Carnival of the "-tys"

So what exactly is the Carnival of the "-tys?"

Well, it's a number of things. It's one of my key observations on life - and the one that I'm most consistently amazed that other people haven't picked up on. It is also a reflection of my current stressor and pet peeve at work.

I wanted to write and post this last night, but I promised not to write about work stuff yesterday and going back on that promise, especially for this topic, just didn't seem appropriate.

One of my many jobs at work is that of personnel manager. I spend a large portion of my day talking with the other employees, trying to identify potential problems so that I can nip them in the bud. I have found that there are two traits that are absolutely critical to a good employee, my two "-tys": integrity and honesty.

I believe it is impossible to have a good employee without them having those two qualities. Skills can be taught and knowledge can be acquired through work. But honesty and integrity are part of a person's character. They are part of who you are.

I currently have two particular people working for me that really demonstrate the difference between a good employee and a poor one.

One of these employees was arrested and has been working his way through the court system, just since he started working for us. The other has owned his own business and can sell anything to anybody for any price.

I want to have the first employee. I don't trust the second. All because of their honesty and integrity.

The first employee, the one with the legal troubles, at least was willing to own up to them and is making a real effort at trying to straighten out his life. He is a pain in the butt. He whines. He complains. He likes to play victim. But when he really screwed up, he admitted to it and set about trying to fix the damage. He has honesty and integrity to go along with his occasionally questionable decision making skills.

But I can work with him on his faults. We can talk about the challenges he poses at work. Even though he's a convicted criminal, I can trust him more than I can the second employee. Simply because he has that certain strength of character to be able to rise to a challenge.

The second employee has lied about the most basic things. He has shown a willingness to do anything, literally almost anything, for a buck. He may be a self-starter and may appear to require no supervision, but in reality I have to watch him closer than my supposedly high maintenance employee.

This man has no integrity. He honesty is lacking, at best. I have to watch everything that he does.

He lies to customers. He changes sales invoices - after the sale has been completed. He tries to claim commissions on items that he never sold.

But what really upsets me the most is that when I came in last Thursday, the first day of our great tent sale, I found him standing in the middle of the tent, ordering people around with a literal wave of the hand. Uppity, arrogant, and condescending are only a few, a very few, of the words that could be used to describe him.

One of the unfortunate parts of my job is that while I'm the personnel manager, I haven't got the authority to fire him (the owner reserved that for herself). I am supposed to correct problems, without having the implicit threat of real authority. Not that it would really matter in this case.

He denies that what I saw ever happened. He denies that what the other employees have described ever happened. The owner, who was not present, talks about how he "busted his a$$" that morning.

I don't think that I'll be at this job much longer. In my time there I have been advertising manager, store manager, personnel manager, sales manager, salesman, warehouse manager, warehouseman, office manager, finance manager, strategic manager, and God only knows what else. The opportunity there is wonderful. I can expand my resume in every which way. I essentially make my job each and every day. I know I'm underpaid for what I do (that's not conceit, that's what everyone around me - my boss included - tells me), but the money is not the issue. If it was, I wouldn't be there.

When I left the brokerage industry I decided that I needed to rinse myself, to get away from the shysters. The company I'm working for was small and struggling, but part of why it was struggling is because the owner wasn't willing to sell out for a dollar. Reputation and character were a little more important.

But now with the latest and greatest salesman her world has ever seen, she's allowing him to sell her out to the almighty dollar. He is slowly robbing her of her reputation in the community as being a business based on integrity and honesty. She says she wants to maintain her reputation and her character and all that. Yet she does nothing, not a single solitary thing, to really address the problem.

Honesty and integrity are still important to me. My character is who I am. The stress of trying to defend that person is incredible.

Never forget the "-tys."