#1 Ball Buster

Frank was sitting in a wheelchair across from the nurse's station when I came in. He was sitting by himself, watching everyone come and go. It took him a minute to recognize me when I walked in.

"Hi, Frank," I said, kneeling down beside him. A huge smile overtook his face.

?? "What are you doing here?" he asked.

"I heard you were here, so I thought I'd stop by and see how everything was going." He continued to smile and told me to grab a chair.

When I was 18 years old, Frank ran a construction company, and he had hired me as a laborer. It was my first real job, a grown-up job, and I had no idea what to expect. I certainly didn't expect to be working for one of the toughest and meanest bosses I would ever work for, but now, in his 80s with a broken hip, he was far friendlier.

I pulled the chair next to his, and for a moment, we both looked around and took in the scenery. Frank, at 81, was probably the oldest and, in contrast, looked to be in better health than the rest of the people there. I shook my head in disbelief. I think Frank was going to outlive everyone.

"So, what happened?" I said, nodding to his hip. "Don't tell me you fell off a ladder!"

Frank laughed. He was a notorious workaholic.

?? "No," he said. "I'm old, Ralph. I fell in my kitchen. I didn't even fall that hard."

We were interrupted by some commotion at the nurse's station. We both looked up just in time to see a young nurse roll her eyes and shake her head at the older nurse’s command that she get off her phone and help. The young nurse's attitude was obvious and full of contempt. The older nurse saw Frank and I looking and she shook her head at us, seeking empathy. I nodded. Frank smiled.

I leaned over.

"Millennials," I said, as if that explained everything. ??

Frank looked at me, then back at the nurses, and then back at me. He took in some air.

"You were the same way," he said with a grin.

At first, I thought he meant it was the same as the nurse in charge, but he didn’t.

"Damned kids... lazy, good for nothing, think they know every damn thing. And now with the cell phones..." he trailed off.

I shook my head and smiled, remembering what it was like to work for Frank. It sucked. He was mean, impatient, and intolerable. I truly thought he hated me. He was the type of manager who never let anyone slack off. He would yell at you if you took too long in the bathroom, stayed too long on a coffee break, or—God forbid—you ever sat down on the job.

"You were the same way," he said again. "You all were."

I nodded and laughed. "Maybe," I said. I never really thought about it before—what it must have been like to be my boss when I first started working.

I was a horrible employee.

For some reason, when thinking nostalgically about my youth, I didn’t have 20/20 vision. Instead, I always wore rose-colored glasses, remember things as I wanted them to be rather than how they actually were. The truth, however, is that I was a horrible employee. In fact, I had two jobs before going to work for Frank. I worked at Burger King and for a landscaping company mowing lawns. I got fired from both jobs. At the time, I blamed everyone else and thought nothing was my fault. In retrospect, I can see how much I sucked as an employee.

I was lazy, rude, had an attitude, thought I knew everything, asked way too many questions, and—above all else—felt entitled. I thought they were lucky to have me and should be a lot more appreciative of me for even showing up.

I’d like to say I’m piling on a bit for dramatic effect here, but I’m not. I really sucked as an employee. In fact, we all sucked.

A nurse’s aide wheeled an elderly lady past us with one hand while looking at her cell phone with the other ??. I quickly looked to see where the charge nurse was to see if she was looking. She was. She shook her head in disbelief but said nothing.

Suddenly, like being shown the inner workings of a magic trick, I got it. Millennials don’t suck—*we* do.

When I was 18 and working for Frank, I thought he was a mean and miserable person for no reason other than just to be mean and miserable. I did not know his attitude was necessary. More importantly, I never realized how effective he was. Frank didn’t just get the job done—which was extremely difficult—he did it with a bunch of whiny, sniveling, self-important young men who were constantly fighting with each other, full of attitude, and always looking for shortcuts.

The difference between today’s generation of workers and my generation is that my generation had a bunch of Franks managing us. Managers didn’t have a phony sense of what it took to be effective. They worked harder than their staff, led by example, and were not afraid of pushback or the threat of callouts or quitting.

Managers from Frank’s generation would never, in a million years, just "do it themselves."

In fact, and you are not going to believe this, but just before I started working for Frank, he worked at another job site where he was given the "#1 Ball Buster Award." They actually had a plaque attached to a brick from the job site.

Managers like him were revered. Managers like him, made employees like me, (a whiney, sniffling, lazy, S.O.B.) want to be just like him. ??????

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As always, I hope I made you think and smile.

Ralph