Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Many of my big, but slow-to-learn, learnings in life occurred because I didn’t think adults would act like that.

It was the early 1980s. A senior manager said, “Whats his name works for another-government-agency. Everyone who works for that-government-agency is stupid. Therefore, whats his name is stupid.”

I couldn’t believe that an adult would say something like that. Surely, some other senior manager would quell such nonsense. No one, however, did. The nonsense stood and became policy.

In the early 2000s, I saw people trimming budgets with no idea what they were trimming. Their well-intentioned efforts killed projects because they trimmed essentials in ignorance. Sure, someone with knowledge of the projects would quell such nonsense. No one, however, did. The nonsense stood and projects died. By the way, this wasted taxpayers’ dollars.

As the summary stated, I have learned too slowly on many occasions that adults will act in ways that adults would never act. It happens—daily.

I need to stretch my imagination.