Jake had a terrible poker face. Always had.
(His very expressive face and outgoing personality were his key tools)
As he sat across from his supervisor, awaiting the beginning of his mandatory annual employee review meeting, he struggled to maintain an expression of seriousness—an openness to insight and guidance. He hoped Stan was buying it.
He actually had no problem with Stan. He was a relatively laid back manager, knew his stuff without feeling the need to flaunt it or show off. His ‘door was always open’, as they say.
These annual meetings were always a slightly tedious formality from corporate.
Check off a few boxes, make a few minor variations on goals from previous years, and get on with your life. Usually not a big deal.
And Jake was one of the Center’s top employees. He’d been given a number of service awards over the 10 years he’d been there, and clients often gave him glowing reviews, often personally thanking him for his sincerity, humor, and upbeat attitude.
So, his poker face was put to the test when Stan took the official T21 Annual Employee Review Form from the top of his desk and casually tossed it to a random pile of papers on the floor.
“Jake,” he said, “you know I’m happy with your work. You’ve been a valuable member of the team, and you’ve helped many of our clients through some tough times. I’ve given you high marks for everything you’ve done this year, but going forward... upper management has decided to make some changes with regards to goal setting.”
Jake could tell from his suddenly raised eyebrow that his attempt to hold his poker face had failed.
Again.
(What was this all about? What tedious rah rah corporate initiative was being rolled out?)
“Look, you’ve been here for ten years now. I wouldn’t be surprised if you’d already started to entertain ideas about going to another Center for more money, or a change in scene.”
(Poker face.....Poker Face!)
Jake thought back to university, how his professor found it so entertaining to watch his changing facial expressions during class. (“You can see him working his way through the material, and then the question brewing in his mind about 15 seconds before he raises his hand to ask it! Haw haw haw!”)
“You didn’t come to work here to do cookie cutter treatments with clients, right? I mean, you’ve done a fine job. You’re empathetic. You’re dynamic. We couldn’t have asked for anything more when we hired you. But this year, we thought we would make things more interesting, more fun.”
“More...fun?”
Poker face completely abandoned.
“Fun, Jake.
Fun.
Before you think of putting yourself on the market, I want you to ask yourself honestly..
Am I offering this new place 10 years of experience, or the same experience repeated 10 times?”
(Huh?)
“It’s about fun, Jake.
Always have fun.
But always be looking for ways to
Have even more fun.”
(Ok......(Jake had no idea how many different facial expressions he was firing off at this point. All bets are off.))
“To make things more challenging,
more interesting,
more fun,
I’m going to ask you going forward to take off your face when you come in to work each morning.”
(My....?)
“The fact that I can have this whole conversation with you without you needing to speak just fir ms my resolve. Your face is like a crutch.”
(But, how was he supposed to....?
Won’t he creep people out?)
“Don’t worry, Jake. You can keep your eyes and ears for now.
We’ll start out with your nose and mouth, and then change things up when you start to find yourself going on autopilot, ok?”
(I......I.....I.....)
“Just think of it as one of those ‘mindfulness grounding techniques’ you’re always singing the praises of.
You’ll be fine.
This will be fun.”
(Fun.)
(Learn ASL?.... Take his ‘talking with my hands’ thing to 11?... Draw a fake mouth and beard on himself?... He’d be crippled!
No more nice reviews.
No more recommendations.
No more...)
“Jake, I’m going to have to ask you to hand it over.
...
Your nose,
And your mouth....
Right now.”
“I don’t really have a choice, do I?” Jake thought.
His hands slowly reached for the sides of his face. He could feel the ground beneath himself crumbling.
“This is going to be fun.”
©2020 by David Leicht. All rights reserved.