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“Ron, get back in here!”
I was asleep, and having a dream. I was walking through a school gym, and the coach yelled at some kid named Ron.
“Ron — get back in here!”
Then, the coach yelled the same order to a girl.
“Alice — get back in here!”
I looked, but it was too late. I didn’t see Alice, or the coach. This happened a total of four times: “Get back in here!”
When the coach called out to Ron, I assumed it was just a disinterested student. But when I heard the same thing happen to four different young people in less than five minutes, I realized that the problem wasn’t the students; the problem was the coach.
Then I woke up. As I sat on the side of the bed thinking about what I’d experienced, I realized that I’ve seen managers and supervisors who were just like that coach.
The coach wasn’t getting fired. From the Principal’s point of view, the coach was doing his job. All of the students were exercising, and over the course of the school year they developed some level of proficiency at a variety of sports.