You know. I'm sitting here prepping for my New Year's Eve gig at 2nd Wind this evening (starts 8.30pm; Broadleaf open, then me as Pop Vox / Geoff Gilson; notice how I slipped that in - sneaky, huh?).
Anyways, I'm getting ready to party. Which is unusual for me. 'Cos I don't get out much. Could explain some of my 'unusual' social skills. And suddenly it hits me. Maybe I've been too harsh on the Weaver Street Market Co-operative corporate office management team? Maybe the problem is that they just don't get out enough?
I mean, they sit in those big, carpeted, plush, well-lit, ambient offices in Hillsborough, surrounded by mile after mile of verdant green, open, rolling countryside. Only the sounds of Mother Nature to keep them company. Behind a complicated combination lock on their front door. Who wouldn't feel a little out of touch?
How can they possibly know what it is to grind away on the shopfloor earning the money they overspend, if they're never given the opportunity to undertake the same work they keep asking us to engage in harder, for less?
How can they possibly know how demeaning and ridiculous it is to be Mystery Shopped by strangers, when no-one is able to come and make surprise visits on them (cf. combination lock)?
We complain about how distant and removed so many of their decisions seem to be. But have we stopped to think how difficult it must be for them to work out the right answers, when all they can do is guess at the consequences, since they never get to see them?
Of course they don't consult workers and owners. Even though, being in a co-op, we all know that they should. They don't, because they're shy. From being tucked away for so long.
So, I want all of us to resolve to do what we can this year to help all of our friends in the WSM corporate office management team to throw off the shackles of somnolent office pastime, and come out and join us in getting their hands a little dirty on the shopfloor.
Encourage them to get out a bit more, meet the folks who actually keep the co-op running, and strike up conversations with real owners, customers and workers.
And if that doesn't work, maybe grab an apple pie, and head on out to Hillsborough, and pay them a wee Mystery Visit or two. Whad'ya say?
Happy New Year!!
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