By Jerry Riley

In this period of economic strife, we are seeing some captains of industry taking a more active interest in running their business – even to the point of micro managing, or, taking decisions away from the very people they hired to make those decisions. Not a problem? Well, they are either ignoring decisions made by someone they hired to make that decisions or, just paying someone to do nothing. They are in charge, they hired the help and they have the authority to do what they want.
Micromanagers assert their power and authority just because they can get by with it.
Now, on to government – pick any level. Some of our elected officials seem to be circumventing the process and micromanaging or by simply interfering with others. We elected them to do certain specific jobs.
Those in higher offices, who have slowly become micromanagers, should step back and look at what they are doing. They are focusing a magnifying glass on themselves. We all know what happens if you are under the glass too long – you get burned!
Conversely, those who allow micromanagers to hijack their jobs should not abandon the obligations they were elected or appointed to carry out, just because some other official wants to do their job – which they were not elected to do.
Maybe the decisions made are correct, maybe not. In my opinion, it doesn’t matter. Government, even local government, is supposed to operate under a check and balance system. When one or two people are allowed to make all the decisions, and other officials become their rubber stamps – well, what a revoltin’ development that is!

Jerry Riley is an occasional commentator for the News Bulletin. He is a retired telecommunications supervisor.
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