A LESS THAN FINE MESS

I’m not what would really constitute a “fine” mess as in a good one. A fine mess in terms of one that is an absolute problem that would be easy to find.

A mess for the sake of this posting is by my definition anything that really stinks in terms of working right and has to be cleaned up. Now there are messes of the kind that you stuff in the trash and then there are the ones that you simply need to add a little fabrication air freshener to tolerate. The difference is of course how big of a mess you are talking about.

Even then you have the added issue of whether you are talking about a mess I have to look at or one I just have to hear about. There is definitely a difference in terms of how I have to deal with it. And yes, if it makes your stink to high heaven, but I’m not forced to stand downwind, I’ll probably not even care.

Now in this situation we are talking about messes of the type that are honestly fine as in major. Those are the types that once you know about them you have to either pretend not to know about them or do something about them.

With less than a fine mess, you might think about it, but if you don’t give it much thought then you probably won’t get too upset since it isn’t that critical. However, the odd thing is even though it is probably no big deal, you still have to cope in some way. Those can make the less than fine mess situations a pain in the ass at times if they happen to often.

Which is why some people truly devote as much time and energy as necessary to be sure they dump the less than fine messes off on somebody else. They are too small to waste time on, at least your own, so instead you try to find somebody to worry about it.

And the best person to do that with is a boss. After all they already have a ton of headaches so they are most likely to figure a quick solution that will get rid of the less than fine mess.

That works for the employee, but trust me it doesn’t work for me as the boss. I devote as much energy as possible trying to avoiding responsibility. The last thing I want is extra headaches.

So I have learned my own form of dodge to deal with the less than fine messes. The first thing I ask for is a report or study. From the person of course since they are the most familiar with the problem. That is the excuse I use naturally.

Then if that doesn’t get rid of them and they actually do the report I make darn sure I tell them I’m forwarding it to a committee for further study. Most of the time there is NO committee. It just sounds better than to tell them the truth that I’m going to stick their report in a drawer and forget about it as long as possible.

That folks is my strategy for dealing with the less than fine messes. Feel free to apply it when applicable in your own life just as long as you are not one of my employees.