Having a Good Day
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EDITORIAL
Having a Good Day McIntyre R. Louthan
Published online: 28 July 2011 Ó ASM International 2011
‘‘Have a good day’’ is a frequently heard expression. Family, friends, acquaintances and even strangers may have said it to you to end a conversation. Although most people have used it, very few have actually questioned its meaning. I was almost speechless when my granddaughter, Annie Grace, asked, ‘‘What is a good day?’’ and being a typical engineer, I wanted to initiate a research program to establish the answer. Funding for such research is almost certainly available from the Department of Education or some other government agency but I thought that a rapid response was necessary and the research project dissolved into simply asking a few people, ‘‘what makes a good day?’’ The answers surprised me! No one mentioned winning the lottery, receiving a raise or a promotion or even being included in the will of a long forgotten, very rich uncle. Cards, letters, phone calls, chance meetings and flowers were good day makers. Good days included family, friends and fellowship. Dinners, desserts and discussions highlighted good days and a chance meeting with a long lost friend brought extra significance to the occasion. Good days simply involved being involved with other people— people-to-people interactions! Significantly, no one suggested e-mails, facebook or twitter accounts; good days involved actual face-to-face contact, hearing a voice or a hand written card or note. Rich McNitt, a former editorial board member and a very successful, but now retired, Chairman of the Engineering Science and Mechanics Department at Penn State, once said that a raise was an effective motivator for approximately two days and that a promotion increased an
M. R. Louthan (&) Box 623, Radford, VA 24142, USA e-mail: [email protected]
employee’s motivation for only a week. However, Rich was a great believer in comradeship and worked hard to stimulate friendships within his department. He hosted the department and individual families at his home; he funded pre-seminar coffee and donut fellowships and, without prying, had excellent awareness of the family needs of his associates. Rich had an open door office which is the typical policy of most good bosses. My experience suggests that the wider the door is opened the better the boss is likely to be. To be effective most bosses need to know and understand the members of their group. There is something about fellowship that oils organizations and fuels technical preparation and discovery. We have all seen signs stating that ‘‘A bad day fishing is better than a good day at work’’. Why do such signs exist? Perhaps it’s because fishing is generally a group endeavor. Certainly, fishing can be accomplished alone but almost every fisherman has a fishing buddy or two. The buddies will generally be invited on the trip but, even if they aren’t on the trip, will know what happened. Successes and failures will be shared and future adventures will be planned. The workplace environment can duplica
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