The Indescribable Value of Five Minutes

I am a workaholic. I know this because Dictionary.com defines the word as follows:

work·a·hol·ic [wurk-uh-haw-lik, -hol-ik] "a person who works compulsively at the expense of other pursuits."

It just so happens that both my blogging and my daily work are two things that I greatly enjoy, but I often make choices that will benefit my professional life while making sacrifices in my personal life. I have suffered the loss of relationships, hair pigment, personal contacts and hobbies. I do not, however, feel bad about this fact. Each day of your life is your whole life, in a manner of speaking. Basically, your whole life is made up of the small things you do each day, and I wouldn't change anything about my past.

"Why is he rambling on about his past and workaholism? Where's my Youtube shortcut button?"

I draw this picture for a reason; To illustrate the fact that over-devotion can sometimes not only destroy that which is sacrificed, but that which is sacrificed for. Today I will be talking about any manager's favorite situation, the Human Resources Intensive Scenario.

"Oh, Lordy, you mean the one I have every other day?"

Yes, that one.

There have been many times that I have become angry with an employee. Not frustrated, not perplexed, but pissed off and ready to say some emotionally very appropriate but professionally very inappropriate things. It's why I'm a good Operations guy and a good executor; The instinct to react quickly and decisively to forces working against your cause. Read that last sentence again, please. The instinct to quickly and decisively to forces working against your cause. Remember this as point A.

Now, an alcoholic's cause is the consumption of alcohol. Thusly, if you were to reach your hand to remove a decisively-acting alcoholic's glass of whiskey from him, he would likely act because the threat you represent is real to his cause. This is where point A works into the definition of workaholism.

"Sweet Zeus' Beard, this article is starting to make sense!"

As a workaholic, my cause and that which I draw a great deal of happiness from is my work and the success of whatever business it is that I'm engaged in at the time. That being said, an employee who acts in a way that is contradictory to the growth and progress of my business is, in a sense, reaching for my glass of whiskey. I've known this about myself for some time, so it's become a habit of mine to take a five-minute break to re-assess any situation in which I could be terminating or disciplining someone. It's very easy to look only at the facts in a scenario and to then act on them, completely forgetting the human element. It's too easy, in fact, and can often land a manager in the same seat of the person he just fired. Nothing in my career has been more valuable than the five minutes I take before making a decision that will affect another person's life, regardless of the severity of the change I'm about to sign off on.