The losing of a thing imparts its value. A coworker of mine called this the warm body concept. He warned my boss and I to place due value on each of our employees, admonishing that we didn’t know about all of the small things and extra work they put in.

I found his point to ring true when we let go a worker who seemed do a poor job and resist change. Shortly after, odd jobs started piling up and other people’s workloads mysteriously thickened and clogged the flow of the business, even with her replacement running full steam. After interviewing other staff I learned that worker had been neglecting her own duties to assist the other workers who had complained of heavy workloads.

She was wrong to do that, but she also proved by her absence to be less lazy than I’d assumed.

“You don’t know what you got till it’s gone.”

The emotions and the rush of the now cloud us to any certainty about it. They keep our eyes focused ahead of us and away from what lay at our feet. The next time I feel pressed to abandon something, I will take a closer examination of it first. A repurposing might serve better.

I think I would rather utilize a thing improperly than finally learn it’s value from a void that needs filling.

Just a thought,

-M