Actress Viola Davis in The Help
Courtesy of Bing Images and collider.com
Many of you saw the recent movie or read Kathryn Stockett’s best-selling book, The Help. Last weekend, I had the pleasure of reading all about the antagonistic character, Hilly Holbrook. Some of you commented on a plethora of uneasy feelings about working in the south. Thankfully, our family had their own, self-sustaining farm in Mississippi during the civil rights era. A few of us are old enough to remember those times.
Let us fast-forward to 2011. There are bossy, influential, and insipid, Hilly Holbrooks out there everywhere. Lord knows, people like this make some jobs a real challenge. There’s a Hilly Holbrook character in just about every workplace.
The question is: What motivates such meanness and disdain for persons opposite one another? Mean people must be just plain miserable human beings deep down inside. How do they sleep at night, much less look at themselves in the mirror every day? They’re probably in a sad state of denial, like the character, Elizabeth Leefolt. She never even realized she was one of the ladies in the book until Hilly gave her a clue.
How does someone else come into your own house and mess with (or fire) your help? How does one allow another person to become so influential as to run your business instead of you?
I suppose, the denial comes from not taking inventory on a regular basis. Being so busy trying to satisfy others, chasing that promotion, illustrious dream or just not having a clue about what’s going on around us.
Taking inventory means remembering and putting into practice that campaign speech, those interview answers and all those motivational ideas about change we started with. I’m pretty sure, none of that involved being (or looking) too busy to speak to subordinates, falsely accusing those opposite your position of inappropriate actions (stealing,in the character, Minny’s case) or keeping those deserving, hard workers oppressed so you can feel better in your position.
In taking inventory, are you treating members, subordinates or those opposite you with respect, the way you want to be treated? Or, are you the number one subscriber to inappropriate gossip and innuendo? We all listen to gossip. We are only human. If I didn’t hear it or see it myself, it’s pretty hard to believe it. We are certainly not in high school, anymore. We are in the real world… at work! Quit giving in to such pettiness and being a follower!
In taking inventory, are we doing anything at all to help someone move upwards, to a better position or forward with a worthwhile project? Or are they just ignored, unappreciated, simply the help?
I’m just the messenger. –Pam Hampton
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