I got to thinking about yesterday’s message concerning the many duties nobody else really wants to do that end up in my department.
It occurred to me that I learned many years ago how to decline (with a modicum of grace) some of the many requests/demands put on my personal time for worthwhile things like school projects for my kids, church projects, community projects and so on. I mean, you reach a point where you meet yourself coming and going! And then various parts of your life begin to decline in quality. In fact, I think I recently boasted about my skill in that area in a comment on one of my blogroll buddies’ blogs. (You know who you are!)
Maybe I need to apply that same skill-set to my work. In fact, Nankin said that to me in her comment to my post yesterday.
Those thoughts led to the following effort. (And Karyn, I’m NOT trying to compete with your “Poetry Wednesday.” Your poems are MUCH better than mine, anyway.)
“An HR Manager’s lament.”
To Greg:
You got a task for me to do?
Well SURE I’m busy, but for YOU
I’ll put the others off a few,
Gimme a week — or maybe two.
I’ll do it.
What’s that? You say there’s something more?
And you can’t squeeze it past your door
With all the stuff piled on your floor?
I understand. I know the score.
I’ll do it.
To Linda:
You say there’s too much on your plate,
You come in early, stay so late.
You’ve got a project that won’t wait?
I’ve got a staff. I’ll delegate.
I’ll do it.
To Jay:
You need that manual to be clear,
The way it’s written now, I fear,
Will cause confusion far and near.
Want it redone? Just give it here.
I’ll do it.
To Al:
The policy you want to write
Should have in it both bark AND bite.
You can’t use words like “may” or “might."
Just let me work on it tonight.
I’ll do it.
To me:
What makes me think I must display
Such willingness to work all day?
I ask myself with keen dismay,
Why do I feel compelled to say,
“I’ll do it?”
I need to learn, ‘midst all this flow,
To pace myself and take it slow.
It shouldn’t be so hard, you know,
Like Nancy taught, to just say, “NO,
YOU do it!”
7 comments:
That was marvellous. If publishers fail to see the brilliance of your romantic novels, then consider publishing your poetry.
PS - Have you checked out your hit counter stats lately?
Yeah, I was noticing the hit counter was sneaking up on 10,000!
That was a great poem - I laughed! Although growing up, I don't remember you saying no to me very many times at all. Not when I asked for 'things' but when I asked you to do something with or for me. Even now, come to think of it...
I guess I'm just lucky!
Hey, it was only the outside groups I said "no" to, never my family! At least when it came to activities. I drew the line on purchases sometimes!
I think I had my priorities pretty much in order MOST of the time. You and Amy (and of course, Mom) were always at the top of my list!
I loved your poem, but I wanna hear what GREG has to say about it.
And thanks for the compliment but stat counters don't lie. (When you hit 10,000 I'll hate you DOUBLE.)
Those a cute little poems. Did I mention that I'm now in charge of HR at my new job? I'm an accountant (the Controller), but as often happens in small companies, HR and payroll are combined under the domain of accounting. So I'm on a crash course!!! Give me some pointers!! oh right .... just say NO. :-)
Congrats - you have made 10,000 hits and Karyn is sooooo not going to like you. Now howabout another poem?
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