Monday, March 16, 2009

On Managerial Experience and Prayers for Obama

My first management job was given to me 22 years ago. I was handed a set of projects to manage with a pat on the back and a lot of support. I was quite young at the time.

The first thing I found was that one of my contractors had overspent and was coming back to get paid the difference. A couple of the people I had working on my projects turned out to be incompetent, nuts, or both. I had never dealt with contracts and lawyers or managed people before in my life. With lots of help from the people around me, we managed to solve the immediate problems and get the projects back on track. It all worked out, but I have to admit to suffering from plenty of anxiety back then.

I moved on to managing larger and larger efforts until I finally managed a turnaround where about 15 years after the job described above, I took a failing organization and brought it back to profitability.

When I look at what's going on in the Obama White House, where they can't staff the Treasury and the president delegated his economic centerpiece, the stimulus bill, to Congress I think back to my first project. I was quite nearly overwhelmed by the legal issues associated with my contractor and that was with the support of people above me. President Obama has no such support, many more stresses and about the same amount of experience as I had 22 years ago. Whereas the people around me had career interests with the organization that made them stable, the people around Obama have endless opportunities for personal wealth and power based on their proximity to influence in the government.

I can just imagine what life is like for Barack Obama. I developed physical symptoms associated with stress in my initial foray into management. He's got to be a wreck.

I can't say that I support the man in any way, shape or form. His policies on life alone are hideously evil in the extreme. Having said that, as I see more and more articles popping up questioning his competence, I pray for the man who seems increasingly overwhelmed by the world around him.

2 comments:

ligneus said...

It couldn't happen to a nicer un-American Marxist.
Anyway, I think he's so stupid he doesn't realise you need more than Hope and Dreams to run the US. Maybe one day it will seep into his thick skull that he doesn't have what it takes but for the moment as he said himself he thinks he's quite good at being President.

Rose said...

He has support people, KT.

It's just that his, and their priorities have nothing to do with fixing the economy. They thrive on and feed on chaos, it's how they have always gotten funding, and how they get grants, keep people interested, and get laws passed.

They are about controlling people, dictating lifestyles and handing out hairshirts.

He was promoted as having the best people in the world in his circle, the best of hte best, non-partisan advisers.

What he really has is Bill Ayres, Emanuel and his speech writer. And ACORN.

We are screwed.