The Dark Side

"Show me an enthusiastic leader, and I will show you an enthusiastic workforce. And vice versa: If the leader has a bad day, the whole organization has a bad day." -- Captain Abrashoff

The captain went on to explain what the crew called "the dark side," meaning that he was noticably crankier when operating on insufficient sleep, so the grapevine spread word quickly with a daily report of the number of times he was awakened for emergencies over the course of the night.

"I decided to minimize interaction with the crew on days when the dark side was evident, so that at least I would do no harm."

I've learned a couple of lessons the hard way. When I'm tired, I make bad (yes, cranky) decisions. Some rules I try to live by when I'm cranky: (1) Find a distraction fast, either by doing something productive, fun or relaxing. Sometimes just lying down for a while in front of the TV is good enough to recharge me. (2) Is it time for me to eat or drink something (funny how time can slip by like that)? (3) Never send a negative e-mail, no matter how reasonable it seems! The very act of resisting this temptation actually helps me recover more quickly.

Today I found out some complications of my upcoming visit to Mom's for her knee surgery, the kind of unplanned inconvenience that ratchets the heart rate up a few notches. Now here I sit, after spending some quality time Hiddenblogging and reading some funny articles on the Onion. Life's back on track!