Phyllis Nissila

One of my blog followers [1] inspired me with the idea, below,* to begin a series of spirit-lifting, unconventional “New Year’s Resolutions.”

My follower is a graphic designer as well as a blogger. He has come up with a “I’m NOT Featured On Freshly Pressed Award” to be awarded liberally to creative and inspiring bloggers by other bloggers. This is in response to WordPress’ own “Freshly Pressed Award” given very few bloggers by a select few judges.

This reminded me of the series of months I was voted “Employee of the Month” at an agency comprised of several hundred employees. The period of time in question was after the agency had hired a manager who made Cruella Deville look like Mary Poppins.

She was hired to reorganize the place and instead of using a pencil and paper to plan the details she used, as far as we could tell, a chisel and a hatchet.

She was the kind of manager who restructured certain jobs then invited the current holders of the positions to apply for their newly restructured jobs. Under the new descriptions, the current job holders had become ineligible though they had done the work for years. To add insult to injury, their last assignment was to train the new, “more qualified” hire.

She was the kind of manager who believed—and quoted—the sentiment: “It’s easier to say ‘I’m sorry’ than ‘May I’” and who liked to drop bad news on people on Fridays at 4:30. Stale old hard-ball office politics; nonetheless, heartless.

A real gem…

*UNCONVENTIONAL NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION #1: THE EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH AWARD GOES TO…ME!

As you can imagine, becoming employee of the month under her Reign of Annoyingness took on whole new meaning. Anyone who opposed her machinations was, of course, out of the running for the award. One of those people was me.

Nevertheless, during that time I felt that on several occasions I did, in fact, deserve the award for behavior and attitude over and above the call of duty. I set about to encourage and empower colleagues as best I could and to counter her abuses as much as I could while continuing to do my very best at my actual job. And to keep my own spirits up, I decided I should have that Employee of the Month award though only I and a few others I chose to share the news with knew about this. And so, several months in row, I won!

In recognition of my fine achievements, on the first day of the noteworthy months I arrived extra early to work, parked my car as close as I could to the entrance, and took a rock and lightly etched “Employee of the Month” on my parking spot.

I awarded myself flowers for my desk and gave myself frequent pats on the back.

I also took myself out to lunch from time to time in honor of my success.

I encouraged others to take a close look at their own “above and beyond the call of duty” activities, too, to determine if they should also be so honored.

This was an amazing morale-booster and a lot of fun.

A few years after I moved on to other work, Ms. Deville was give the infamous choice: resign or get fired, or so I heard. And I hope they gave her the news on a Friday at 4:30—but with NO apology.

YOUR TURN

And so, in the tradition of giving honor where honor is due even though the normal awarders-that-be may not be aware of or even in agreement with your selection, I encourage you to recognize your own sterling achievements! Make this one of your New Year’s resolutions.

And perhaps you, like me,  will earn the award more than once this year.

You can determine whether the accolades are to be given on a monthly, weekly, even daily basis depending upon the situation, and this is appropriate for not only corporations and non-profits but also work-at-home situations.

And comment here on the results! 🙂

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[1] http://doncharisma.org/2014/01/01/the-im-not-featured-on-freshly-pressed-award/

Image from the public domain.