Head Tale

UPS, A For-Profit Private Company Is Closing For NDTR

I’ve been thinking about actions vs. words a lot lately.

One of the things that really brought home this important distinction was when I had to leave the Regent Place branch of Regina Public Library after eight years as Branch Head following a re-org of supervisors and managers.

It was a pretty emotional time and I remember gathering with a bunch of the staff on one of my last days to chat and reminisce.

“You know, I hope you guys know that when I thanked you for all your work as we walked to our cars at the end of every shift, I meant it!”

“We know you meant it, Jason” one staff member replied. “Do you know why? Because you backed up your words with actions – with how you treated us, with how you led the branch, with how you related to the customers.”

I said to a colleague recently that once you start seeing things in terms of actions instead of words, you can’t unsee them.

A few examples:

• People who have pronouns in their email sig file but misgender people repeatedly.
• Bosses who thank “the team” for their hard work then go to the bargaining table and try to make working conditions or pay worse for that same hard-working team.
• Land acknowledgements read by people wearing mass produced orange t-shirts which aren’t designed by Indigenous artists or purchased from Indigenous-owned businesses.
• Being lectured about being responsible for the municipal tax dollar but then using Amazon as a major supplier instead of spending local to support the businesses and workers whose taxes keep the library funded.
• Preaching customer service but then not providing detailed, sufficient training to ensure employees are in a position to deliver that strong customer service

Those are a few quick examples off the top of my head.  And I’m not saying I’m perfect in any or all of these areas (far from it!) or that I don’t do say and do things performatively as well.  But I struggle with it.

Heck, in some ways, some might argue that the whole act of having a blog (“hey, come listen to what I have to say!”) is performative in a way.

Anyhow, “actions, not words” – it’s an important way to look at the world and, like I told my colleague, once you start seeing the world through that lens, it’s hard to not notice all the other false or hypocritical or performative actions that happen.