This is the story of someone who has made a indescribable impact
in my life in only just a few months. He is the manager of the hotel that I work
at here in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. I sat down with him on November twelfth, 2015
and asked him about his life and what brought him to the point he’s at right
now. “Why?” he asked; “I’m just like you or anyone else”. But he’s not, and
that he thinks this is part of the reason he fascinates me so much.
After a few years of doing this, Dan decided he wanted to
get into hospitality, so he applied to the Hilton Hotel Group as a manager.
After quickly rising through the ranks of the company, when Dan was thirty he
was given his own hotel to manage in Jonesboro, Arkansas. This is when Dan’s
ability of perception took on a new form. Dan understands his employees better
than anyone that I personally have ever met. He is able to tell when someone is
under performing stems from Dan’s genuine interest in their lives coupled with
his gifts. The problem is that he takes the happiness of his employees almost
too far. He cant help but notice when his employees are emotionally hurting,
and projects that onto himself. “It’s almost like I physically feel injured
when I see someone skulking around my hotel” Dan claims. So as an extension, Dan
basically get his happiness from his employees happiness.
“It ruined my marriage” Dan confesses. “I’m constantly torn
between my real family and the one I spend the majority of my time with [at
work].” It is what fuels him to keep going every day. The root of this is why I
admire Dan so much. He has since decided that he can’t simply leave his work
family behind, being that there are more of them than there are his family at
home. So Dan chose to focus his attention here at his hotel. “It definitely unhealthy.
But the important part is that it makes me happy, and that’s what really
matters to me.”
Interesting. For some of us, not leaving work AT work would be a recipe for unhappiness. Too bad the small-scale, family-run hotel of yesteryear is no longer flourishing - it seems like it would be the perfect fit for someone like your boss, if in fact he values a domestic life in tandem with work.
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