The next chapter of my leadership journey at Dampier Salt was difficult and far more personal – but it brought to the foreground for me some elements of my own character that had always been there, I’m still not sure that I really like, but nor do I really know what to do with.
One of my best friends, Greg, was Maintenance Manager at Lake Macleod – his wife was bridesmaid at our wedding, he’d effectively recruited me into the role.
Greg had been there for quite a while (about 6 years), through some tumultuous changes, and had worked with a couple of Operations Managers.
He had never seen eye-to-eye with the current, relatively new Operations Manager, Steve – and even less so when Steve became General Manager. They were very different people, with very different approaches.
As GM, Steve decided to amalgamate the Macleod Operations and Maintenance Manager role. That new job went to the current Operations Manager, Paul – and Greg was moved “sideways” into a created “Manager – Projects” role. Yes, one of those. His office was even moved closer to the front gate, just to emphasise the point.
But Greg wasn’t ready to leave and diligently got stuck in to his “Projects”. Steve made the role redundant. While he was on notice, Greg went out and found himself another job – Maintenance Superintendent at a Rio operation in Queensland. A big move, and a step down. But he had commitments and couldn’t afford to be out of work.
Rio Redundancy Policy said that if you were relocated into an equivalent role, you were not eligible for redundancy payment. Greg hadn’t been relocated (he’d found himself a job, it just happened to be with Rio), and it was a demotion. Steve refused to pay Redundancy, and Greg didn’t feel he had the status or certainty to push the issue. So, Greg left with no redundancy. He wasn’t hard up, but he had more than 20 years with Rio at that stage, so it was a fair bit of money he missed out on. Money’s not everything, but it’s not nothing, either.
I’ve said previously, I didn’t mind Steve, I’d worked well with him during this time, and he was going to be my boss for the foreseeable future. Hell, I quite liked him – you don’t need to share the enemies of your friends.
But he’d just screwed over a very good friend – so what do I do? I also had commitments, and couldn’t afford to be out of work, and wasn’t ready to leave.
So I made my peace with it – accepted the world as being less than perfect, and moved on – showed up bright and shiny and ready for work every day, and did the jobs I was asked to do – including working pretty closely with Steve. And I’ve stayed in touch with him – he was a referee for me a couple of times.
Greg was OK with it – he’s fairly pragmatic, and we’re still very good friends. His wife (and mine) were less OK with it, for a while. And, as you would expect, they landed on their feet, it all worked out, and they’ve been in Queensland ever since – he’s thinking about retiring, and is not well.
Good decision, bad decision? Don’t know. But I’ve always been wary of extreme pragmatism and utilitarianism – so my response still sits in the back of my mind, working away. I think I’m basically principled, but you never really know, do you?
I remember the first time I stood in a toilet cubicle at work with a cup, giving a urine sample for a Drug & Alcohol test – I thought, “this is about as far as I’d go for the company”.