I get this from banks.
I get this from health care organizations.
I even get this from hospitals.
IT SEEMS TO MY EDWARD BEAR mind that if a position is critical sufficient to staff it, it should be considered critical enough to have someone trained to “fill in” if the person normally in the position is absent.
This is especially true if the position is “client facing.”
Except for (U.S.) presidents and their vice presidents, most executives are smart enough to have someone able to fill in when they are unavailable.
- Presidents, at least up through FDR’s reign, made a point to keep their vice presidents in the dark as much as possible.
Perhaps it is lack of confidence in themselves that keeps some critical personnel from training a stand-in.
Perhaps the critical person feels he or she is invincible; that they will live forever.
Fred Rose and Hank Williams were on the mark when they wrote "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive" https://tinyurl.com/mzjj6kz9
Even sans the Grim Reaper at the door, people are absent. People go on vacations. They tend to others. They are promoted. They are transferred.
”Things” happen. ”Things” change.
Admittedly, not everyone is able or ready to “step into another’s shoes.”
But, I suspect, with encouragement and training, most people can be confident that they can fill in for another “in a pinch.”
Besides, it seems to me it is just good business sense to have someone who can step in as needed.
Having once used a plug board (think Lily Tomlin (right) as Ernestine the Telephone Operator) I rashly manned the switchboard (console). Not my job, but I wrote the operator’s manual so I figured I could “get by.” I did (but was relieved to be relieved).
Granted, my stint on the switchboard was not planned, but I was capable.
If anyone thinks a receptionist job is less important than, say, a general manager, let them call into a business when the receptionist is on a break.
One ringy dingy, two ringy-dangies . . .
The responsibilities are different, but I suggest that the receptionist’s job is at least as important to the organization’s success as the GM’s.
Filling in for an absent coworker is not something normally to be “thrust” upon a person.
In other words, it is something that should be planned and implemented in stages, before the task needs to be performed.
Likewise, several people can — perhaps should — be trained to “assume the position” when it become necessary.
In the military, they call it “cross-training,” being able to function in another job.
Perhaps, as with this scrivener, not as well as the regular receptionists answering calls, but “good enough” to keep from losing a customer for lack of a response.
C-levels who are afraid to train someone to confidently fill in for a brief period need to be replaced; they are a detriment to the organization.
As an Enterprise Risk Management practitioner, I know I’m right.
I also know that people who fear for their jobs are people who ignore my warnings and admonishments.
PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.
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