E-P5 shutter shock ...

NCV wrote:

... A bad workman always blames his tools.

The last time I heard this often misused, misapplied, sometimes inappropriate expression was during my tenure as the communications director for a very large medical practice ... and when I say large, I mean one of the largest in the country, covering some 25 specialities with over 130 physicians. They had 600,000 patients.

The founder of the practice ... an otherwise brilliant oncologist ... loved to put employees down in front of others, as you enjoy doing. He did this in every meeting, every gathering of staff including management meetings.

In one particular, routine management meeting I spoke of the inadequacy of our computer setup, including the server network, for creating, managing, storing, retrieving, etc. the large files that are part and parcel of using InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator and other intensive programs. The computer systems were old and slow and badly in need of upgrading. My staff, consisting of several art directors and designers, were often up against the wire on critical deadlines as a result, and through no fault of their own.

"A bad workman always blames his tools," he said to me in front of the head of cardiology, the head of nursing, the head of pediatrics, the head of rheumatology, etc., people who respected me and, more importantly, respected my creative work. He, too, respected my creative work. That's why he hired me! But he could not control himself. He enjoyed it. He was addicted to being megalomaniacal, insulting and disrespectful.

He said it without a clue to its destructiveness ... without any remorse, without any feeling or sense of the effect of his words on everyone in the room. He had no idea how demeaning it was to say that. The room went quiet. I soon stood up, left the meeting and never returned. I then gave up an otherwise extraordinary job and a good income and went home.

The founder, brilliant as a doctor, was well known in the local medical community for his relentless arrogance and often abusive treatment of others. He was a "big man" in medial circles because of the size of the medical practice ... but in the end he was a small man, unaware of himself and of the effect he had on others. I strongly doubt he's changed.