A recent NY Times piece on The Daily podcast went into detail on lost productivity due to heat. I don’t know if they adjusted for expectations, so I’m still a bit skeptical – not that heat causes lost productivity…that’s a given. I’m skeptical in that I wouldn’t come right out and say that any increases in lost productivity would be a result of climate change. I mean, it’s been hot before, and we’ve lost productivity before; but after Covid, when we all learned that we could just stay home and mail it in and nobody seemed to mind, I’m wondering if increases in lost productivity could also be attributed to people seeing the heat as just another excuse.
C’mon – it’s human nature. You can’t think that a population that’s been recently conditioned to believe they don’t have to put in the work because of a pandemic wouldn’t also be thinking much the same because of a hot summer. Our expectations have changed. Men and women have worked for centuries in extreme heat, and yes, their production was certainly lower than under ideal conditions (and they didn’t even have air conditioning!); but they persevered. So, yeah – I’m not entirely buying it. But as long as we have people teeing up excuses for us, I’m sure there will be a massive segment of society lining up to take a good swing at them.
On the other hand, I’m seeing some things that are showing promise. I wrote back in June that the Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force had apparently taken notice of a lack of discipline and adherence to standards and put out a letter trying to reign the force back in [I’ve since been reminded that a) a lot of those behaviors happened on her watch and b) she’s waited until the end of her tenure to say anything about it]. I’m also encouraged that leaders at lower levels seem to be taking notice. I’ve learned recently that “Jersey Fridays” — where Airmen on Osan didn’t even have to wear their uniforms to work as long as they wore a unit jersey — has been eliminated. And good riddance. I think the time I had a meeting with a high-ranking officer in which he wore shorts and flip-flops (along with his “jersey”) should’ve clued some people in that we didn’t have the sharpest group running the place. When the default position of a “leader” is “let’s see how far I can push this…,” well, there you go. The tail’s wagging the dog.
I’m encouraged too that the response to eliminating Jersey Fridays isn’t that Airmen are complaining that their “rights” are being taken away, but more a case of “I’m surprised we got away with it as long as we did.” I can applaud that attitude. It tells me that people actually realized what was happening was a load of garbage, but they went along because…well, “if you’re gonna give me that inch, I’ll gladly take it (and then some).” That’s how it was done in the old days too – it’s just that in the old days, we had a few more adults in charge. People who could say “no,” and “are you out of your mind?” without being reported for abuse. People who might have let the kids have a little fun before bringing them back in line didn’t actually participate in the lunacy.
Are we turning a corner? Too early to tell. I still see a lot that needs fixing. But it seems that we’re making progress in the right direction. And who knows? Maybe the next Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force will step up and be a leader from the start instead of waiting to the end of their tenure to say “Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea.” I hope so.