1
00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:03,000
Speaker 1: You won't let me extend my fifteen minute break. Fine,

2
00:00:03,080 --> 00:00:06,760
Speaker 1: I'll follow all the rules and this place will walt wow.

3
00:00:07,040 --> 00:00:09,280
Speaker 2: Fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes, that's all I need.

4
00:00:09,400 --> 00:00:12,080
Speaker 1: That's like one hundred and seven seconds. Wow.

5
00:00:12,240 --> 00:00:13,440
Speaker 2: I think it's way more than.

6
00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:18,360
Speaker 1: For twenty years I worked at a local government agency

7
00:00:18,480 --> 00:00:21,079
Speaker 1: here in the US. We were a small, well run

8
00:00:21,120 --> 00:00:23,919
Speaker 1: office with a supervisor who had a very laize fair

9
00:00:24,040 --> 00:00:27,960
Speaker 1: style of leadership. And this work think Ron Swanson Parking Recreation.

10
00:00:29,760 --> 00:00:30,120
Speaker 2: Nice.

11
00:00:30,400 --> 00:00:32,400
Speaker 1: It was do your job, if you have an idea,

12
00:00:32,479 --> 00:00:34,520
Speaker 1: develop a program, and we'll try it. If it doesn't work,

13
00:00:34,560 --> 00:00:36,479
Speaker 1: no harm done. Took what we learned from it and

14
00:00:36,560 --> 00:00:39,920
Speaker 1: used it in another program. Many programs developed spontaneously, and

15
00:00:39,920 --> 00:00:43,400
Speaker 1: there's a very collegial relationship within the department between everyone

16
00:00:43,440 --> 00:00:46,280
Speaker 1: from the department head down to the administrative staff, and

17
00:00:46,320 --> 00:00:49,200
Speaker 1: with other departments across the organization as well, so everyone

18
00:00:49,280 --> 00:00:53,800
Speaker 1: got along. I love that that department head unfortunately retired

19
00:00:53,960 --> 00:00:59,000
Speaker 1: oh and was replaced with a retired Army colonel Oh,

20
00:00:59,040 --> 00:01:04,240
Speaker 1: who is somewhat tactorial in this style. You can dictate

21
00:01:04,400 --> 00:01:08,039
Speaker 1: my style, y'all dictate your style on me, officer.

22
00:01:08,280 --> 00:01:11,480
Speaker 2: Let's rat down, baby, put them five stars somewhere where

23
00:01:11,520 --> 00:01:12,360
Speaker 2: you can use.

24
00:01:12,240 --> 00:01:16,679
Speaker 1: Them five stars as general Oh, reporting for duty? Yeah,

25
00:01:16,800 --> 00:01:18,319
Speaker 1: you can bying this boty.

26
00:01:18,480 --> 00:01:20,080
Speaker 2: That's right, it's nice.

27
00:01:20,480 --> 00:01:24,760
Speaker 1: Suddenly multidegreed professionals who were used to a significant amount

28
00:01:24,760 --> 00:01:28,120
Speaker 1: of autonomy and who were constantly worked well beyond hours

29
00:01:28,120 --> 00:01:30,399
Speaker 1: for which they were paid, were being told that they

30
00:01:30,440 --> 00:01:33,640
Speaker 1: could not extend their lunch hour by fifteen minutes once

31
00:01:33,680 --> 00:01:36,319
Speaker 1: a week to participate in the local rotary club meetings.

32
00:01:36,560 --> 00:01:38,720
Speaker 2: Disgusting. Why would you ever allow that?

33
00:01:39,280 --> 00:01:40,480
Speaker 1: Yeah, rotary club?

34
00:01:40,480 --> 00:01:44,199
Speaker 2: What is Rotate your back in your seat and keep working.

35
00:01:45,240 --> 00:01:48,520
Speaker 1: Oh think I'm paying for these dumb little meetings?

36
00:01:48,680 --> 00:01:51,120
Speaker 2: How much fifteen minutes times? How many people?

37
00:01:51,520 --> 00:01:53,120
Speaker 1: Oh? Yeah, that time is money?

38
00:01:53,160 --> 00:01:53,720
Speaker 2: Time is money?

39
00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:56,840
Speaker 1: Rotary, how about you write a list of out strap

40
00:01:56,840 --> 00:01:59,440
Speaker 1: you're being Yep, you can think of one reason for

41
00:01:59,560 --> 00:02:02,640
Speaker 1: to skip, that's right. Despite that, we were expected to

42
00:02:02,640 --> 00:02:05,600
Speaker 1: be involved in local civic groups as part of a job.

43
00:02:05,720 --> 00:02:08,200
Speaker 1: So they were supposed to do work outside of their work,

44
00:02:08,360 --> 00:02:10,240
Speaker 1: and we had to take a fifteen minute break at

45
00:02:10,240 --> 00:02:12,960
Speaker 1: the assigned time each day. So they have their lunch hour,

46
00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:15,720
Speaker 1: they have a fifteen minute break and that's it. And

47
00:02:15,760 --> 00:02:17,519
Speaker 1: they have to take it at the exact time. They're

48
00:02:17,520 --> 00:02:20,400
Speaker 1: given nothing else. You know, why don't they just clone themselves.

49
00:02:20,560 --> 00:02:22,800
Speaker 1: I don't understand. Why don't they just you know, this

50
00:02:22,880 --> 00:02:25,360
Speaker 1: is perfectly reasonable or essentially slavery.

51
00:02:25,960 --> 00:02:26,840
Speaker 2: This is too much.

52
00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:29,920
Speaker 1: As might be imagined, these administrative changes did not go

53
00:02:29,960 --> 00:02:32,880
Speaker 1: over well. In response to the new top down mandates,

54
00:02:32,960 --> 00:02:37,240
Speaker 1: the informal leaders instituted policies of their own without ever

55
00:02:37,280 --> 00:02:40,040
Speaker 1: saying a word. What are these policies, you might ask?

56
00:02:40,320 --> 00:02:43,040
Speaker 1: I do ask suddenly if their assigned break time occurred

57
00:02:43,160 --> 00:02:45,799
Speaker 1: when they were on the telephone, they said, I'm sorry,

58
00:02:45,960 --> 00:02:51,040
Speaker 1: but it's by assigned break time. Click. I just went

59
00:02:51,080 --> 00:02:53,519
Speaker 1: to the phone middle of conversation.

60
00:02:53,800 --> 00:02:54,440
Speaker 2: Okay.

61
00:02:55,000 --> 00:02:58,400
Speaker 1: Meetings that were ongoing at four fifty nine were abruptly

62
00:02:58,440 --> 00:03:01,239
Speaker 1: adjourned with a note that those from the office were

63
00:03:01,280 --> 00:03:04,400
Speaker 1: mandated to complete their activities by five pm daily.

64
00:03:04,760 --> 00:03:08,239
Speaker 2: I love that. I'm just imagining people like, Okay, no,

65
00:03:08,400 --> 00:03:08,919
Speaker 2: we're leaving.

66
00:03:08,960 --> 00:03:10,519
Speaker 1: We're leaving. Get the hell out of here.

67
00:03:10,840 --> 00:03:15,000
Speaker 2: Everyone just runs like it's five the way, come out.

68
00:03:15,560 --> 00:03:18,120
Speaker 1: Mind you. These were people who regularly worked with elected

69
00:03:18,160 --> 00:03:21,639
Speaker 1: officials at the state, national, and local levels, as well

70
00:03:21,639 --> 00:03:23,919
Speaker 1: as the public. So these are like people that are

71
00:03:23,919 --> 00:03:29,240
Speaker 1: like done, we're playing around. This is some some protests,

72
00:03:29,280 --> 00:03:33,760
Speaker 1: some very very pleasant and rule fahl in protests. When

73
00:03:33,840 --> 00:03:37,320
Speaker 1: lunchtime or five pm came around, they immediately stopped work,

74
00:03:37,440 --> 00:03:40,680
Speaker 1: often leaving the file drawer open, files laying on top

75
00:03:40,720 --> 00:03:43,200
Speaker 1: as they walked around the computers just doing exactly what

76
00:03:43,240 --> 00:03:47,040
Speaker 1: they were doing. And this inspired a revolution within the office.

77
00:03:47,440 --> 00:03:50,400
Speaker 2: I love how like for government workers, this is a revolution.

78
00:03:51,040 --> 00:03:53,360
Speaker 2: We will stop working on the dot and leave the

79
00:03:53,440 --> 00:03:59,760
Speaker 2: cabinets open. Whoa, this is like calm down, gandhi.

80
00:04:03,360 --> 00:04:05,800
Speaker 1: Oh my god. It didn't take long for the support

81
00:04:05,840 --> 00:04:10,200
Speaker 1: staff to follow suit, and soon everyone was leaving on time.

82
00:04:10,680 --> 00:04:12,200
Speaker 2: Yeah.

83
00:04:12,240 --> 00:04:14,880
Speaker 1: This is not the kind of action to which those

84
00:04:14,920 --> 00:04:17,280
Speaker 1: that had worked with them in the past were accustomed to,

85
00:04:17,640 --> 00:04:20,800
Speaker 1: nor was it what one would expect from professionals. Right.

86
00:04:21,040 --> 00:04:24,920
Speaker 1: It was, however, exactly what was mandated by the new program.

87
00:04:25,720 --> 00:04:28,359
Speaker 1: Nothing was ever coordinated between them or the other staff,

88
00:04:28,400 --> 00:04:30,760
Speaker 1: but it wasn't long before the new department head was

89
00:04:30,800 --> 00:04:33,720
Speaker 1: getting called from their supervisor, who also happened to be

90
00:04:33,800 --> 00:04:38,159
Speaker 1: a retired cornel dear what, suggesting that they get a

91
00:04:38,160 --> 00:04:40,839
Speaker 1: handle on the situation and fix it immediately. Of course,

92
00:04:40,839 --> 00:04:43,039
Speaker 1: there was no disciplinary action because there were no rules

93
00:04:43,120 --> 00:04:47,320
Speaker 1: violating malicious compliance. Oh, indeed, there was a hyper compliance

94
00:04:47,360 --> 00:04:50,920
Speaker 1: with the rules established. Things never completely relaxed on the

95
00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:53,520
Speaker 1: new department head, and I'm sure he wondered why there

96
00:04:53,560 --> 00:04:56,920
Speaker 1: was no more innovative product proposed. He had effectively put

97
00:04:56,960 --> 00:04:59,520
Speaker 1: out the spark of our dull dull lives and that

98
00:04:59,600 --> 00:05:02,120
Speaker 1: was the heart of the group. Though within the year

99
00:05:02,440 --> 00:05:06,040
Speaker 1: there was sixty percent turnover, the department was never the same.

100
00:05:06,600 --> 00:05:09,640
Speaker 2: Wow, that that one sentence he put out the spark

101
00:05:09,760 --> 00:05:12,440
Speaker 2: of our dole doll lives. Like they're like, we had

102
00:05:12,480 --> 00:05:15,560
Speaker 2: like basically half the thing to live for. Yeah, and

103
00:05:15,640 --> 00:05:18,080
Speaker 2: you just stamped it out, extinguished it.

104
00:05:18,240 --> 00:05:19,400
Speaker 1: Colonel. What are you doing?

105
00:05:19,680 --> 00:05:21,560
Speaker 2: You know, don't get a handle on them, get a

106
00:05:21,560 --> 00:05:23,039
Speaker 2: handle on yourself.

107
00:05:23,320 --> 00:05:27,680
Speaker 1: Oh where those hands at? That's right, yo, colonel. Where

108
00:05:27,680 --> 00:05:30,640
Speaker 1: you gonna put that big missile of yours? That's right.

109
00:05:30,680 --> 00:05:32,920
Speaker 2: I can I can tell you somewhere you can plant

110
00:05:32,960 --> 00:05:33,479
Speaker 2: your base.

111
00:05:33,760 --> 00:05:37,000
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, baby, put that explosive.

112
00:05:38,839 --> 00:05:42,880
Speaker 2: That's where. Just to be clear, just to effectively communicate

113
00:05:42,920 --> 00:05:45,080
Speaker 2: with you, colonel, because I know you appreciate that.

114
00:05:47,920 --> 00:05:51,760
Speaker 1: I always loved to delay, like John's John always like

115
00:05:51,960 --> 00:05:57,080
Speaker 1: he's like he's like referencing something like, we all know

116
00:05:57,160 --> 00:05:58,000
Speaker 1: what he's referencing.

117
00:06:01,080 --> 00:06:04,880
Speaker 2: Have to be an effective communicatory time. It's called radical candor, Samuel.

118
00:06:04,920 --> 00:06:08,200
Speaker 2: I have to be radically candid about what I'm talking about.

119
00:06:08,240 --> 00:06:10,120
Speaker 1: Hey, well I'm going to be radically candid about the

120
00:06:10,160 --> 00:06:11,600
Speaker 1: next story. You guys should listen to