Perspective, “It could be worse”

I will start off with a short story. 2nd Lt Vassallo worked as a flight commander in late 2000. It was my first assignment as new officer fresh out of OTS. I was excited to be part of Team Dover. Since I was a prior enlisted maintainer I was given the opportunity to lead as the Propulsion Flight Commander over 180 active duty military and civilian Airmen. As I gauged the climate of the flight, it seemed there was a large portion of the team who were unhappy with their work hours. This was baffling since almost all of the team were working 9-hour shifts (an occasional surge to 10) with an hour lunch and even more so because AMXS was working 12-hour shifts and frequent weekend duties. To cut to the point, I found they were unhappy because they were comparing themselves with the civilians in the flight. The civilians, by contract, worked 8-hour shifts, with a break every hour, a lunch hour, and the ability to workout multiple times a week. I talked to several of the Airmen and you would think they had the worst job of their lives (for many of them this was their first job). On the other side of the ramp, the AMXS folks actually seemed a bit happier because although they were on 12-hour shifts they had just backed off from 6-and-1 (6 days on and 1 day off) 12s to 5-and-2 12s. As my leadership team and I discussed the problem we decided it all came down to perspective. Our solution was to start doing more frequent rotations between the flight line and back shop. Word quickly spread that the flight really was a great place to work and morale improved. In a follow-on discussion with one of our Airmen, he said I know now “it could be worse”, I could be working in AMXS. Overall, we never changed hours, only our perspective.

I tried to keep this lesson in mind for all aspects of my personal and professional life. Every time I was unhappy with my situation I would reflect on how good I have it compared to some. I was lucky I had the opportunity throughout my career to learn mostly through the experience of others. As an Air Advisor in Afghanistan I saw poverty and pain in the lives of good people beyond what I could have ever imagined. Likewise, as a CMS Squadron commander I needed to be intimately involved with issues like death, divorce, addiction, and illness of my Airmen throughout my command. All this brings me to the most important part of this commentary; tools that you can use to help yourself and the Airmen you lead gain helpful perspective.

1. Read! Read and learn about others who have lived through adversity and how their positive attitude led to their success.
2. Interact. Help out with people who have situations less fortunate then your own. This could be voluntarily though helping serve food to the homeless or non-voluntarily by moving an Airman who thinks they have low morale to a squadron that needs help on extended shifts.
3. Experience. Sometimes this lesson is only learned through experience. Just like the lesson you learned by touching a hot pot as a child. You might think you have it bad until something worse happens in your life then, when you rise above, you will never forget your experience.

I will end with another short story about my experience as the 379 EMXS Commander at Al Udeid AB, Qatar. Similar to my story from Dover AFB, I had some Airmen who were unhappy with their working conditions. It WAS hot, and as the temperature rose so did the complaints. So my leadership team and I decided we would start the “It Could be Worse” campaign. Hoping to help our Airmen learn without experiencing, I engaged the help of the ECES CC. To paint the picture (and you are lucky this isn’t a scratch and sniff book), they had recurring issues where toilet paper and baby wipes would clog up the base’s sewer impeller system. Those selfless Airmen had to climb down and remove the clogs by hand. With temperatures deep in the 100s and stomach bugs amuck, I considered them some of the bravest Airmen on base. So we developed a slide show I added to my newcomers brief with pictures of CE Airmen doing this job and it ended with an invitation to go and help out anytime they were not happy with their current job and needed a break. Needless to say, complaints about working conditions quickly decreased. Shortly after the phrase caught on and soon everyone was using the saying “It Could be Worse.” AC not blowing cold enough…it could be worse; chicken a bit dry at the DFAC…it could be worse; had to work through lunch…it could be worse. They even caught me when I complained about the network being slow and they told me with a smile…it could be worse.
So please remember it is always easy to compare yourself with those who have it better, and challenging to compare yourself to those who have it worse; but it’s not impossible. Happiness is all based on perspective. Read, interact, experience, but most of all remember: “it could be worse.”