Icking My Wow

It's partly the humid, overcast skies that are causing my bummer mood today, but it's also giving up one of my dreams--to do my own desert landscaping.

It's partly that I engage in huge projects that I cannot do without help, and when I do find help, more often than not I am on the receiving end of abusive treatment from those I hired to help.

It's partly that when other people disappoint me, I feel that it is my fault somehow, rather than a flaw in the other individual's personality, mental health, or work ethic.

I have used proper procedure to list the job to be done, my expectations for job performance, the salary I am willing to pay, and the estimated price of the job--and still been abused by individuals I've hired to work. I am a fair, honest individual, but I cannot seem to find fair, honest individuals to work with me.

Before I retired, one of my pet peeves was people who did their personality, instead of the job. The schmoozers arrived in the nick of time, used all the right jargon with all the right people in all the right settings, made kids "feel good" with prizes, rather than educate them, and were the ones who earned the public praise for their performance at the end of the school year.

Those of us who showed up early and prepared, worked our tails off to do the best job we could for the students, met all deadlines on time the first time, and always took the high road in awkward situations, had to sit and applaud politely for the personality people as they received resounding recognition for popularity? for good social skills? for showing films in place of making kids read the textbooks? for buying treats for students? for allowing students to use their IPods and cell phones during class? for not calling kids on plagiarism and overt cheating? for being the first one at the annual staff party--and the last one to leave? For doing their personality instead of the job we were all hired to do?

It is that employee who beats the rest of us down, who takes away from the professional career choices we make by mocking what we do. They are "cool" in the minds of the students and, often, administrators, but seldom interact with colleagues who can see right through the thin veneer of substandard job performance. Children learn what they live, so when they take classes from these personality professors and earn easy A's, that becomes their expectation not just for their high school career, but for their lives: it should be fun, it should be easy, it should be all about me.

The same way that students come from the personality teachers' classes into the professional teachers' classes and create issues about the course content being too hard, the performance expectations too rigorous, the teacher doesn't like me, and/or I want a schedule change, these students graduate from high school and move into the job market where they have the same approach. When the going gets tough, when the job demands professional performance, these employees cannot produce because they have learned how to have fun, how to do an easier work-around that makes them look good on the surface, and how to accuse the supervisor when things don't go their way. It is never this person's responsibility and always someone else's fault.

Juan warned me that he had a temper, that his previous relationship kicked him out several times and had an order of protection. He told me that the lady he is living with wants him to pay her rent or move out, but he won't do it because he has no money. He complained (the 2nd day on the job) that I was only paying him $10 an hour to help me dig, which wasn't much. He said giving him bottled water and making him take a 10-minute break every hour wasn't right: I should have paid him more money and let him bring his own water.

I guess he believed that if I knew he could be an asshole, it was my fault if he became one. Not so.

We worked together 3 days, for a total of 12 hours, without incident. He came to work prepared to do the job and earned his salary. For some reason, and I'm sure it's not related to me, he came to work yesterday with his personality disorder--and I believe he expected me to accept it! Not so.

I'm taking the day off from the yard today, leaving the mess of torn-up lawn where it is. I'll consult with the new landscaper this evening and make my decision based on that meeting. I will not commit to anything that is not written into a contract that we both sign--and includes a penalty clause for failure to perform to my expectations.

Don't just talk your talk: walk my walk.

It is, after all, my landscaping project. If you don't want to do the job for which I hire you at the salary we agree upon, keep on walking when you come to my address.