The Office Referee

In professional sports we have referees to keep everything under control. At the office we have no such luxury. So I have come up with some typical fouls you may see committed at the Office and how a referee would call them. (the names are made up, and any resemblance to actual events is purely intentional)

Crying over spilled milk on "Joe", get over it and concentrate on a forward action plan.

Trying to assess blame on "Earl", become part of the solution not the assessor of the problem

Maintaining the status quo on "Bill", keep it up and we will be out of business in a few years. We can change anything except the laws of physics and even those are open interpretation.

Failure to have any testes on "John",   Grow a pair and make some difficult decisions dammit

Lack of a spine on "Jill", Show some gumption and stand up for what is right

Micro managing on "Sam",  get out of the freaking way and let the professionals do their job

Rectal retention on "Sam" (again),  for this second offense you get a red card and are ejected from the game.

20/20 hindsight on "Tony". Scolding the staff for decisions they made which worked out poorly after the fact accomplishes nothing other than proving you have zero integrity. If your the leader of a project show your staff you have integrity and stand behind every success and failure with them. We are all on the same team.

Setting up road blocks on the IT department the HR department and any other self appointed department not directly associated with getting the product we make out the door. Ask yourself this question everyday. "How can I get myself the hell out of the way of the people trying to design manufacture and sell the products and services this company provides to our customers"

Lack of decision making on "Harold", "No decision does not count as making a decision" Understand nothing will change unless you make one.