‘The Department is a bus about to set out on a long journey, and I’m driving’, says our new Chief Executive Officer.
We’re at mandatory leadership training for Supervisors and Managers—for middle management.
She’s been with us for about two weeks and this is the first time we’ve met her.
‘Let me put this simply’, she says. ‘Either you’re on the bus with us or I’ll help you to leave.’
I look at the shocked faces around me. I feel as if I’ve just been punched. To reinforce her message, everyone is given a tinker-toy bus to keep on their desk. Well, obviously, there weren’t quite enough buses to be had so some of us got other vehicles. Mine’s a kombi van.
‘Well, that sure was one hell of a way to win friends and influence people,’ my colleague says, in the tea break. ‘What did you get? Oh, a kombi van. Perhaps they have a surf and sand holiday already planned for you?’
‘Do you remember when they gave us those cardboard pencil cases with the Department’s core values and mission statement on them? I wonder what happened to all of them,’ I say
‘Bloody things were so flimsy they wouldn’t stand up when you put pens in them. But we had to have them on display on our desks. Bloody waste of money.’
Burnside Writers Group 