Saturday morning I flipped on TV to catch some news in the early hours of the morning. CBS’s The Morning Show was on and the newscasters were interviewing Bob Rosner of Workplace911.com about psychopathic bosses.
The examples Mr. Rosner was sharing were horrendous….like the administrative assistant who followed her boss’s orders and ended up in jail because he asked her to do something illegal and she felt she had no choice!
But what really grabbed my attention was near the end of the interview which you can find here: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7396674n&tag=mncol;lst;1.
At around the 4:30 mark when the newscaster asked what a person could do to protect himself/herself from a psychopathic boss, Mr. Rosner said: “Join the United Way committee.”
Well my ears perked right up and I thought – ‘how positive’! What a great way to get your mind off your troubles and jump in to help people who are in dire need of basic health and human services to just survive the day.
I was ready to send Mr. Rosner a big thank you for encouraging people to engage in helping their community while taking their minds off their crazy workplace.
Well…that was all short-lived. Mr. Rosner went on to say, “Join the United Way committee. No one wants to do the United Way Committee. Do it because you can get exposure to other bosses in the company.”
Umm…what??? Two problems here. #1-No one wants to do the United Way Committee? Really? Then you have never met all the incredible campaign leaders within companies who, in addition to their paying job, take on the responsibilities of organizing their workplace United Way campaign events. These CLs are the angels of United Way – helping spread the United Way message and engaging people in understanding the work that happens because of their donations.
#2-Do it because… Well there are plenty of reasons to be a part of your workplace United Way committee and certainly getting exposure to other bosses in your company is nice. But if you asked our incredible campaign leaders why they ended up being a part of their workplace United Way campaign I seriously doubt that’s at the top of their list.
Usually campaign leaders tell us things like “United Way was there to help me when I was unemployed and unable to feed my family.” Or, “I knew someone whose mom went to hospice care and the hospice gets United Way funds.” Or, “When the tornados hit our town, I went to help any way I could and so many United Way organizations were assisting, too, like the Red Cross and the Salvation Army.”
You’re wrong, Mr. Rosner. People DO want to join their workplace United Way campaign committee and they DO have very noble reasons for doing so!
Jennifer R. Bosk is the Vice President of Marketing and Communications at United Way of the Greater Triangle. Jennifer believes people read her blog posts because she is a pop culture diva, a survivor and thriver of single Mother/Grandmother-hood and the biggest cheerleader for education as a solution to most problems. These areas/topics of passion allow Jennifer to share her thoughts from her heart.