30 October 2013
Bogan's Rant - With Michael McShane - October 2013
One of the things I love about Australia is that to the greater
extent, we're all pretty well equal. The PM looks as ridiculous in
his budgie smugglers as the rest of the nation and I have the
right, nay, the privilege to tell him so. Yeah, yeah. Where's he
going with this dribble? Well let me tell you.
What's put the itching powder under my flea colour this week is
the flakers and deal breakers. The 'It's not important's and the
'I'm very important's. Well the collars off now. Let me introduce
you to my unregistered dog act.
For those of you who have worked with me in the past you'll know
I don't care too much whether you're in charge of the world or
struggle to get joint responsibility for your lunch. If you're good
to me, I'll be good to you. If I set up a meeting for you I expect
you to attend. If I leave you a message I expect you to get back to
me when you can.
That's a basic belief system. Beer should be cold, the BBQ hot.
Simple stuff.
So you can imagine my disappointment when I set up an interview
by video call late at night to work in with a client's timetable
and the technician I'd organised didn't bother to turn up!
Not only did this take a huge chunk of productive time out of
a clients timetable, but it also left a candidate out in the cold
(metaphoric cold in this case) after they had spent a significant
amount of time and energy organsing to be there.
Equality to the most part boils down to respect. When I choose
to be somewhere I'm also choosing to not be somewhere else. That's
what makes my time and anybody else's valuable. By choosing to be
at this interview my candidate was choosing not to spend that time
with his family. By choosing to be available for an interview, the
CEO was choosing not to spend time approving new expenditure.
On hearing of their technician not showing up the company
offered an apology to the CEO, but not the candidate. And
that's when I saw red.
What makes one persons time more valuable than another? Why does
a person deserve respect based on a handle attached to their name
and the other who suffered more of an inconvenience deserve
none.
Let me say once and for all that I will fight just as hard for
the guy who makes $5 an hour and the guy (or girl) who makes $500k
an hour. I will show you respect and expect the same in
return. And I will not support any person or any company that
encourages the notion that any one person is less deserving of
respect than another.
Before I put my collar back on let's look at Bogan's Pet
Hate for the month. Christmas carols in October. Stop
jumping the GUN!
Collar on, Bogan out.
Have a good one.