Personal Responsibility

   Anyone who has followed my writing, or has heard my many calls to local radio, knows I put a high value on personal responsibility.   This does not, of course, simply apply to my political views and government, but to my actual personal actions.

Many also know I have been employed by the same company for 35 years. Well I should say, I was employed by the same company for 35 years.

In those thirty-five years I had done whatever was asked of me as an employee. I had taken on responsibility for jobs I had no title for, simply because I was the most experienced, and or best suited to accomplish the job, in order to benefit the company, myself, and the customers.

I strived to obey both the laws governing our industry, and to follow company policies. I attempted to be both a leader and example on the job for less experienced employees. During our safety meeting I would say, “safety comes down to individual decisions, made by individuals”. I will return to this in a bit.

When I was hired, I was hired by one man making a decision to take a chance on a 20 year-old with zero experience, I owe this man a debt I will never be able to repay. If I had a question I asked him, he gave me an answer, and if I followed his directions, I was good. Unfortunately he chose to sell the company to the third largest company in the nation within the industry. With that came some benefits of a corporate atmosphere, but I lost that personal, intimate feeling of having just one boss.

Fast forward a few years and that corporation sold out to the number one corporation in the industry. I often joked that I had been with the company so long, I was just furniture, sell me and put me where you will.

As the size of the corporation grows, the distance between those who make decisions, and those whom the decisions affect, grows exponentially .  I could easily draw the comparison between large national corporations and centralized government, but I will save that for another time.

So, back to the real point of this post. This past Tuesday evening at the end of a long day, I was heading back to the yard. I normally work in the service department now, but due to a need, I had gotten back on the delivery truck. As I was heading back I had an accident. I ran into the back of a mini-van. I thank God no one was injured in any way. The damage to the van was minimal, and I was not even cited by the police, who I was required to call, because the damage was so small. I also followed all company policies of how to document any accident. I took photos, I exchanged information, I called my immediate supervisor, I called the district manager, I called the area safety advisor. I later spoke with another supervisor. So, as you can see, this is much different from simply calling the boss.

I was told that night  I was on paid suspension pending the company investigation. Now considering the truck was equipped with a dash camera, and it was clearly my fault, which I had admitted to every person I had spoken to, I am not sure what took two days to come to a conclusion, but it was not until late Thursday that I was informed  I was to be terminated.

In the end, the decision was made by people I either had met only once, and another who I had never met, they had not worked with me on a daily basis to know what kind of employee I was. The decision was based solely on the camera footage, and honestly, they got it right according to company policy. The thing is, with corporations, they have a one size fits all policy of A,B,C and there is no D.

I have since called several of the people up the chain of command who I have worked with for many years, people who I knew might be feeling badly for my loss. I called to tell them, that everything which had  happened, happened because of my individual decision, I was the only person to blame for my losing, my job, and  I held no hard feeling towards them.

Do I wish I was still working directly for the guy who owns the company, who might have evaluated the situation differently? Of course I do. I am now starting a new chapter in my life. And yes it is scary. But, I believe God  puts things in our path for a reason. I have to look forward, I have a new job beginning Monday, and the other job is now just 35 years of my past.

I made a bad decision, and I have paid a price for it. My family spent three trying days. I am blessed to have found another job so quickly, and I give all thanks to God. I believe as I said, all things for a reason. Of course I did receive a lot of support from my friends in the way of giving me names of people to contact and in encouraging me not to give up. Thanks to all of you, you know who you are. And I will never be able to apologize to my family enough for putting them through this.

I know there are some who follow me here, who will take a perverse pleasure in my troubles. But actually, I give thanks for you as well, because opposition also strengthens you as much as success.

I am sharing this for a couple of reasons. One is for the cathartic benefit of getting this off of my chest. Secondly, I hope others may learn from my mistake, not the one that caused the accident, but the mistake of making a bad decision, which I knew was a bad decision. I know  I am to blame for my own troubles, but I believe I learn from my mistakes, and I have a fairly good record of not repeating the same mistake.

I was blessed to have the same job for so many years, but every road has a fork or two, this is simply a new road, but with the help of my family, my friends and especially God, I have faith  I can turn what could have been the end, into a beginning.