New Hockey Players Needed. So Is a Sense of Humor.
I've had quite the varied reaction to yesterday's blog entry about a fictitious job posting for new hockey players for the USA men's team. While several teams played below their expectations, it was Mike Modano and some of the other players on the American team that refused to admit that their failure to perform might have been primarily responsible for their failure to win more than one out of their four games.
Ever had an employee like Mr. Modano? Talented? Yes. Heart? Yes. Proves great leadership skills over a long period of time and with a wide variety of co-workers? Yes. Able to accept blame when there's failure? Not a chance.
In many ways, these types of employees are the most frustrating because they add so much value to an organization that you cannot afford to get rid of them. Yet during bad times they tend to be the worst people to have around because rather than acknowledging their shortcomings and therefore being able to at least have a chance to overcome those shortcomings, they instead point fingers at everyone other than the person in the mirror.
Did Mike Modano single handledly lose the Olympics for Team USA? Of course not. But his whiny behavior afterwards was beneath him. He is and always has been a great player. Modano is not perfect and neither are his teammates. I suspect that he would be the first to admit both statement. Modano played poorly and so did his teammates. Unfortunately, I suspect that he will only agree with the latter statement.
The reaction to the fictitious posting had parallels to Modano's behavior. Overwhelmingly positive, but a few instances that just made you shake your head. One was from a Canadian who attempted to equate the "Canadians need not apply" part of the posting initially with religious discrimination and then later discrimination based upon a person's national origin. Perhaps he didn't realize that Canadians aren't allowed to play for Team USA. Come to think of it, I'm not sure why Canadians would want their best players to play for Team USA. Didn't that upset them when Brett Hull did that?
Another headshaking comment was from a woman who was upset that the joke only applied to men. Apparently, she must have thought that it would be a good thing for the women's team to be whiners too. They weren't. They were defeated but none complained about being at a disadvantage because, uh, well, I'm still trying to figure out how the men's team was at a disadvantage when all of the players on all of the best teams traveled at the same time and had to make the same efforts to bring their families to Italy if they so chose.
But my favorite comment was from another woman. She definitely got the joke. She replied saying that she appreciated the opportunity but didn't think that her husband would appreciate her hanging out in a locker room with all those young, cute players. I didn't have the heart to remind her that the team captain was Chris Chelios (age 44) and so doesn't really qualify as being young, but if she considers him to be cute then that's just fine with me. I did reply to her, thanked her for the chuckle that she gave me, and also reminded her that the players are all pretty muscular. Not sure if that helped or hurt the chances of her telling her husband about her secret desire to hang out in the locker room with her new teammates.
See, I think that deeply imbedded in your argument about lack of humor on the first woman respondent's part is some, shall I say, male chauvinism?! Because she got the joke and she wanted equal time. Period. And you kind of waffled in the next sentence, because you noted that the women's team "were defeated but none complained about being at a disadvantage, because, uh well. . . ." and then you go off talking about the men's team again. Come on, Steve, don't you really have a deep-seated animosity towards women here? Best regards.
Dorothy,
Thank you for the comment, but I assure you that I am about as far from being a male chauvinist as you can find. My take on the comment from the woman was that she did not get the joke. She was upset that we only had a job posting ad on our site to replace the male players and not the female players. She didn't seem to understand that the posting was a slap in the face of some of the male players. There was no need to do with the woman because they exhibited good sportsmanship.
The posting wasn't about replacing the male players because their on-ice performance was disappointing. The posting was about replacing male players because their off-ice performance was disappointing. Some whined about having to travel all the way to Italy to play and how that put them at a disadvantage. Yet every player on all of the best teams had to do the same thing. Some whined about having to make travel arrangements so their families could see them play. These guys are making $5 million per year. You can't tell me that they were actually up at 2am plugging away at Expedia to try to find a good deal for their wives.
The women's team lost, but they didn't blame anyone else. They accepted the defeat and refused to point fingers at anyone else. If only the men could have exhibited such good sportsmanship.