Obsidian Potency 3.0
Get Over It: The Truth About The American Workplace
posted Wednesday, 19 December 2007
Recently, a couple of incidents in sports have provided a graphic example of what the American workforce is really like. This post is going to address the hypocrisy of many average people and a few talking heads when it comes to evaluating the employment decisions of various sports figures.
Recently, Rich Rodriguez left West Virginia University to become the head coach at the University of Michigan. A couple of days before, Bobby Petrino left the Atlanta Falcons to become the head coach at the University of Arkansas. This brief article compares both moves for how well they were handled by the the coaches involved. Did they leave gracefully? Did they break promises? Did their employers treat them well?
But it's not the article itself that I find fascinating. Rather, it's the comments appearing below the article. It never ceases to amaze me how irrational and hypocritical sports fans get when it comes to their favorite teams. You hear it all the time: a player leaves one team for another, and rejects a decent offer from his original team; that player gets labeled a mercenary. A coach leaves one team for another, and that coach gets labeled a disloyal traitor.
Most of these people who are so quick to smear these coaches or players talk about "commitment" and "loyalty" and "integrity" and "promises" -- as if these are qualities that the American workforce treasures. The days of corporations being loyal to their employees are long gone. These days, people get laid off with no notice. Fired people get escorted out of the building by security and have their stuff mailed to them. CEOs and coaches get canned a few weeks after receiving a vote of confidence from their owners/board; sometimes, their contracts are terminated or bought out early.
In pro football, contracts aren't guaranteed -- so players get terminated all the time. Often, a team will sign a player to a nice contract, then ask him to renegotiate the deal a couple of years later or face termination.
Ifn this kind of environment, how can anyone possibly expect a player or coach to be any more loyal than an average 9-5 employee?
Let's say you are an administrative assistant, construction worker, office manager or consultant. If you asked for a raise and didn't get it, and you knew a comparable company would give you better compensation, how long would you stick around? If you worked hard, made requests for help and got denied, how long would you put up with it? If you knew you were one bad 5-month stretch away from getting fired, or one bad performance away, would you be content to get comfortable in your job -- or would you always keep your eye open for situations that seem better?
Think of the last time you decided to leave a job. You started looking well before you left, correct? Now, if someone asked you how you felt about your job during this process, what would you tell them if you knew your boss was listening? Most people would say, "I'm happy with my job and I'm not planning on leaving." You'd be a fool to say anything else. What, you're really going to tell him/her "Actually, I've been unhappy for months now, and I'm actively shopping around for a new job"? Sure - let me know how that works out for you.
I had a friend who went overseas through Peace Corps and made the mistake of telling his bosses that he'd be leaving his position 2-3 months beforehand. They had his replacement hired, trained and working well before he left. Essentially, he was let go before he was ready to stop receiving a paycheck.
I made jokes to my friend Dave (a Columbia alumnus) about being mad that former Michigan president Lee Bollinger left to become president at Columbia University. But I'm sure he got a raise; he certainly got more prestige from moving to the Ivy League than Michigan could ever offer, even though Michigan is a fantastic school. He made a decision to benefit his career and (probably) his finances. Those are the breaks.
And that, in a nutshell, is why coaches and players lie. They lie for the same reasons we do: they are looking out for themselves first. The only victims of this are the students who signed commitment letters, but they'll get over it - just like they would if a teammate transferred or their coach was fired.
That's the situation these coaches and free agent players face. They are forced to lie, just like we are forced to in the same situation. The biggest difference is that their lies become public knowledge while ours do not. Being a die-hard fan of a team doesn't give anyone permission to warp reality to suit their allegiances.
Recently, Rich Rodriguez left West Virginia University to become the head coach at the University of Michigan. A couple of days before, Bobby Petrino left the Atlanta Falcons to become the head coach at the University of Arkansas. This brief article compares both moves for how well they were handled by the the coaches involved. Did they leave gracefully? Did they break promises? Did their employers treat them well?
But it's not the article itself that I find fascinating. Rather, it's the comments appearing below the article. It never ceases to amaze me how irrational and hypocritical sports fans get when it comes to their favorite teams. You hear it all the time: a player leaves one team for another, and rejects a decent offer from his original team; that player gets labeled a mercenary. A coach leaves one team for another, and that coach gets labeled a disloyal traitor.
Most of these people who are so quick to smear these coaches or players talk about "commitment" and "loyalty" and "integrity" and "promises" -- as if these are qualities that the American workforce treasures. The days of corporations being loyal to their employees are long gone. These days, people get laid off with no notice. Fired people get escorted out of the building by security and have their stuff mailed to them. CEOs and coaches get canned a few weeks after receiving a vote of confidence from their owners/board; sometimes, their contracts are terminated or bought out early.
In pro football, contracts aren't guaranteed -- so players get terminated all the time. Often, a team will sign a player to a nice contract, then ask him to renegotiate the deal a couple of years later or face termination.
Ifn this kind of environment, how can anyone possibly expect a player or coach to be any more loyal than an average 9-5 employee?
Let's say you are an administrative assistant, construction worker, office manager or consultant. If you asked for a raise and didn't get it, and you knew a comparable company would give you better compensation, how long would you stick around? If you worked hard, made requests for help and got denied, how long would you put up with it? If you knew you were one bad 5-month stretch away from getting fired, or one bad performance away, would you be content to get comfortable in your job -- or would you always keep your eye open for situations that seem better?
Think of the last time you decided to leave a job. You started looking well before you left, correct? Now, if someone asked you how you felt about your job during this process, what would you tell them if you knew your boss was listening? Most people would say, "I'm happy with my job and I'm not planning on leaving." You'd be a fool to say anything else. What, you're really going to tell him/her "Actually, I've been unhappy for months now, and I'm actively shopping around for a new job"? Sure - let me know how that works out for you.
I had a friend who went overseas through Peace Corps and made the mistake of telling his bosses that he'd be leaving his position 2-3 months beforehand. They had his replacement hired, trained and working well before he left. Essentially, he was let go before he was ready to stop receiving a paycheck.
I made jokes to my friend Dave (a Columbia alumnus) about being mad that former Michigan president Lee Bollinger left to become president at Columbia University. But I'm sure he got a raise; he certainly got more prestige from moving to the Ivy League than Michigan could ever offer, even though Michigan is a fantastic school. He made a decision to benefit his career and (probably) his finances. Those are the breaks.
And that, in a nutshell, is why coaches and players lie. They lie for the same reasons we do: they are looking out for themselves first. The only victims of this are the students who signed commitment letters, but they'll get over it - just like they would if a teammate transferred or their coach was fired.
That's the situation these coaches and free agent players face. They are forced to lie, just like we are forced to in the same situation. The biggest difference is that their lies become public knowledge while ours do not. Being a die-hard fan of a team doesn't give anyone permission to warp reality to suit their allegiances.
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