Maintain A Sense Of Decorum
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Mar 17, 2009
Today is St. Patrick's Day, and all across the country, some people are celebrating the man for banishing snakes from Ireland, while others are using it as an excuse to drink to excess. It's one of the most celebrated and feared holidays at the same time, and, depending on who you tend to want to believe, it's either the number one drinking holiday or not even in the top eight, at least as far as beer is concerned.
As a non-drinker, maybe this isn't fair, but I tend to believe that people who use holidays as a reason to lose control of themselves can never be great leaders. I don't believe there's anything wrong with people deciding to drink something and having some fun, but when people drink to excess, to the point where they feel as though they're not in control of their own actions anymore, what it tells me is that they're putting on an act most of the time, and wait for these times when they can let their true essence show. Indeed, many psychiatrists have said that how someone acts when they're drunk or stoned is an exhibition of that person's real personality.
Of course, it doesn't have to always be a holiday for someone to imbibe to excess, and that's definitely worse. People who can barely hold it together until Friday so they can get "trashed" both days of the weekend never know who will see them exhibiting that behavior, and how that could carry over into future dealings with these people. I still remember, three years later, dealing with someone who got drunk at a networking meeting and made a spectacle of herself, and, unfortunately, didn't keep her job long after that as word got back to her employers about her bad behavior in public. The work she did was quite sensitive, and others didn't want to see someone like that easily lose control of herself in public.
This is the same kind of thing that young Facebook users are facing today, where employers are looking up the names of applicants and seeing how they're representing themselves online. If you've ever been on Facebook, you can't help but to have seen how many people have scantily clad images of themselves on their site, or show themselves to have joined groups whose names might not be representative of how they'd like to be perceived elsewhere. Remember the snafu with a former Miss New Jersey a few years ago who had pictures in a hidden area on her Facebook page, but had a "friend" copy those pictures and share them with Pageant officials?
This isn't an article against fun; it is an article for hoping that people remember to maintain at least some sense of decorum, and please don't drink while impaired. You never know who will see you acting up, and you might save some lives.
You’re confused. When people are drunk they show their true personalities but there’s nothing wrong with the fact that the act differently most of the time. How many times did you think that someone in front of you acted like a retard? How often did you think that someone should take a shower because they stink? How often did you fight the urge to puch someone in the face? Of course we’re “living a lie”, that makes us human – we control our emotions and actions.
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Actually, I wouldn’t say I’m confused, though you may have missed the point of the article. If you’re in a position of leadership or ownership, you don’t always have the luxury of allowing yourself to not be in control of yourself out in public. Especially in today’s world, where people have so many other choices they can make. I never stated there was anything wrong with how people are when they’re not drinking; matter of fact, if their normal personality is negative, it’s probably best that they try to act better most of the time, although my belief is that it’s probably hard for them to maintain on a consistent basis.
More people have lost jobs and business because of negative behavior on their own time, especially in today’s world, with the internet and cell phones making access to information almost instantaneous. How many people, especially leaders, can afford to take those types of chances?
This is exactly why I don’t drink around colleagues or people that I do business with no matter how laid back the setting seems.
Lucky for me, I don’t drink, so it’s never a worry for me.