Dear City Council Members,
I know that you’re really busy trying to find a way out of our current $3m budget mess, but I was hoping that you’d spare a few minutes to let me tell you a few stories about my life.
No, really, bear with me, I think this might help.
You see, I was a young(er) father once. My first daughter was two years old and my second daughter was just ready to enter the world.
“How will we cope?” I thought, “How would we find the time and the money to raise two kids?”
It already felt like every moment was squeezed out of every day. Surely my wife and I would either burst or die of sleep depravation trying to raise two kids.
But a funny thing happened. Our lives (magical balloons that they are) expanded to deal with the work involved.
We didn’t think we could do it, but you do what you have to and we did and we are.
I’m not lobbying for another child but I know deep down, busy and tired as I am, that if we had another baby we’d get by.
Like I said, though, I’m not in the market.
Really, honey.
Anyway, years later a new owner would take over the TV station. The new company was young and aggressive but lacked the mounds of cash that these days most companies do without.
So systematically the managers went through the staff, replacing some workers with technology and making it clear to those who remained that they would be doing at least a job-and-a-half to two jobs in a lean and competitive world.
The ensuing howl was horrendous, but predictable. To a person, each of the employees (including me) swore emphatically that they could not possibly do a good job in those circumstances. Many predicted that the nightly newscast would dissolve into a laughable glimmer of its former self.
The naysayers will argue that’s exactly the case but I don’t agree. The vast majority of us have adapted, have organized time better and rerouted routines. Don’t tell my boss, gang, but the truth is, for the most part, we have found ways to do our jobs in a new reality.
Why do I waste your time with all this? Because the human machine has a wondrous ability to expand capacity as the situation dictates.
I’m not going to suggest that one police officer is just as capable or just as safe as two or six or ten in a violent situation. Every rule has its limits.
But one secretary can do the work of two. Really. Two on a truck can do the work of four. Honest.
I’d hate to see anyone lose a job but hard times require leaders to make hard decisions and do so across the board.
We can do more than you think. We can even do more than we think.
Hope it helps,
Scott Bremner