Leverage; it means a lot of things to a lot of different people. To the physicist, it means using a fulcrum and a lever to perform work on a load. To the investor, it means borrowing money to buy an asset while simultaneously preserving precious capital. However, we aren’t talking about either of those definitions today. Instead, were going to discuss the third (and debatably, most important) definition. That is, having the upper-hand when dealing with another party. Gather ‘round the campfire and sharpen your pitchfork as I regale you of two stories from my past regarding leverage.
One of my biggest career regrets is not using leverage when I had it. Years ago, I worked at the shittiest job I ever had. There was a severely-unethical shit-stain who I had the displeasure of working with. He was fond of using the phrase pencil-whip (that is to say “fraudulently sign for things one didn’t actually do”), and frequently bragged about committing insurance fraud and under-reporting income on his taxes. Needless to say, this was a scumbag that one could not trust insofar as you could throw this lowlife.
He was a slave to the Matrix programming that told him that “more school=always good”. Thus, he did not hesitate to take advantage of Shithole Inc’s bottomless educational checkbook. That money unsurprisingly came with a catch; the recipient needed to stay put for two years after the final payment. The village asshole gulped from the milky tit for basically the entire three years he worked there.
I left Shithole Inc and went to what was basically DisneyWorld for Adults. Sadly, that asshole managed to migrate over as well, not serving his contractually-obligated two years, nor paying the money back. Our new employer had in the fine print of the offer letter that any false representation is grounds for termination, and that included completing all legal requirements to their current employer. Needless to say, MC Tax Fraud didn’t uphold his end of the deal.
I actively knew the situation as I had a front-row seat to it unfolding. Thus, I knew that I had leverage on this piece of shit. In the beginning of my tenure at DisneyWorld for Adults, I didn’t report his dishonest onboarding since I didn’t think that they’d believe me. Truthfully, I was still in shell-shock regarding the toxic dump that I had just left. However, that excuse of mine had a short shelf-life; within 90 days I had established myself as The Man.
Douchebag wound up working there for roughly 15 months before he left suddenly. From what I’ve heard through the grapevine, he left because of a dispute over the company’s refusal to extend health insurance to his domestic partner. Note that I didn’t use the term “wife”, despite his grandiose wedding over a year prior. Gee, why am I not surprised that he’d do something shady to the one he claimed to love most?
However, that is 15 months that I had to be in the same building, breathing the same air as the human filth who made my skin crawl. To this day, I regret not using the leverage I had to get the prick terminated. In a way though, it taught me valuable lessons about leverage.
Fun Fact: In order to sue me for slander and win, you shrimp-dicks have to prove what I said was false. It isn’t.
Fun Fact II: Nobody from Shithole Inc disputes the claims made in this article.
Fast forward to several years later, I was managing a fairly large overnight crew. The company instituted a hiring freeze, and my assistant was out of the picture (for reasons I will not discuss here). None of my peers were willing to take my shifts; overnights tend to have few volunteers. Thus, despite an adversarial relationship with my boss, I had the leverage. Short of punching an employee in the face or an ethical breach, I basically was not going to get fired.
T’was the week of Thanksgiving, and my crew (the hardest working and best in the building, in my totally-biased opinion!) asked me if we could have a potluck. I picked a date that mostly everybody would be present for, and scheduled it then. I went through absolutely zero of the proper channels to host this event; higher management was unlikely to ever approve such a shindig. However, given that the company needed me much more than I needed them, I hosted the event anyways. I felt much more of an obligation to my people than I did to squeezing an extra 25 minutes of run-time out of them. Maybe that’s why they notice what color grapes I eat.
My employees had a great time, and despite being on the overnight crew, attrition has remained low. The best part? I didn’t even swear anybody to secrecy either. What was going to happen? My bosses who couldn’t fire me were going to get mad? And do what?
Crack open any textbook on negotiating, and it’ll tell you that leverage is all about asymmetry, and this is true. However, the topic isn’t discussed with a ton of depth. Basically, all leverage is temporary. More importantly, the shelf-life of leverage is much shorter than many realize. Therefore, there is an incentive to use the leverage when you have it, as tomorrow is never certain. Much like money or the inventory from a JRPG, there is little utility in saving it until the end.
You can’t take it with you when you die, so use it already!
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