Meet Me On the Green at 3:15pm

In junior high school, this saying caused students to go, "oooo-you are in trouble!". It was an invitation to a fight. Sometimes the challenge was made and the person who was being challenged had NO clue as to why they were the target of a beatdown or a beat up! Regardless, when the bell rang, the person had a few options, they could either go out to the fight area (with their buddies, of course), run home, or stay after school and pretend the bell had not rung, and that the 3:15pm invitation did not apply to them. Most people ran home! This is an important tactic because if you learn it early, you can always dodge the bullet. It does call into question whether you are a coward, however. There is nothing cowardly about not wanting to be a participant in a physical or verbal fight. In other words, sticks and stones do hurt your bones, and so do words. Incivility, (as termed in a recent article by the Society of Human Resource Management) is becoming more common place, with incidents averaging about 40% in many work environments. We used to hear mostly about road rage, but that same hostility is now being more regularly displayed in a variety of aspects of our lives. In fact, the research from a study of 1600 workers has revealed that there are incidences of incivility outside of work in everyday society that are having a negative impact on our lives, such as while shopping (53%), and online or social media (47%). Arguing, fighting, and bullying was an every now and then occurrence and “meet me on the green” was an invitation to a humbug back in the day, but this type of behavior has become more mainstream and continues to be revved up. So, the greatest leadership suggestion I can make comes from Dan Rather who says, "Watch yourself!"

Agovino, T., Minding Manners. (2024). SHRM, HR Quarterly Magazine

Dan Rather, Steady (Blog), August, 2024