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“No, why would I?” She tapped at her keyboard, obviously replying to an email. “I try to do things in blocks, so every day I tend to the urgent email, then I leave the rest for Tuesday office hours. If it can wait, it waits.”
“And how do your managers and VPs feel about this practice?”
She shrugged. “If they need me to take care of something sooner, they mark it as urgent. Otherwise, they seem fine with waiting.”
“No, I meant the office hours thing. How does the rest of your management team feel about it?”
Her eyes flashed with annoyance when she redirected her gaze in my direction. “Is there a point you’re trying to get at? Because you’re asking a lot of vague questions, but I feel you have a point somewhere.”
“It’s just unusual to me, so I’m trying to understand.”
“What’s there to understand? I want to be available if the employees need me. End of story.”
I kept my tone light, attempting not to flare up her anger. “Yeah, that’s the part that doesn’t make sense to me. You have an entire management network whose job it is to make sure the employees are taken care of. There’s a chain of command. And you’re encouraging your employees to bypass the system that’s designed to help them and take their issues straight to the top.”
“Well, sometimes there are things that the manager can’t handle. Maybe their problem iswiththeir manager.” She stated this as if it made perfect sense, but was seemingly oblivious to the obvious.
“So, there’s no system in place to deal with that?”
“There is, but I wanted to offer an alternative.”
I couldn’t help the head shake. “I’m sorry, it just seems like something from the good idea fairy.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Ellie’s tone was sharp, the crack of a whip in an otherwise quiet room.
“Sorry, the lingo is so ingrained in me I don’t really know what civilians say instead. When a higher up comes up with something they think will be a great new program—something they want people to move on immediately but haven’t thoroughly vetted—we call it the good idea fairy. Like a fairy flew by and dropped this magic idea in their head without any sort of practicality to back it up.”
“Well, I’m sorry I don’t know the lingo,” she snapped, her cheeks going red as she turned in her seat to face me fully. “But I happen to think taking care of our employees is important.”
“I don’t disagree with you,” I hurried to agree, gesturing with open hands. “It is. But—and correct me if I’m wrong—instead of working with your management to come up with an actionable plan at all levels, you made it your particular responsibility.”
“So?”
“So, you’ve taken agency away from your lower-level managers to provide that care and connection.” I crossed my legs, trying to assume a more relaxed posture.
“I know you did it because you were bored and needed to feel you were doing something of value, and that’s on JJ for not giving you enough duties to keep you busy. But did you consider your managers may feel stuck or overruled by these policies? It undermines their authority, for you to allow employees to come sit in your office and complain whenever they get the urge. It undermines yours as well.”
Ellie’s hands splayed on the surface of her desk, the color on her face continued to darken. “You have a lot of nerve to make any sort of assumption about how any of my employees feel. You’ve been here all of aday. You know nothing about how I relate to my teams, my managers, or even the VPs. And yet you sit here telling me everything I’ve worked on for the last three years is a dumb idea from some fairy.”
I backpedaled, raising my hands to show contrition. “Look, I’m not saying your ideas are bad—far from it. The whole point of the good idea fairy is the ideasaregood—the issue is that most ideas have to be massaged and vetted before we can turn them into something actionable. I think you took a good idea and ran with it, which is admirable. I just don’t think you took the time to work out all the kinks.”
I could practically see the steam coming out of her ears. “Well, thanks for your opinion,” she snapped. “I will take it under advisement. If you don’t mind, I have a meeting that’s just come up and I think it would be better if you didn’t tag along. But I’ll see you after lunch so we can do some more rounds and perhaps help you get a better perspective.”
There was clearly no cooling her down—I thought being direct was the best approach, but I’d obviously ruffled her feathers. Perhaps I showed my cards too early. “Okay, I think that’s a great idea. I’ll reconnect with JJ and see if we can put together a list of expectations in the meantime. I look forward to this afternoon.”
Ellie flashed me a hard, sarcastic smile, waiting for me to depart.
I stood and turned my back, feeling once again as if the conversation hadn’t gone the way I intended.
“Jake?” When she spoke, her tone was softer, and I turned eagerly to find some sort of silver lining.
“Yes?”
But she wasn’t looking at me, her focus completely on her email. “Will you close the door, please? Thanks.”
“No problem,” I replied, pulling it gently behind me before I breathed a deep sigh.
That did not go how I wanted at all.
