Temper Tantrums In The Work Place

How long will it be before we are seeing news articles such as this in our newspapers...

A Harvard educated, Ph.D.’ed, Oxford Scholar created a major uproar at Acme Widget Manufacturing yesterday when he had a meltdown because he became upset when he was told by his supervisor that he could not have a cactus plant on his desk because of company lawyers concern that one his fellow associates might prick his finder on those pointy things sticking out of his beloved cactus plant.

A company spokesman explained the cause of work-disrupting consternation as follows...

“We must be understanding and acceptant of such occurrences in the modern workplace. Simply put, this was the first time Roger had been told ‘no’ in his entire life.”

What am I agitated about now? The link lower down in this blog posting gives the full story but here are some bullet points about what set me off...

• A new book paints an ugly underbelly to Scandinavia's child-centric ways.
• Youngsters in Sweden are deemed "competent individuals" by the state and legally protected from spanking and are becoming the chief decision makers in homes at very young ages.
• Sweden's child-centric model has "gone too far" and the over-sensitivity to children and a reluctance to discipline them has bred a nation of "badly raised children".
• The article pointedly asks the question, “Is Sweden raising a generation of brats?”
• Swedish-school results have been falling in international comparisons and Swedes look enviously at countries like Finland, which has more discipline in schools and where teachers retain an old-school authority they have lost in Sweden. The Swedish minister of education is calling for more discipline in schools.
• Strict child-welfare laws may make parents more hesitant to discipline children. Allegations of physical discipline are investigated by a team of police, psychologists and prosecutors, and fines can be steep, reaching the equivalent of $1,000.
• "The state is sending out the message that you don't have to raise your children yourself," says Mr. Himmelstrand, "Day care and schools will raise your kids, and when the kids come home, you can just be their friend."
• Swedish children routinely make family decisions like what to eat for dinner, what to watch on TV, and where to go on vacation. "If you get your way all the time, you won't develop empathy and you'll have problems respecting other people's wishes," says Beatrice Nyström, a Swedish developmental psychologist. (That’s why Roger had his meltdown described above.)

If you want to read more, go to the article in WSJ by Jens Hansegard...

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303519404579354801246309702

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I also read an article on 3/2/14 on this same subject by a Lisa McLeod who was pretty tough on some parent’s method of child rearing when she wrote...

“Constantly striving to please your kids turns them into your boss. Their happiness becomes your performance review. Instead of allowing them to sit with the discomfort of a bad decision, or wallow in the misery of a social blunder, you want to fix it. After all, isn’t it your job to keep them happy?”

She sounded like a hard task master until she wrote...

“Don’t get me wrong; I want my children to be happy. I want to be sensitive to their needs. I want them to feel loved and adored. I want them to have the confidence that their parents are behind them, no matter what”.

Do you see the phrase where Lisa McLeod made the Smartfella sit up and take notice? Of course you do...Or do you? It is... “I want them to feel loved and adored”. Loved is right up my alley. Adored is a gutter ball.

Can’t you just see a supervisor (formerly known as a “boss”) in the real world saying, “Your work is really poor! You have made fundamental decisions that have cost this corporation millions of dollars but I still adore you no matter what”.

Would I kid you?

Smartfella

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