
could not understand why people would want to spend their day being so
miserable and thought for sure he could fix it. Well, I guess I bugged him
enough that he called an all office meeting. "Shut down the phones,
everyone gather around the tub files, we are going to talk about the problems
in here," he shouted. We gathered in the tight quarters, then he looked at
me and said, "Go ahead, Della tell them what you have been saying to
me." Yikes. Gulp. Not what I was expecting. I shakily shared my concerns
and said some Pollyanna statement about a sad way to spend each day. Everyone
just stared at the floor. The elephant was on the table and nobody said a
thing. My boss said everyone should take the night to think about it. We packed
up quietly and went home. Highly awkward.
The next day I entered the office with trepidation and was
greeted by the tub file slammer with a cheery hello. The young bubbly one was
excitedly talking about the prospect of getting married and the tub files
seemed like a happier place. We never talked about the negative atmosphere
again.
I did not stay in that job long, maybe six months but they gave
me a great send off. I can still picture each of those tub file women and their
smiling faces at my goodbye party. It may have been good riddance to my
youthful naïveté but deep down I think they were tired of being so darn
unhappy.
Communication lessons: If you are going to complain, be prepared
to speak up publicly. Getting elephants out on the table may be awkward but
once they are there, they are hard to ignore. Have faith that most people
don't really want to be ornery.
Fast forward to 2015. Think about all those social media trolls out there. Imagine if they could not hide behind their anonymous filters, could face the real issues that upset them so....I bet even they don't want to be such cranky ranters.
Fast forward to 2015. Think about all those social media trolls out there. Imagine if they could not hide behind their anonymous filters, could face the real issues that upset them so....I bet even they don't want to be such cranky ranters.
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