Human Resources Problems

A person who has rarely answered to another person doesn’t have much room for disappointment from underlings. He says what he wants and your job is to make it happen. In a large organization there is a depth of field players in a host of departments. In a small organization there is no need for a deep field. Only a few people to delegate. You get what you want and expect, or…’You’re Fired!’


Narcissism is a condition where you are the focal point of everything that happens around you every day, all day. What you say goes. What you don’t want to happen, better not, or someone pays for it. And rule number one is ‘it’s not my fault.’


Having a narcissist in the top management position (owner of a company – large or small) amounts to the same thing. The top dog gets the first say and the final one, too.


The current occupant of the White House is a narcissist with a very powerful job. He says what he wants when he wants to. He also chooses the desired outcomes. He doesn’t make them happen; he orders others to make it happen. Then he sits back and expects the results to conform with his wishes.

So, what we get in the Executive Branch of the US Federal Government under such circumstances is what we are witnessing right now:

1.      Most cabinet heads have resigned or been fired; often the resignation has been requested, so in fact it is a firing. 

2.      Half of all cabinet head positions are vacant; acting heads are in place from among the professional career officers in place; or the second string appointees

3.      Women cabinet heads once touted as evidence of an open mind by the WH occupant are mostly gone. In two years’ time staff turnover has been horrendous. Replacing them has been worse. Experience in the position appears to be nonexistent. Diversity once prized is no longer present; it begs the question if it was prized in the first place, or only for show.

4.      The occupant of the WH changes his mind often and wants cover from his staff; often this is impossible to machine on a moment’s notice, so the egg on the occupant’s face does not readily get transferred to the firee of choice. 

Truth be told, policy is a weak suit for this WH occupant. He is wedded to public opinion which he thinks he actually makes and forms himself. He is fooling himself; and his supporters. The professional journalists have become aware of the depth and scope of the problem. They can no longer play along, even if they wanted to. Fox News is now caught in a bad place. The rest of the journalists are doing OK and holding up their end of the professional spectrum.


The ‘president’ is in trouble – legally, values, principles, Human Resources, you choose – and there is no end in sight to any of this. He cannot endlessly make up a false reality. 55% or more of the American adult population are on to him. So are our allies in the global community. Whatever happens – good, bad or ugly – the man cannot win this high stakes game. It is a house of cards that is certain to fall.


Americans may want border security, but they want this under controlled management which also supports our human rights values. Separating families is not in our political DNA. Neither is playing roughshod power games with our close neighbor, Mexico. And withdrawing aid from the three central American nations who rely on the funds to reduce the problems producing the caravans of escaping citizens in the first place. This is the opposite of what is needed. International aid is not a perk or a reward. It is funding to solve some problems and to ease others so native citizens can hope to remain safely in their own homes. They do not want to abandon homes, property and family members to trek over long distances on foot over deserts and mountains to reach America’s safety and hope for the future. Conditions must be desperate for them to take this action. They are placing themselves and their loved ones in great danger to make the trip north.


Saying it is otherwise does not make it so. Facts matter. Truth matters. An emergency does exist, but it is not on our border. It is in Central American nations who cannot govern well themselves. And it reflects on our own inept governance in Washington DC, too.


Who would have thought?!

And now, what is to be done?


April 10, 2019