Shovelling dirt

So there was this one time I was working for a landscaping company. I was new to the job and the profession and was eagerly learning all that I could. While I was certain that it would not make a career of it, I knew that it would help me shape and maintain my future yard.

It must have been slow at work that particular day because when I arrived at work, my boss told me to go down the hill and shovel the dirt into the pickup as a customer needed some. He didn’t say any more than that and I didn’t ask; I went on my way and started shovelling dirt.

Some time later, maybe an hour or so, my boss came to check up on me. He was immediately angry. He started screaming that I had shovelled too much dirt into the truck and that the weight would break its axles. I was very surprised and upset as he had given me no other instruction than to fill the bed of the pickup; I had done exactly that. After his rant, he told me take out the dirt but to leave some in so that he could deliver it to the customer. I again started shovelling dirt.

After some time he returned to see how I was doing. Again he exploded saying that I had taken out too much dirt as the customer clearly needed more than what was now available. He told me that I was stupid and wondered how I had made it that far in life. He stormed off and I again started shovelling dirt.

Finally this cruel and unusual punishment came to an end as I had filled the truck bed, as Goldilocks may have said, “just right.” He drove way after he dismissed me from work for the rest of the day.

I learned some pretty powerful lessons that day about management and communication. 1) delegating does not mean deserting and does include detail; 2) performance with no coaching will usually be poor; 3) too-busy bosses that can’t be bothered are as much to blame for poor performance as poorly-performing staff; 4) when any of the first three conditions exist, the employee always suffers.

I learned this last lesson the hard way. The following morning when I awoke, I found that my hands were ‘frozen’ such that a shovel could fit nicely into my curved hands. It would be eight weeks before I would have complete and total feeling in all of my fingers. When the carpal tunnel syndrome acts these many years later, I reflect back on the dirt and the pickup truck. I know, I know, I’m rambling again.