by J.D. McKay

Created on: May 26, 2009   Last Updated: October 01, 2009

My Clock - Your Clock - Their Clock:

Imagine that everyone has a clock. Upon this clock is a big hand that counts out the minutes one by one. Our personal clocks have engraved at each minute position a personal trait or belief that we act on and show to the workplace. It can be difficult to see our own minute traits and beliefs, but if we look at others, it all becomes clear to us.

Every one of us has a personalized clock with many of the traits of a good employee, but at some minute-hand positions, we have traits of the terrible employee as well. I have listed the primary 60 good and 60 terrible traits for your review at www.jdbattery.com/60-good-vs-60-bad-employee-clock-t raits.php. This information should help anyone to better navigate his or her travels through the minefield that can be the political or inter-personal workplace. In some cases it is job satisfaction VS office politics, it may be learning to manage yourself better, in other cases it is literally bankruptcy, or life and death. People are always the source and sum of our workplace successes, struggles, satisfactions or lack thereof. Each of us is a people on that list with our own unique clock! Here are four examples or scenarios.

#1: In preparing to land, a landing gear indicator light failed to glow confirming that the landing gear was fully down and in the locked position. The Co-pilot was flying the plane during this discovery. Airline rules required the Captain to personally and immediately take the controls of the airliner. This is the standard practice, to take personal responsibility and take the controls, in all cases of malfunction or emergency. The Captain failed to do this (violation of minutes #9, #10, & #14) and altered established procedures, his required focus on the main job at hand, and the fortunes of flight 401. Instead, he ordered the Co-pilot to place the airplane into autopilot as the two men investigated the controls and indicator light further. The Captain also ordered the flight engineer to go under the flight deck to confirm, by sight, if the landing gear was down and in the locked position.

Sometime during their altered focus on their problem, a small amount of pressure was accidentally applied against the stick. This took the jetliner out of autopilot, like stepping on the brakes of your car while in cruise control (Violation of minute #12). The two pilots were task saturated with the landing gear and the indicator light as flight 401 slowly and in-perceptively

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