Don't Let Patience roll Into Bitterness

The subheading to that piece could pore over:

"How the little guy gets squashed by the establishment"

You might say: "So what's new. We prize that that happens all the unimportant." - And you are probably right.

Let's start at the beginning: that foreday I was sitting at the breakfast table reading the newspaper when I ran crosswise an AP-project piece about an accountant in a teensy town bank. The apologue said that he is a teacher of accounting now, and that he uses his own romance to teach his students.

Don't you sometimes hope the little guy sweeps?

Are you sometimes frustrated that the establishment, being it the city administration or government, a corporation, or a voluminous organization seems to get away with details you, as a private customer, never would?

Not all battles are the aforementioned, and not all of them are worth fighting. In one of our communities here a unalloyed student wrote a letter to his school demanding tha! t the paintings and sculptures of a warrior Indian be removed framework campus. He feels they are offensive and portrait Indians as war-mongering. The school board just now decided to keep the John Hancock "Warrior" but remove all signs of the Indian head from everywhere, including letter head, athletic gear, lot. After 80 years of tradition and pride to be a Warrior, one student's letter is full to get the whole community up in arms. In my view it's a huge waste of energy and while.

I myself am involved in a fight on a smaller scale. As a former employee of a party that went bankrupt, a group of my chums and I are still hoping to get some of the compensation the corps owes us. We have out-of-style waiting and fighting for 3 years now.

formerly there are the other fights, consistent the one I go through about in the paper, of the teacher named Dave Welch. In that case I really hope the little guy achievements. Here is what happened. midst times of massive corpor! ate scandals at Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, etc. Mr Welch refused t! o warnin g the financial statement of the bank he was functioning for. As the accountant he has to attest with his signature that all the numbers are stone. He suspected that points weren't all clean, and so he didn't wave.

The federal government, in the design of the US Congress, had passed a law to protect whistle blowers, close Mr. Welch, from repression in case they fix or suspected something was wrong. The beat I refer to in the paper that wee hours speaks about the fact that the protection as originally intended doesn't really seem to exist. Of a total of 1091 cases, the little guys only got a favorable ruling 17 times; that's unsubstantial than 2% - some protection, if you ask me.

As you can imagine, after being fired from his bank for not signing the financial statements, Mr. Welch didn't find grind in his little town. Even when he applied further away the fact that he was a whistleblower has back digit seen as a risk for employers. He had to soft soap his farm, l! ost all his savings, and now is a teacher instead of an accountant. He did the right thing under the law. He spoke up when he suspected wrong doing, but nobody is willing to enforce that law. The courts have ordered the bank 4 times so far to pay Mr. Welch his back pay and rehire him, at least temporary, or give him a severance package.

Each day the bank refused and appealed the decisions. that case is probably dragging on for years to come.

Does that mean I advocate to keep your mouths shut and overlook blatant mistakes or phony behaviors? No, not at all. What I deem anybody in that kind of a situation requirements to be aware is that: Don't conjecture any cooperation owing to the laws passed in the last 8 years are predominantly in favor of livelihood. Even in cases where they appear to protect the employee, they get interpreted by government administrators in ways that hide consequences.

If we are lucky, we might get better government after the next pre! sidential elections. Even if that happens, it will take years ! to unmis taken the numerous quandarys that have come from an overly pro-livelihood atmosphere.

I am a livelihood and leadership coach and consultant. I depend on clients model that niche. Still, I believe we necessitate to recognize our core values and apply the rules and laws equally for all. A bank can inflation it's legal budge from $100.000 per year to $400.000 per year to fight a little guy congenerous Mr. Welch. satisfying leadership and on fire with a helpful coach and consultant would mean to find a way to solve the issue, review the statistics, admit wrong ding, if that is warranted, and safe the legal fees. With the legal fees the bank spend the last 5 years they could have helped a lot of their customers and parent new larger profits.

I believe there is a mungo lesson to be learned from that narrative: When you see you are right and you are patient had it to look, you will find others who agree and will take a unplanned on you. Here is how the spiel ends:

Mr. Welch applied for a job as a teacher at Franklin University in Ohio. The feature apprehends: "At the end of the interview Mr. Welch was shown into the office of Paul Otto, the schools president at the bit.

Mr. Otto is a blunt-spoken stringy-ago Marine who sits on two corporate boards. He'd heard about Mr. Welch. The case, Mr. Otto said, reminded him of an write-up he'd written a few months before the interview, on the thirst to challenge corporate authority.

He invited Mr. Welch to take a seat over a coffee table in a desk-negative office. "Let me ask you," Mr. Otto said, "did you refuse to certify the banks financial statements or did you beacon them and when blow the whistle?"

"I refused to suggestion," Mr. Welch said, unsure which was the right acknowledgment. It was commendable complete for Mr. Otto, whose feature preaches that communiqué:

"The greatest failures resulting from unchallenged authority have occurred when humans reporting direc! tly to the CEO lacked the courage to challenge their boss."

Mr. Welch got the job."

As mentioned at the beginning, he could have gotten frustrated and bitter with the justice organization, the labor agency, the community that expelled him, although he didn't do anything wrong.

splendid thing he didn't. He is still patiently hoping that the intent of the law will ultimately give him the back-pay the courts have ordered the bank to pay several times by now. More importantly, he is using his serial to exhilarate other future accountants to be vigilant and stand up for what is right.

Having strong confidence, the willingness to stand up for what is right, and be firm in your convictions isn't honorable a lesson for a little guy, an employee or a lower horizontal manager, but for executives and leaders among all of us. And conscientious now points might not go our way immediately doesn't mean we should give up. I hope very few humans have to give up their farm, their job, their community, and their sisters, to fight for what! is right.

Mr. Welch's recital inspires me to keep going and not turning bitter. I hope anybody being involved in similar situations will see that being strong, full of positive energy and patience is the source of the dynamism it takes to persevere.

Axel Meierhoefer is an experienced performance coach, scripter, educator, consultant, and the founder of Axel Meierhoefer Consulting LLC (AMC LLC). His motto is" Helping others balm themselves achieve velvet". If you coextensive to get on his VIP E-post office archive to receive more newsletters, or if you such to receive his FREE special report, go to http://www.meierhoefer.net/special or junk post office AM@Meierhoefer.net
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