Don't Be That Boiled Frog...

Life's Little Lessons, Courtesy Of The Uncivil Servant

Is everyone aware of the tale of the frog in the pot of water?

I'm told it's not literally true, but as the tale goes, a frog dumped into a pot of hot water will immediately leap out.  A frog placed in tepid water that is slowly heated won't notice the increase in temperature until it's much too late, and will be boiled alive.

The metaphor is meant to warn folks to keep an eye on their surroundings, and be ready to jump at all times.  People that get complacent and unconcerned with their environment could find themselves as the guest of honor in the stewpot.

I can't tell you how many times I've had to deal with this at work.    You'll get a call from some employee that's been given their "Come to Jesus" talk by the boss, (For non-Texans, that's the "Fuck up just one more time, and You're Fired speech)  and now they're desperate to transfer out to a different supervisor before the axe falls.  Other times, they want HR to give them a "Get Out Of Jail Free" card, so they can keep on doing the same slack-ass job they've been doing before, and remove the threat of unemployment.

Statistically, it runs 80% female/20% male.  There's also accompanying issues, usually of a medical nature.

The time to call me was when the first bubbles started to appear at the edge of the pot.  When you got your first written warning, or got the first sub-par annual review.  When you've got an inch-thick stack of disciplinary forms in your personnel jacket, and you've just been sent home for a paid day off to decide if working for The Man is in your immediate future, it's way too fucking late to call up El Capitan and accuse the boss of mopery & dopery and being an awful meanie.

Let me be very clear about this.  The HR department is NOT necessarily your friend, bestest buddy or white knight.  We're here on the Support side with the sole purpose of keeping the Operations side of the house operating at a smooth clip.

Sometimes that means greasing the gears and making the squeaks between labor and management quiet down a bit.   Sometimes that means scraping the squooshed frogs off the pavement so they don't hinder our progress.

I don't mind wielding the grease gun if I get sufficient notice, but I'm a bloody whiz with the frog-scraper, and using it doesn't bother me at all.

It's your job & your career.  If you don't care enough to pay attention to how it's going, and taking the timely steps needed to preserve it, I'm certainly not going to care a lot when you find your lower limbs peeling off and bobbing around you in the boiling cauldron...