But beyond the cheers, the Likes, the thumbs-up, lies a sadder reality: so many people empathize with Slater's stress, his long-squelched feelings of being trapped in a situation where he was compelled to endure the abuse of irate travelers, that they openly cheer his bizarre (and possibly reckless) departure. Slater is already being compared to Howard Beale, the anchor (played by Peter Finch) in the 1976 film Network, whose on-air tirade declaring, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!" became a watchword for a generation of the disgruntled. Three decades on, despite the heroic efforts of management innovators who are trying to improve the way we relate to our jobs, there is still enough mismanagement of employees that some are still pulling the escape hatch and fleeing.
We at the MIX believe that we can do better. That's why we've joined this effort to reinvent management: to see if together we can share success stories and figure out how to prevent the future Steven Slaters from reaching their wits' ends.
If you have a mad as hell story -- or how you prevented one -- share it with us.
Announcing the first-ever MIX live event:
the MIX Mashup—a day-long gathering of the vanguard of management innovators.

Meet the pioneering leaders, courageous experimenters, and agenda-setting thinkers who have taken on the status quo (and won)—and leave inspired and equipped to make an impact in your own organization.
We are opening up this limited-capacity event to the MIX community. Apply to attend here.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Comments
Mireille Jansma
August 13, 2010 at 4:06am