THE ELEPHANTS IN THE ROOM

25 April 2019

I took a management job in Honolulu, Hawaii from a big drug company out of Detroit a long time ago.

I lived and worked right on Waikiki Beach. W-O-W !!! By far the most beautiful place I had ever seen. For three years I never wore more than a long-sleeved shirt and there was always a gentle breeze accompanied by the intoxicating scent of Plumerias.

After about a year on the job I realized that I was making a lot less than my counterparts on the mainland and everything in Hawaii cost twice as much because of the huge shipping costs.

Yes, I had a high-rise apartment, but I was living pay-check to pay-check. So I finally whined to my boss about it, and he said,

“Steve, that’s the price you pay to live in Paradise, and if you don’t want the job, there are at least ten guys who will trade places with you tomorrow”.

I slunk off with my tail between my legs and moped until I started to make myself sick. It isn’t fair! Who does he think he is? I’ll show them! (Blah, blah, blah.) Poor me . . . boo-hoo-hoo!!!

I had three choices:

1. Request a transfer off the island.

2. Rant and sputter about it while making everyone else around me feel as sick as I felt.

3. Recommit to doing the very best job that I could and realize that I freely accepted that job and certainly no one had misled me.

It doesn’t matter what I did.

What matters is what you are going to do.

You knew what the pay was.

You knew what the job was.

Jack is not in breach of contract.

You can continue to rant and sputter and make you and everyone around you sick.

Or you can be a PROFESSIONAL and KNOCK JACK’S SOCKS OFF.

Do your job. DO IT REALLY WELL.

MAKE JACK WANT TO PAY YOU WHAT YOU’RE WORTH.

If JACK doesn’t reciprocate, there are at least ten employers who will hire you on the spot.

Word travels fast when people do a good job. News spreads. Intel spreads fast when it’s NEW. When it’s DIFFERENT. That’s where the word ‘news’ comes from.

My wife, Sharon, has thousands of followers on social media, 20K views per month on Pinterest. Two million people have viewed her photos of food and restaurants on Google Maps. On one of her writing websites 124 countries read her views on everything. On still another website, 165 countries want to know what Sharon eats and how she prepares it.

Sharon chose Local Union 141 to which she dedicated an entire website with its own domain name. She likes strong, worthy people with a heart AND a brain. She obviously sees potential, where perhaps we might not.

We are 53-STRONG.

WE ARE UNITED.

WE ARE STRONG INDIVIDUALS.

STRONG INDIVIDUALS MAKE STRONG GROUPS.

WE ARE UNSTOPPABLE.

NEGATIVITY IS CONTAGIOUS. It can actually make a person sick and the people around it feel downtrodden.

Nobody is OPPRESSED at JACK Cleveland CASINO.

Neutralizing Negativity is easy. Lay some heart on it.

As I’ve often said, I was thrilled to get this job. It just works for me. At least at this time and place in my life.

I learned early on in my working career that if I’m always early to work, I’m never late.

And I would never call-off.

That way I never had to worry about it.

There’s also another benefit to arriving early – you get to ease into the shift, rather than abruptly planting yourself from where you were to where you are now. It makes for a smoother transition.

Arriving on time or early reduces BARKING at teammates and customers.

So here I am I’m sitting at ‘zero points’, when I catch a severe case of Horseshoe-Flu. At first I was afraid I was going to die, then I was afraid I wouldn’t. It took me at least three months to get back to feeling like my strong, healthy self. At that point I had to be careful because I was almost half-way to pointing out.

So I’m doing everything right. I’m eating right, I’m exercising, I’m sleeping well, no complaints.

Then, BAM! Right out of the blue, Christmas two years ago, I have a ‘mini-stroke’. Then I had surgery that nearly killed me.

I was five days in surgical-intensive care, the priest gave me ‘Last Rites’ and the gurney was on stand-by outside my door (I assumed it had to be for me). BUT… I did come home and I did eventually recover.

And thank God for FMLA (Family, Medical Leave Act). What a life-saver. What a career-saver.

Not only did I have my job back but people were genuinely happy to see me when I returned. I am very, very grateful and I would like to think that I would never scam a great government program such as that.

But it wouldn’t be hard. You’d probably never get caught. It would be so easy, so convenient.

But you know, it’s not victimless. First of all, what about my own integrity?

Is there anything more important than a person’s character? Especially a person whose job it is to keep people where they work secure?

Isn’t that part of being a M-A-N or a W-O-M-A-N?

And what about all of my teammates that I would be disrespecting by scamming the program? Don’t they figure into this?

So . . . Let’s be clear: YOUR health is most important. And your family’s health is as important as yours. No one will ever begrudge you legitimate health issues.

However, ‘We the teammates’ figure in here too. And so does Jack Cleveland Casino.

How about we all, starting now, just invoke that good old Golden Rule?

Treat everyone, including yourself, FAIRLY, SQUARELY, RESPECTFULLY.

Sound Like A Plan?

Thank You.

Officer Steve Davies, President, Local Union 141