“Oh, C’mon, Steve! Proper Strategic Planning And Educating The Public About Where Our Organization Adds Value To Their Lives Is Inconvenient And Too Time-Consuming!”
Really?! Do you know what other things are inconvenient and time-consuming?
Repeatedly replacing employees (at a cost of between $30,000 and $150,000 per replacement) because you continue to tolerate conditions that contribute to dysfunction, toxicity, and burnout in the workplace … is inconvenient and time-consuming.
Employees getting divorced because they’re often forced to choose work over family … employees who aren’t balancing their lives because of an institutionalized scarcity mentality and the absolute lack of leadership that demands and tolerates holding employees hostage with mandatory overtime – or people of rank who settle for one or both of the silliest obfuscating victim statements of all, “minimum staffing” and “do more with less” … Wow, those are inconvenient and time-consuming!
Employees who struggle to pay their bills because wages are so low they qualify for food stamps … employees who cannot afford to buy a home in the very jurisdiction within which they serve … those are inconvenient and time-consuming.
If you are an elected or appointed official in a municipality or county where government employees cannot afford to live in the jurisdication yet are told they must, “Do more with less,” that is not leadership. It is exploitation. Shameful, inexcusable exploitation.
Employees dying from heart attacks and strokes within five years after retiring … wow, those are all inconvenient and time-consuming.
Employees subsidizing rank’s unwillingness or fearfulness to consistently engage the taxpayer about proper funding and staffing – doing so by sacrificing the quality of their lives, their mental health, and the lives and mental health of their family members – is inconvenient and time-consuming.
You know what else is inconvenient and time-consuming? Law Enforcement, Detention/Jail and Fire personnel committing suicide is inconvenient and time-consuming.
Wasting finite Public Funds – other people’s hard-earned tax dollars – to subsidize the circular pathology of a few toxic employees while their perpetually meddling guild lawyer gets paid by the hour to foment hate, divisiveness, and discontent … is inconvenient and time-consuming.
Unnecessary negative workplace stress and hopelessness carried home and into other dimensions of employee lives are inconvenient and time-consuming.
The world is like a balloon – squeeze it here, it gets bigger somewhere else. Without adult leadership and true, comprehensive, long-range strategic planning, “somewhere else” can often be both inconvenient and time-consuming. Inconveniences and time-wasting don’t just happen … they are caused.
Creating situations where employees are in a constant state of jet lag because – rather than step up and solve the real, core problem of broken funding and staffing algorithms – people of rank (the same ones who tell me they’re all about employee safety) have dinked around with the schedule so frequently that employee Circadian Rhythms are in perpetual chaos. Wow! … creating walking-brainstem Officers, Troopers, Deputies, Dispatchers, and Detention personnel because lazy thinkers, timid executives, and fearful first-line supervisors get their emotional payoff from merely solving symptoms – shuffling an already worn-out deck – is seriously inconvenient and time-consuming. Read my article, “The Hidden Danger: How Shift Work and Lack of Sleep Can Cause Psychotic Symptoms“
(While I’m here, I have learned that “overtime” is a weasel word. What it really means is, “Sorry, we didn’t hire enough people to get the job done for which we’re holding you accountable.” Since we know that expenses rise to meet income, too many organizations have, by default, created an addiction to overtime pay that is very difficult to reverse … i.e., a self-inflicted wound.)
Children who don’t know if their Mom or Dad is going to be at the game on Saturday because Mom or Dad is saddled with mandatory overtime … that is both inconvenient and time-consuming.
Continuing to measure stupid things that have no relevance to the taxpayer (it’s their money) nor relevance to your team members (it’s their lives), and subsequently having a levy or other request for public support fail … is inconvenient and time-consuming.
Too many things in America don’t get done because too many people who should know better are lazy, unimaginative, fearful or selfish … or some combination of those four non-adult behaviors.
Getting successfully sued because you’ve tolerated inconsistent interpretations of plans, policies, and procedures – or because you dumbed-down hiring and retention standards to fill a hole in your formation with just any warm body – or because you have excused away a total lack of effective leadership among and between supervisors at all levels is inconvenient and time-consuming.
Tolerating any form of a “shadow chain-of-command” bent upon undermining official decisions is inconvenient and time-consuming.
Adding more work on top of employees who are already overworked because your City Council got excited about attracting new businesses and annexing more land with hundreds of new housing starts – yet no one asked about providing coverage for those new neighborhoods and businesses … that’s inconvenient and time-consuming. Read my article, We Keep Getting More Work, But Nothing Ever Comes Off The List.
Watching your agency’s good reputation and the good reputation of your industry get blasted in front-page news and social media because the only stories getting out there are negative rather than educating your constituents about the thousands and thousands of successes your agency delivers is inconvenient and time-consuming.
Confronting an employee with toxic behavior may appear to be inconvenient and time-consuming … but convincing all other employees why they should continue to be enthusiastic about the Mission and care about your Vision (assuming you actually have one) while you resist … or are too afraid … to confront that toxic individual is way more inconvenient and time-consuming. (While I’m here, the role of HR and the city attorney is NOT to tell you “whether” you can rid your ranks of toxic people … their role is to tell you HOW. – s)
Some of y’all would prefer to complain about these issues rather than fix the core problems … and it shows.
Employees getting arrested for domestic violence, child abuse, or driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs because everyone in the workplace looked away from or enabled the little things that have not-so-suddenly become holycrap! big things … that’s inconvenient and time-consuming.
Going back and forth – over and over and over again- to a budget committee, city council, county commission, or legislature with a perpetual, ever-changing, short-sighted, instantaneous gratification-driven “wish list” – rather than engaging them in identifying the specific level of service they envision for the future and inspiring them in their own best interests to be part of funding, staffing, equipping, and achieving that vision – is inconvenient and time-consuming.
Knowing that your Team is constantly exposed to physical risk because of abysmally insufficient staffing levels is inconvenient and time-consuming.
Worrying about what to say to employees who are anxious about losing their jobs when another entity (by the way, an entity without accountability for the results) is allowed to cut your budget … golly, I would think that is inconvenient and time-consuming.
On the other hand... you could choose to learn and practice the skills for true Strategic Planning and Educating The Public About Where Your Agency Adds Value To Their Lives … truly committed to employee safety … truly committed to having a positive impact on the fabric of the culture of your agency, your industry, and your service area … and, over time, maximize the chances of preempting nearly everything on the list above.
Your call.
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Author’s Note: The content provided in this article is designed exclusively for educational and informational purposes, reflecting opinions shaped by decades of leadership training and organizational consulting experience. It should never be interpreted as formal professional advice. By reading or engaging with this material, you acknowledge that no professional-client relationship is established and that these insights do not substitute for tailored guidance from a qualified professional familiar with your specific circumstances. Consequently, readers are strongly advised to seek independent counsel from licensed legal, financial, medical, or other appropriate advisors before implementing any strategies or making decisions based on these perspectives. Ultimately, you assume full personal responsibility for any actions you choose to take or omit as a result of reading this material, releasing the author and publisher from any liability for outcomes arising from your reliance on the text.
