May Gray

 Apparently, there's a concept of "no-sky July" in Southern California that's preceded by a period of weather conditions known as "June Gloom" and "May Gray," which little sunlight getting through because of the marine layer created by really cold waters in the ocean surrounding L.A. Really cool concept that I've never really noticed despite living more than 10 years in L.A.... and it's helpful to remember that L.A. isn't always 100% sunny all the time.... recent winters have been so rainy that the notoriously brown and black vegetation all got so much water they sprouted green and made the hills look like the Pacific Northwest...... only to probably get beaten down by the wildfires later in the summer. 

For the last year or so I've felt a constant "May Gray" running a team of people... it's not easy being the manager in charge of upwards of 20 people, and I'm not boasting that I have any power whatsoever, it just so happened that I had worked before with a partner at a law firm and she gave me control as team lead of the case to hire my own team of people to work with and supervise on various tasks. I always thought I'd be a good manager of like a chain store or some sort of task force, as I'm fair and diplomatic, understand others' needs and can can clearly articulate what to expect, always available for communication, etc. Turns out, bossing people around is almost as tough as being bossed around. It'd be one thing if everything on the team were superstars, or if everyone was bottomfeeders, but often there are varying levels of performance, and it's easy to fall into the trap of rewarding hard workers with more work, as I feel comfortable putting them on the tough tasks because they do a good job, but the ones who slack off and do a sloppy job get put on the easy tasks because that's all I can trust them to do. I can see why people say 20% of people get 80% of the work done. That's actually pretty close to the actual ratio in a lot of organizations; there just isn't any prevention of bad employees. You can vet them all you want, check out resumes, do interviews (I interviewed every single person on the team myself) and the interviews sometimes are inversely proportionate to the potential employee's performance: those who assure me they are really good, have plenty of experience, and have no problem accomplishing tasks can easily just become unresponsive to emails, think their work is really good when it's not, take forever to complete an assignment, and generally make very little contribution to teh team. Contrast that to a few poeple who I had no confidence in after the interview, worried about their language abilities, didn't have strong work experience, who turned out to be key contributors to the case who I don't know how I'd survived without them. It's ironic; I think those who boast about their abilities might just be really good at talking about the job and getting the job, without actually being good at the job, whereas those who aren't good at talking may be just being humble or not good at selling themselve.s So the interview is really hard to determine who's going to turn out well (I'm sure there are organizationl psychology classes and seminars all about this....) it really requires a trial period, maybe one week or however long it takes to get a good sample of the employee's work and work habits, get to know them on a day-to-day basis. That of course runs into some of the same problems as the interview: they bring their best foot forward when they know the job is on the line, but then take the foot off the gas once they know they have the job. The incentives are gone. It's really a tough dilemma, which is why companies spend so much energy trying to find the best candidate, especially employees: once you bring them on, you're stuck with them. 

Solution: Independent contractors; termination at-will, can end the relationship at any time. Of course the really good candidates are not going to accept that, so you're stuck with those who are only willing to do independent contractor relationships. Now you're beginning to understand the dilemma it is being the leader of a team. And that's not even starting to tackle with 20+ team members the individual complaints, the request for time off, and everyone looking at the leader for guidance when the leader (me) doesn't even know what's going on half the time and don't want the burden of having to address all the issues. So next time, when being ambitious and gung-ho about a promotion, be careful of what you're in for.... you might not be prepared for it. (I'm thinking of Kamala Harris, the new presumptive Democratic nominee for President). She might be ready to debate Trump, kiss babies, be in the spotlight, select a VP (just wait if the VP is a flop), ask for donation money, but what happens if and when she actually wins the election? Will she be ready for all the responsibilities of not just any leader but the leader of the most powerful nation on Earth and the free world? I don't know; no foreign relations experience (never been to Europe, or the border), never was the governor or mayor of anywhere, never served in the army.... I have my doubts, but open to see her try.