I’m a pretty loyal kind of girl. In my personal life, I try
to be there for my friends. Over the years I have attended countless birthdays,
baby showers, bridal showers, house warmings, and spent quite a bit of money on
the accompanying presents too. But when you realize that you are spending time
and hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to support others, with no one
showing you the same love, or loyalty, it makes you take a step back and think.
You think about how you frequently end up on the giving end, and in my case, I
conduct a full assessment of my relationship(s), which sometimes results in me
making my circle smaller and tighter.
But what should you do when it is a work relationship
between you and a superior, when you go above and beyond to accommodate the
requests of your boss only for you to be an afterthought on their end?
One example of this was when I worked at a school where the newly
hired front office receptionists received business cards, while 80% of the
leadership team didn’t have any to offer prospective families. It seems an
innocuous oversight, and probably not that big of a deal to most reading this,
but the underlying message was that the front office staff was valued more than
the leadership team that made instrumental decisions, and served as the face of
the school.
Even on a macro level there is evidence of disproportionate
loyalty. One can be terminated at any given moment (Georgia is an “at will”
state), but is expected to give at least two weeks’ notice if transitioning. In
many instances, teachers forfeit personal time off to devote to the enhancement
of a school and overall student success. In response, critical days are
imposed, PTO is lost, roll over options are limited, and there is often no
budget for substitutes, resulting in growing resentment for having to cover
other teachers’ classes during planning time, teacher burnout, and high
attrition.
As a leader, I would like to leverage loyalty to increase
buy in and even shift mindsets, but I wonder if the presence or absence of
loyalty is reflective of one’s leadership style, or if it is the system that no
longer accommodates it.
Keep in mind that everyone in the organization has value and a purpose. Just because the front office secretary does not hold the same responsibilities as teachers or administrators does not mean their role within the organization is less important. I could not imagine not having a front office secretary. Their role is critical to the organization because they are usually the first face a person sees when they come into your building. So, they must be calm, patient, pleasant, kind, and firm all at the same time.
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