Strangling Company Communications and He Also Has Spies

The flow of open, two-sided and clear communications between a company’s associates and it’s management is an important underpinning of any functional organization. As I typed in those last few words I realized that in the Uzzi family company there is no such thing as functional so this post might just be non-applicable. None the less the communications between people in an organization is vital to its success and I can not think of anyone who would disagree with this premise – oops I just did think of someone.

Okay Uzzi has got me on that point but I will still continue writing about the importance of good open company communication practices and how the terrible ones stifle an organization in this post. In most organizations communications flow in an open and unobstructed manner. Ideas are exchanged, opinions voiced and other views considered. Feedback is a good thing not something to be scorned at or belittled. In the end a problem is solved, a decision or strategy is arrived at and the organization moves ahead better for the effort. Yes ultimately someone has to make the final decision however by taking advantage of multiple viewpoints and other relevant positions the company wins. In addition the company employees feel part of the decision-making process as well. Seems like a win-win situation to this observer but not to an Uzzi type manager.

When communication between the companies associates are constantly choked off like crab grass sprayed with Round Up then low morale and a general malaise within the company is bound to be prevalent. I must admit that I have never been involved with any type of organization where communication is stifled like it is at the Uzzi family company, very strange indeed.

Uzzi is at best a micro manager and at worse he is a control freak. He must know about and be part of every decision that is going on in a store or the company as a whole no matter how small or trivial that it may seem to others.

Here are some examples of Uzzi communication practices as a manager/owner:

– Why did a store manager tell an employee that they could be scheduled off for a Greek Orthodox holiday 3 weeks in advance? Did the manager do it because the employee is a devout Greek Orthodox? Of course they did but Uzzi sees something dark in a decision like that. Mainly Uzzi wants to know why he wasn’t contacted or consulted on this decision to permit the employee to celebrate this important religious holiday?

– Why did a produce manager decided to put some delicious looking red apple’s in a farmer style basket for a display in their department? Why would the produce staff want to do this? Well to sell more product that is why. No not in a store where Uzzi must be asked for his approval on any merchandising issue.

Uzzi must be in the loop on anything and everything – nothing is to small or petty for him to be the final decision maker on. In addition Uzzi demands, through his caustic mannerism, that no idea can emanate from any associate, read his slaves or minions, within “his” company unless it is his idea. If you say or suggest something than you are automatically wrong or he tells you that you do not know what you are talking about. However later that terrible idea of someone else, his label not mine, will reappear but this time it will come from Uzzi’s lips and it will be put out as a revelation from on high.

These words are not coming from some bitter underling frustrated that they are not getting the credit for their ideas rather they are the plain and simple truth stated by many associates who have experienced the Uzzi ego in action. Some employees just shake their heads or chuckle about his controlling personality – sociopath and or narcissistic who knows which one, but deep down they wonder how someone like this got into a position of ownership of a company. Well the answer to that question will be blogged on in a later post and believe me it is something that happens in a lot in family owned businesses.

As I have said in a past post thank goodness there is a prescription plan in the organization, if the impacted associates get health care insurance at all, although his in-laws have probably not paid the policy premium so the employee will get a bill for their medications later.

Anyway back to our post’s topic of company communications and spies, Uzzi is a master manipulator and a pretty fair judge of whether a person he has just met can be manipulated by his sly although obvious sneaky mind control or not. If you are an easy mark then Uzzi goes to work on you from almost the first time that you meet him. He sizes up how you will fit into his network of informers and what type of information that you can deliver to him. What position do you occupy within the company and therefore what tasty morsels of gossip and innuendo can you bring to him on a regular basis. Will you be the type to call him at home and report that you think so and so did not see to it that the bathrooms were cleaned that evening. Can you rat out a night closing manager for not walking around the store and checking each thermostat on the collection of vintage product cases that the Uzzi family had acquired in the last 5o years but has never updated. Can you squeal on the mentally challenged cart person for sipping a bottle of water by the grocery carts in 100 degree weather when they were on the clock and working outside? Well can you? Uzzi needs to know that you can do these dastardly things while being loyal only to him and no one else including his extended family.

Forget things like working together as a team where everyone communicates with each other to make things run better as well as keeping the dialogue open between all facets of the company. No the communication must come through Uzzi and it must be the tasty stuff please.

Can you feed Uzzi distorted facts and out of context observations about someone who works in a particular store including personal information? Uzzi loves to hear about personal information. This can be used later so that they will do his bidding. Do you posses a low sense of self-esteem so that he can manipulate that personality quirk to serve the greater good – Uzzi’s? This is the power that he possesses like that of a Jedi Knight in a Star Wars movie and how they used their mind control powers on other weaker beings or life forms. Well Uzzi is no Jedi Knight however he is a master at manipulating people to serve him.

Uzzi has placed a vast collection of mostly honest but weak-minded individuals in all of the key locations within his families retail empire. These lemmings report to him on a regular basis and even communicate with each other from location to location within the companies domain hoping that they can rise to the rank of chief spy and informer – Uzzi’s number one spook.

For the most part the Uzzi-grams, as some refer to them as, are worthless idle gossip along with trivial information that can be used for individual attacks on honest and for the most part hard-working company associates. For some reason these victims somehow found themselves on the “Uzzi Black List”. Possible reasons for getting on this list include requesting family health insurance coverage to which they are entitled, going out on disability for a major injury or the worst offense making more than $8 an hour and receiving health benefits! Perhaps they asked for a raise since they had not had one in 6 years. This is not something that you want to ask of Uzzi because it will only get you labeled a non-loyal employee and you will end up on the black list.

Of course some company associates get on the feared Uzzi list just because he feels that they should be on it for some past petty transgression. Uzzi uses his amazing powers of recall to remember how a particular employee failed to stay and work in a store for 14 hours straight during a snow storm because they had to go home and look after their children. Far be it from Uzzi to remember that it had snowed like heck the night before and that this employee basically walked through snow drifts for hours to get to work on time that day. Forget that the employee worked for 12 hours that day when they did get in, on time, and that it would take them another 2 hours to get home that evening. Forget that the employee was scheduled for 8 hours that day and that half of the other employees called out because they could not get through the snow to make it work.  Those things did and do not matter to Uzzi because now this worthless employee is on the black list. Believe it or not this particular example of sub-par employee loyalty could have happened 10 years ago however Uzzi will always remember it especially when an opportunity presents itself for him to get back at that associate. Those of us in the world of reality would probably call this type of behavior vindictive but if you have been with Uzzi for a while you will  just call it normal behavior for him.

Uzzi prides himself in listening to everything that emanates from the family stores and then uses it to his advantage. If a customer mentions that a competitor has a cheaper price on chicken then Uzzi takes that customers word as fact and proceeds to call up the chicken buyer and then berate them for not buying cheaper chickens. The funny thing is that the chicken buyer is his in-law. Uzzi plays no favorites!

So remember that Uzzi does not just use these dogmatic statements from his clan of spies against company associates, he also uses them against his extended family as well. After all Uzzi in Hebrew means my power and in the end that is all that Uzzi cares about – his power.

AB

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