A friend of mine is dealing with a difficult change at work.
Senior leadership has taken a position that it’s not time to communicate, but big changes appear to be coming. Nobody knows what’s going on.
“How are you dealing with it?” I asked.
“Well, everybody’s worried. We’re planning for a bunch of scenarios so we know what to do and can get moving when we know what to do.”
“How’s the team handling it?”
“Not well. They’re worried and I can’t tell them what’s going to happen, so they keep spinning out on worst-case scenarios.”
“So instead of doing their jobs they’re planning for how to deal with their jobs changing, even though they don’t know how they’re going to change, and they’re making themselves sick anticipating the worst?”
“Well what else are they supposed to do?”
“Their current jobs.”
“What am I supposed to do?”
So, when I was still a private in Korea I was the First Sergeant’s driver. One day during a field problem we decided to pay an unannounced visit to one of our hilltop sites. We took the morning, drove up the mountain, and arrived just after lunch.
It was a pretty standard FM retransmission site: High on the hill, set up in an old concrete bunker. Two OE-254 mast antennas, someone sitting on radio watch, a few people playing cards over in the corner. The rest of the squad were in their cots when we got there. One of the card players got up and shrugged on his BDU jacket and told everyone Top was here. The cook offered us plates of leftovers. The site chief came out wiping the sleep from his eyes and gave Top a briefing.
We kept the visit brief and headed back down the hill.
“What did you think, PFC Hall?”
“Pretty bad, First Sergeant.”
“Bad?”
“I guess they had a radio watch … but half of them were napping! The two who weren’t were playing cards! Pretty bad site discipline.”
“What did you think they were supposed to be doing?”
“It’s a field problem! Be ready!”
“Ready for what?”
“I don’t know … range control to call in an incoming attack.”
“That’s what radio watch is listening for.”
“Well they should still be ready.”
“They were. Good soldiers know when to sleep.”