Did you hear?

The calls are almost always the same… "Hey Jonesy... did you hear about Jim?"

Pat Jones

Published June 24, 2010
Pat Jones The calls are almost always the same…

“Hey Jonesy…did you hear about Jim? They canned him by e-mail, those bastards. I can’t believe it. He’s an awesome grass grower and a great guy. He’d been there for 11 years. That club president is a complete moron for firing him for no reason!”

You probably get some of those same calls, too. The phone rings and it’s a mutual friend of a terminated superintendent who’s outraged at the injustice and completely amazed that it “came out of the blue.”

“Holy crap! They fired Jim? Why? What happened? Who’s on the list to replace him?”

That’s often the next bit of discussion in those “did you hear?” calls: who’s the logical choice to get the fired guy’s job. It’s a natural question in an industry where most good jobs seem to be wired months or years before the incumbent goes bye-bye. Usually Jim is the last person to know that everyone else already knew Bob was the club’s choice to succeed him.

Why is it that Jim is the last to know or at least to come to grips with the fact that his job security gas tank is on empty? Here are a few reasons that “surprise” terminations for superintendents who have been in their jobs for 7-15 years shouldn’t really be a surprise:
  • Jim has ignored the political realities of the facility for the past five years. He’s been there for nine years and the original group of board members that hired him has largely rotated off. In short, the allies that brought him in are no longer in power and the “new board” is hungry for change. By failing to cultivate relationships with the new board, Jim has put himself in employment limbo. When push comes to shove, he won’t have key people advocating for him or the votes he needs to keep his job.
  • Jim failed to see the “new broom” coming. Most often, it’s the hired-gun general manager the facility got to fix things. It’s not unusual for the superstar new GM to have been promised wide-ranging authority to come in and “save” the facility. And, even though the course conditions may have never been an issue, the new broom often sweeps clean. More importantly, the new broom may be best buddies with another superintendent from a previous job. If Jim is oblivious to the risk, he may end up in the dust pan.
  • Let’s say that Jim has been around for 12 years and gotten very comfortable in the position. Maybe too comfortable. Perhaps Jim has reached the point where he feels that he’s indispensable because he fixed a lot of big problems a few years back and got the course to the point where there are great conditions every day. The thought might creep into Jim’s head that, “This is my course. I know it better than the members and they can’t tell me what to do.” That is what pop psychologists call “stinkin’ thinkin’.” The moment that Jim forgets that he’s an employee and that if the members tell him to plow up the 5th fairway and plant turnips, he should smile and ask “Which variety?”
  • Things are humming along and Jim has a great assistant. Consequently, he has been able to carve out more and more time for outside stuff like chapter leadership, teaching or even consulting. In Jim’s mind, he believes these things are a feather in the facility’s cap. But, even though the course is still in tip-top shape, members and fellow managers start asking, “Where the hell is Jim now?” Sooner or later, something nasty happens on the course while Jim is off at yet another committee meeting and it’s suddenly “time to make a change.”
  • There’s a vibe around the course that even though things are good they could be even better. Maybe a few facilities in the area have just completed renovations or otherwise improved. If Jim fails to pick up on the vibe, he may assume that status quo is just hunky dory with the boss. In fact, they may be itching to keep up with the Joneses. That’s when Jim may hear those fatal words, “We want to take the course to a new level,” and realize that he won’t be the guy doing it.
  • Jim is one of the five or six highest-paid guys in the area and the club is upside down on a loan they took out to add a luxury day spa to the clubhouse. Uhhh… watch out Jim!
I hate getting “did you hear?” calls, but they are a fact of life in this business. No job is forever… but lots of jobs could be for longer if the Jims of our profession paid as much attention to their employment environment as they did to the golf course environment. I’ve been told many times by great supers that they “listen” to their courses to try to hear the whispers of disease or soil problems. Shouldn’t you listen nearly as hard to the subtle sounds of your own employment health?


 

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