Support Your Local “Old Person”
I worked at H&R Block for five years and learned so many things about corporate structure. I saw the Peter Principle in action before I knew what it was. Only I saw it from the bottom; take someone good at taxes and promote them to office manager or some other job that doesn’t directly deal with clients.
The biggest thing that I learned though had nothing to do with taxes. Maureen was one of my best teachers. A flamboyant “older” woman who worked in the back office hardly interacting with the clients at all, she brought hot home made corn bread in on St. Patrick’s day, dragged others into her parade around the offices and was damned good at her job. Which, I guess, is why they put up with her bucking the corporate mandates1.
Maureen always had the best stories. And she always knew when to ignore the latest company proclamations. Inevitably, changes that came from “on high” were changed back to the way they were. She could nearly always tell when something went against what the IRS would accept. And usually within a few days the “new mandate” would be to keep doing it the way it had always been done - and we were saved from having to switch, then switch back. She saved us a lot of time and taught me a lot about how to properly ignore the corporate culture. She also had fantastic stories that I could listen to for hours.
Next time you find yourself in the presence of living history take a few minutes to listen you might find so much more than can ever be written in a book.
Thanks Maureen.
1 - I originally spelled that “madates”, which is more like what they are. I’m guessing that Freud would be proud.
