The crash of a symbol isn't just a hollow sound

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Jun 17, 2002 by Dave Murphy

If you want to understand how to handle workplace obstacles with grace -- and how not to -- consider two anecdotes, one from the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots, the other from those darlings of the debacle, the Enron management team.

Some Patriot players were grousing on the Tuesday before the Super Bowl, according to a story in Sports Illustrated.

When Coach Bill Belichick met with his five captains, the story said, one captain complained that he and several other veteran players had gotten incredibly small hotel rooms, even though many of the younger players had suites. They didn't think it was fair.

Is that a petty complaint?

You bet. But part of being a great manager is dealing with fragile egos and stopping petty complaints from undermining morale. Belichick had gone through the season emphasizing the importance of being a team, which is why a group with no superstars like the Patriots managed to get to the Super Bowl in the first place.

So Belichick answered the concern by trading rooms with the complaining captain, and persuading several assistant coaches to do the same for other players.

The coaches could sacrifice for the team, just as they had asked the players to set individual egos aside and work as a team all season.

And then there's Enron. Finding an example of management arrogance and stupidity at Enron is easier than finding hype in a Super Bowl telecast, but here is my favorite: When Enron executives had to make several trips from Houston to New York for the company's bankruptcy hearings, they traveled in a corporate jet.

Let's see ... this is a company that has laid off tons of employees, made fools out of investors and possibly cost its workers $1 billion in retirement funds, and the only thing those people really have to cling to is whatever money the company can scrape together to turn itself around or pay off its debts.

So rather than spending $300 or $400 apiece to fly coach, the executives spend tens of thousands of dollars to use a corporate jet.

The only way people at Enron should be using a corporate jet is if they can find a flight to Get-A-Clue-Land. But I don't think they could afford the fuel.

A lot of companies wouldn't do something as blatantly stupid and insensitive as what Enron did, but neither bosses nor workers these days can afford to overlook the importance of symbolic gestures -- and the need to tone down any prima donna mentality that they are used to having.

What coach Belichick did might have been inconsequential as far as the Super Bowl was concerned, but the Patriots dramatically overachieved during the season because of the way everyone came together. Being a "team player" is usually management-speak for "keep your mouth shut while we screw you over," but the Patriots were mostly a team of free agents and castoffs, so they weren't hampered by superstar egos.

When their longtime star quarterback, Drew Bledsoe, went down with an early-season injury, the team still pulled together. Bledsoe recovered, but never made it back into the starting lineup because his replacement, Tom Brady, did so well.

But Bledsoe had enough class to keep quiet publicly and help the team enjoy its success.

Giving up the hotel room was a gesture on Belichick's part, showing that even the bosses need to sacrifice sometimes for the good of the team.

He could certainly have made a good argument for keeping the room and telling those disgruntled players to shut up, but team spirit is an awfully fragile thing, especially in a land of big egos.

Sometimes it's just not worth it for managers to flex their muscles. Belichick was smart enough to realize that.

But while Belichick was making a gesture toward teamwork, those pesky Enron execs were making a different sort of gesture.

Certainly the thousands of dollars they spent on the corporate jet trips are a relative pittance, but the symbolism speaks volumes.

Who says turkeys can't fly?

You could debate for days about whether chief executives at top companies are worth the millions of dollars they get paid, but people are a lot more likely to tolerate the excesses when the company is thriving. When the company is struggling, even for reasons beyond their control, smart executives will make gestures to show that they are absorbing some of the hit.

Rank-and-filers need to appreciate that, too.

Unless you've been underpaid for years, pushing too hard for a raise or extra benefits can be seen as disloyal if the company is struggling.

Take your cue from what the executives are doing.

If they're slashing their own salaries and benefits, asking for a raise will probably be fruitless. But if they don't seem to be suffering a bit, then by all means stick it to `em.

The executives at Enron seem to be oblivious to how their world has changed, just as they apparently tried to keep their employees and investors oblivious to how much the company's fortunes had crumbled. Somehow I don't think the investors and employees would appreciate the irony, though.

Dave Murphy edits the career section of the San Francisco Chronicle. Contact him at (415) 777-8705 or dmurphy