What would Marcus do when saying “I told you so” would feel wonderful?
WWMD at Work No. 1
In March you said the vendor would miss the deadline. You were waved off. It is July, the vendor has missed the deadline, and the meeting to sort out the wreckage starts in an hour.
When thou hast done a good act and another has received it, why dost thou still look for a third thing besides these, as fools do, either to have the reputation of having done a good act or to obtain a return?
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.73 (trans. George Long)
You have written the sentence in your head. Several drafts. One opens with “As I mentioned in March.” Another simply forwards the old email with no comment, which is the same sentence wearing a smaller smile. I know because I have written it too. The pleasure on offer is real. Being right, on the record, in front of witnesses, is one of the purest pleasures the office sells, and today it costs nothing.
Marcus says otherwise. A good act, he writes, is complete in two parts: it is done, and it is received. The warning was the act. You gave it. It was received, badly, but received. What you are craving now is a third thing, the reputation for foresight, paid out in the room while everyone watches. Marcus calls the person who collects that payment a fool. The severity is aimed at himself. The Meditations are private notes, and this one reads like a man who knew the temptation from the inside.
So walk into the meeting and be the most useful person in it about what happens next. If the record truly requires the fact, state it once, in the flattest voice you own. The vendor was flagged in March. Here is what we do in July. Then retire the sentence. The old email can stay in the outbox of your mind, marked done, because it is.
The warning was the work. The rest is collections.
Be well.
Your turn. When were you right too early, and what did you do with it? Leave your version of a workplace conundrum in the comments. The best ones join the series.
What Would Marcus Do at Work is a series tackling everyday workplace situation through the lens of Marcus Aurelius and his fellow Stoics. One challenge, one passage, one page, once or twice a week.