Month: February 2021

by Adam

After the sobering, tough-love realism of our last post, I’m excited to embark on a slightly more lighthearted path today.  We pick up with a conversation Jim and Pam are having with the camera crew (Episode 8, Season 9 “The Target”).

Jim: “Today I will be asking David Wallace if I can start working part time, because the sports marketing company that I started really needs me to be there”

Pam: “Last week, Jim wasn’t there, and they named the company Athlead”

Jim:“I could have prevented that, so... I have to talk to Wallace”

Pam: “Tell them your opening line!”

Jim: “Hey David, how would you like a guy that’s not here as much, gets paid the same amount of salary, and has bigger fish to fry in Philadelphia?”

Pam: “I think it’s good!  He likes fishing.”

“Jim: This is going to be awful”

Unlike episodes we’ve covered in previous posts, it’s good to see that Jim and Pam are on the same page this time.  But, their dialogue leaves us wondering how in the world Jim will be able to pull this off.

[Jim, on the phone with David Wallace, the CEO]

Jim: “I mean I can handle any client issues from Philly”

David (CEO): “Yeah, but I really need someone in the office.  I mean, if there’s a crisis...the more I think about it….”

Jim: “Oh you mean handle it in person, oh, well, Phyllis and Stanley have agreed to cover for me while I’m gone”

David (CEO): “They did?”

Jim: “Uh...yup!”

David (CEO): “Oh, ok, well that is different.  In that case, yes, maybe this can work”

Jim: “Oh great!”

Unfortunately, they had not agreed to cover for him, as we soon discover.

Phyllis: “Why should we help you?”

Jim: “Because we’re friends!”

Stanley:“When is my birthday?”

Jim: “Unfair, when’s my birthday?”

Stanley: “I don’t know, because we’re not friends”

Jim: “How about this, you let me take you to lunch, and I make my case”

Stanley: “Now we’re talking”

Jim’s apparent prospects appear to fade as Phyllis and Stanley drink heavily at lunch, continue to steer conversation away from Jim’s request, and begin to take a nap in the car.  But, just as they’re falling asleep, Jim gets the good news he was looking for:

Phyllis: “We’re gonna cover for you, you know”

Jim: “Phyllis, are you dreaming, or…”

Stanley: “I did enjoy grinding your beans, son”

Phyllis: “Yeah, we really did peel your grapes”

After some more heckling, Jim confirms what he heard.

Jim: “..you are going to cover for me?”

Phyllis: “Of course we are Jimmy, we love you guys”

Jim: “Thank you!”

Now, how does this conversation tie in to a broader conversation about Kevin or Adam’s thoughts on mentorship?  Does Adam endorse getting drunk at business lunches?  Is Kevin’s #1 CFO life hack taking mid-day stealth naps in his car?

No, I don’t get drunk at business lunches.  And I’m fairly confident (although, not certain) that Kevin doesn’t nap in his car.

Instead, the relevant phenomenon I think we’re seeing is Jim leaning into his Strength Zone.

Jim faced a problem: how do I balance my current job responsibilities with the demands of my new business venture?

There is more than one way to solve that problem.  If one of Jim’s strengths was extreme financial discipline, maybe he could have quit his job, or used the possibility that he may have to as leverage.  If Jim had a super-human risk appetite, maybe he could have done that without a financial cushion.  If Jim had made himself indispensable to his business partners, maybe he could have extracted more concessions on his work arrangement from them.  If Jim had previously had a more substantial career focus in his earlier time at Dunder-Mifflin, maybe he would have built a stronger reputation, and would be in a better position to alleviate some of the CEOs concerns.

Now, I’m not saying any of those are bulletproof alternatives.  But neither was the path he chose: committing the time and energy of other people who had not agreed with his plans. Jim was in a genuinely tough position.

I’m not going to condone the shoot-first, aim-later strategy that Jim had on this one.  If that was his only answer to David’s predictable concern, he should have approached Phyliss and Stanley ahead of time.

But, still, it’s illuminating that Jim chose that route, and was ultimately successful.

As we’ve discussed in a previous post, Jim has a natural charisma, and is genuinely invested in being a positive force in the lives of his colleagues.  He puts people first.  It just comes naturally.

So, while Jim could have attempted to address this problem in other ways, he ultimately did so by operating within his strength zone, just like Kevin would have instructed him to:

“I mean, if you were only given two zones to choose from--strength or weakness--which would you choose? I suppose you don’t even need a mentor advising you on that one. If you do, I'm a little concerned about you, but glad to be of service! Strengths is the obvious choice, so why do so many young professionals remain unaware of their intangibles and--by default-- try to work within their weaknesses or the strengths of their peers? Working from your strengths is the ONLY way to reach your maximum potential.”

-Kevin from our post “In the Zone”

Couldn’t say it any better myself.  So, that’s where I’ll leave it!

by Adam

Today, I want to talk about Reputation.  It won’t be the first time: in fact, we covered this in one of our core posts on the mentoring program. 

If you read that post (and, I recommend you do!), you’ll have heard a lot about what a reputation is. Here’s Kevin’s take on his own reputation:

“Currently, I am building a reputation as a CFO mentor, in addition to other characteristics that I am consistently living, such as encourager, faithful, teacher, positive attitude and humor. By continually focusing on these traits and roles, I am continuing to build my reputation in my community.”

-Kevin from our post on Reputation

Reading that post will get you a long way toward understanding how to build a reputation.  And, indeed, it even spends some times ruminating on the precariousness of only having indirect control over your reputation.  

But, I want to dive deeper on that topic.  And, to do so, I want to pick back up with Jim’s ongoing journey in Episode 7, Season 9 (“The Whale”). In the quote below, we find Jim struggling to hold a productive work call in the presence of some highly distracting background noise.

[Jim paces around the parking lot on his cell phone]

Jim: “What I was saying is the genius of Air Jordan was not in the market saturation it was, uh…”

[metal chop saw screeches from across the street]

Business Partner: “It was what?”

Jim: “Sorry, um…”

Business Partner: “Jim we’re having a lot of trouble hearing you”

Jim: “The..the...what I was saying is the real genius, was in the….”

[Jim leans against a car, setting off the car alarm]

Security guard: [yelling to Jim] “Hey, are those skateboarders back?

Business Partner: “Jim? Jim are you there?”

Jim: “It was in the authentic design, right?  It really felt like Michael Jordan was wearing these shoes for..”

Meredith: “Jim, who was messing with my van?”

Jim: “Nobody!”

Business Partner: “Jordan wore them for nobody?  Not following you Halpert…”

Later that day, we see the aftermath, as Jim answers a follow-up call from his business partner.

Jim:“Jim Halpert”

Business Partner: “Hey, It’s Collin”

Jim: “Hey man, I am so sorry about that”

Business Partner: “Hey, no, don’t worry about it.  It’s just, it's not totally working”

Jim: “Yeah, no, I know, this whole telecommuting thing is not ideal, but don’t worry I’ll figure it out.”

Business Partner: “Yeah, well, it’s not just not ideal. With you there, I don’t know how we’re going to do this”

Jim: “Uh, what does that mean”

The scene ends, and we’re left to wonder exactly what it means. But, we’re left with a clear impression: Jim has damaged his reputation with his business partner.

If your reaction is anything like mine, you’re probably feeling sorry for Jim.  He’s in a tough situation.  He faces a lot of obstacles to realizing his dream of being a founding member of this new business.  We know his intentions are good; he really seems to be doing his best here.

But, those good intentions are not enough to dull the impact his accidental transgressions have on his reputation with his new business partner.  That’s frustrating!  That doesn’t feel like the way it should be.  But, it's the way it is.

If you’ve been working in a professional capacity for years and years, you’re probably less likely to think that analysis is very profound.  Of course Jim is going to be initially judged on his output, not his intentions.  That’s not only because intentions are difficult to ascertain, but because intentions alone just don’t get the job done.

But, if you’re newer to the professional workforce (or rapidly approaching graduation), I’m guessing you’re having a subtly different reaction.  Maybe you grudgingly accept what I said as true, but you certainly don’t think it's fair.  I know a younger version of me would have felt that way.

And, here’s the thing: I’m not going to try to convince you that it’s fair.  But, I do think it's important you be convinced that, in terms of building a professional reputation, what seems fair is hopelessly irrelevant.

Before we go there though, I think it’s important to unbundle two things.  While professional and personal reputation and character can be (and often are) intertwined, they are not the same thing.  As we will touch on in later posts, you’ll often face tough tradeoffs in your life pitting the personal against the professional, and there aren’t always easy answers.

But, it’s the distinction between those two spheres of life that’s important.  While we can sympathize with Jim on a personal level, we have to understand from a professional level that his shortcomings here are, indeed, fair game for his business partner to take issue with.  That doesn’t have to diminish our personal empathy for Jim.  But, it does need to be the groundwork from which we understand how to build a professional reputation.

Now, this is not to say that professional reputation deserves primacy 100% of the time.  While Character reflects morals, and should form the “non-negotiable” principles by which we operate, reputation includes elements like “work ethic,” which can often be in a zero-sum conflict with things like a healthy relationship with your spouse or kids.  In other words: some elements of your reputation necessarily exist on a continuum.

I know, I know: I am being a big time downer.  But, I have a good reason!  This realization, for me, was as profound and unexpected as it was important. And, I think the genesis story for this revelation is itself instructive.

The CFO of a large public company came to my university as a guest speaker.  After her talk, she was asked a question that I’d heard, in some form, many times before: “how do you balance work life with family?”

I had been conditioned to expect a certain thing to come next: she would talk about the importance of her family to her, how it takes teamwork and coordination, offer a few specific tips or tricks, and then stick the landing with a story about how she prioritized some specific Family Thing over a different Important Work Thing.  The message: sure, it is a challenge, but you don’t really have to make any trade offs, you just have to decide to make it work.  

Here’s my abbreviated take on what I expected her to say: the hard decisions are hard because it takes effort and creativity to find the perfect answer.

But, that is not what she said.

She said, without any hint of apology or shame, that sometimes you have to make tough decisions in your life.  That she loves her family, and loves her kids.  That you can certainly be both a good parent, a good spouse, and a successful professional.  But, you have to understand: there are going to be tradeoffs.  You can’t just have your cake and eat it too.  It starts with understanding your values, then identifying your goals, and then making the decisions that you can live with.

My take on what she actually said: the hard decisions are hard because there is no perfect answer.

That was a sobering moment for me.  I’m guessing it was also a sobering moment for the aspiring future-professional who asked the question.  But, we both needed to hear it.

And, therein lies what a professional reputation is not.  A professional reputation is not based solely on your intentions, is not crafted according to what is fair, and is not limited by rules of what colleagues are allowed to think. Importantly, it is not something that can always be maximized without tradeoffs.

Now, I’m not saying: “If you want to be professionally successful, get ready to have a horrible family life”

I’m also not saying: “If you want to be a good spouse or parent, go ahead and give up on your aspirations to be an executive some day”

I’m saying: No matter what path you choose, you’re going to have to make tough decisions.  Sometimes, with some effort and creativity, you’ll be able to have your cake and eat it too.  Many times, you won’t.

In fact, those inevitable hard decisions are precisely what make our Mentoring Framework most valuable.  When you’re staring down the barrel of a decision that puts two things that you want in direct conflict--that’s when you need a map.  That’s when you need a reliable system by which to adjudicate your competing interests, and help you determine your path with confidence.  That’s when you need Goals.  And when those Goals are in conflict, that’s when you need a Mission Statement.  And, when the problem is too fickle even for your Mission Statement to shed clarifying light on, that’s when you need a Board of Advisors to offer you perspective, wisdom, and advice.

No, the Mentoring Program Kevin has put together won’t answer every question life can throw at you.  And, it doesn’t mean you won’t make some poor decisions from time to time.  But, it puts some tools in your toolbox to be able to confront these difficult questions when they arise.

And, trust me, they will arise!  

Confronting that reality may seem like a bummer.  And, you may feel like this post runs contrary to our stance on optimism. 

Rest assured.  It doesn’t!  With this knowledge, you are still free (and encouraged!) to dream big, and aspire to have a fantastic, multidimensional life.  In fact, this knowledge only makes those dreams more attainable.  Because when you face obstacles, when competing elements of your dreams seem in irreconcilable conflict, you won’t be crestfallen.  You won’t be shocked.  You won’t feel like you’ve been sold a bill of goods.

Instead, you’ll know it’s normal.  You’ll realize that this is one of those "tradeoffs" you were warned about.  And, you’ll use the tools at your disposal to press forward with confidence, conviction, and (hopefully) a renewed sense of optimism for what else may lie ahead.

by Adam

In our last post in this series, we explored Jim’s deficiencies in the Character department as he embarked on a new journey in his career, with his wife belatedly and reluctantly in tow.

While that lapse in judgement is not the focus of this post, it laid the groundwork for Jim's difficulties in the topic we’re exploring today: communication.

Now, communication is not and explicit element of our Mentoring Program.  That’s not because it isn’t important.  It is!

Take a look at this 2016 survey on key elements to living a full life.  Notable among them are:

• Family - 32%
• Success - 12%
• Giving - 8%
• Health - 7%

Notably absent are things like:

• Breathing
• Not starving to death
• Literacy
• Modern Plumbing

Now, you could definitely take issue with the last point.  While I certainly am appreciative for modern plumbing’s presence in my life, many a human being in antiquity (and even current day) find meaning and purpose in their lives without a sink that runs or a toilet that flushes.  But, as you work your way up that second list, you’ll find elements that become more and more basic, more and more a part of the assumed foundation for a normal life in modern times.  Breathing, of course, is the prerequisite for, well, anything.

So, why did respondents leave these off the list?  For the same reason Communication isn’t a headline section of the Mentoring Program.  

I won’t claim it “goes without saying” that communication is important, not least because I would contradict that notion by continuing to write this post about it.  But, I think it’s accurate to say that communication can be assumed to be the bedrock of just about any human endeavor that requires interaction with other people (which is most human endeavors), and even some that don’t!

Indeed, Kevin urges mentees to write down their Mission Statement and Goals.  This serves a useful function in helping distill vague ideas and feelings into more precise and actionable dicta.  Importantly, it also allows you to communicate through space and time (WHOA!) to future-you, who can look back on the priorities formed by prior-you, and use that to evaluate your progress.

But, I digress.  After all, the title of this post is “Money Talks in the Office.”  I’ll admit, it’s a bit of a bait and switch for me to have titled this post as such.  To go full grammar school, I’m not using “talks” as a verb.  So, if you’re hoping to read a post about how Jim walks into the Office with a stack of Benjamins, makes it rain, gets everything he wants, and then gives a short speech to the documentary crew about how “money talks”...well...this post is not for you.    

No, I’m referring to “talks” as a noun.  You know, that slow, deliberative process of communicating with another person to reach consensus, or at least a shared understanding of each other’s perspective.  And, as you may have guessed, the talks I’m referring to are about money.

But, to confuse the matter even further, the subject of this post is not a certain set of money talks between Jim and Pam.  In fact, its about the absence or insufficiency of money talks between the pair.

Que the dialogue from Episode 5, Season 9 ("Here Comes Treble"):

Jim: “Listen, are you sure you’re ok with me putting in this much money”

Pam: “Yeah, I mean listen, if we’re gonna do this thing than we should do it right”

Jim: “You’re the best”

Pam: “I kind of am, it’s crazy”

Off to a good start, right?  Looks like Jim and Pam are finally working from the same playbook.

Business Partner: “I also have been running the numbers and between our backers, and our investment, we’re looking great for a full year on this”

Jim: “Is it too late to get in?”

Business Partner: “Jim, I explained everything, and you’re all set”

Jim: “Oh no, I actually talked to my wife, and we’d really like to invest, you know, get in on the ground floor”

Business Partner: “Wow, well, what level of investment are you thinking about?”

Jim: “We were thinking somewhere between $5, $10 thousand.  [uncomfortable pause] I can do the full $10 thousand, we should just [motions with hands]...all-in”

Business Partner: “All right, welcome aboard”

Jim: “Cool”

A little bit awkward...Jim looked uncomfortable, and obviously ended up at the high end of what he was comfortable with.  But, all is good, right?  Surely he and Pam were explicit enough in their talks that Jim’s high end was also Pam’s.  Right…?

Pam: “Oh hey how’d it go?”

Jim: “Oh it was great, they were great”

Pam: “Did you end up investing?”

Jim: “I did, yeah”

Pam: “How much?”

Jim: “Uh, I guess by the end it was… about… 10”

Pam: “About ten?”

Jim: “Ten, it was the full ten”

Pam: “Wow”

Jim: “Yeah”

Pam: “Wow”

Jim: “Yeah, it’s a good thing we talked about it though because, we had to”

Pam: “So did everybody end up investing ten thousand?”

Jim: “Um, oh man, I don’t actually know”

Pam: “What?”

Jim: “They weren’t actually talking all that much about money, they just said we’re good with investing, and then…”

Pam: “They said they were done with investing and then you volunteered ten thousand dollars”

Jim: “Well I had to, I needed to look like a team player”

Pam: “So you invested ten thousand dollars to look like a team player?”

Jim: [as office meeting is beginning in the background] “We’ll talk about it later”

Pam: “No, I want to talk about it now.  Jim, that was most of our savings”

Jim: “Some, we said some”

Pam: “We’ll talk about it later”

Oof.  There’s a lot of subtext in this interaction, but I’m going to focus on two things.

First: it’s impossible to fully understand this interaction without understanding Jim’s prior breach of character, and breach of trust.  With everything you do, you’re either adding to, of subtracting from, your reputation.  Understandably, Pam did not default to the most generous interpretation of Jim’s conduct and motives.

Second: communication is really, really important.  We like to think that we’ve put together a fantastic mentoring program to provide a foundation for you professional and personal development.  But it isn’t everything you’re going to need!  Execution requires a variety of skills, and even the best laid plans go awry.

There’s a famous Mike Tyson quote:

“I ain’t the same person I was when I bit that guy’s ear off”

...wait...sorry...not that one!

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth”

Now, while I hope your career and personal life doesn’t involve the realistic prospect of being literally punched in the mouth, I do think there is some wisdom there about plans.  They’re great!  They’re necessary.  But, alone, they are not sufficient.

That will continue to be a theme throughout this series.  Embarking on the mentoring program is an important step.  But, it doesn’t contain the answer to all of your life's problems.  It’s just a map.  You’re the one that has to walk the road, putting one foot in front of the other, encountering and dealing with obstacles along the way.

by Adam

For this post, we’ll be focusing on Episode 2, Season 9 ("Roy's Wedding") and Episode 3, Season 9 ("Andy's Ancestry").

We left off our last post in this series by highlighting the multifaceted-ness of Jim’s shaky new career direction.  He had just, without any consultation with his wife, accepted a role in a high-risk start-up company located more than 100 miles away from where they currently live.

Which is… a perfectly normal thing to do… nothing to see here… right?

Wrong.

In fact, before continuing on with the narrative of the story, or my thoughts on how it links back to mentorship concepts we’ve developed on this blog, I’m going to ask you to do a little reflection.

Can you think of a time in your life where you’ve overcommitted?  It doesn’t have to be on the scale of Jim’s promissory blunder.  What about something small?  Surely, you have before.

Many highly driven individuals face a certain kind of tough choice on a daily or weekly basis: reconciling their aspirations with the constraints of being a human being.  Those constraints may include:

• Only having 24 hours in one day, and needing to sleep, eat, and attend to your personal hygiene
• Pursuing goals without sacrificing character
• Maintaining healthy balance between different goals and self-care requirements
• Reconciling aspirations with the wants and needs of family

While Jim’s actions fit more neatly into some of those buckets than others, I think it’s important to point out that his experience is thematic of the larger phenomenon.  Human beings are constantly facing trade-offs in pursuit of their goals.  In fact, successfully navigating these trade-offs, and optimizing your decisions in light of your mission and goals, constitute the blocking and tackling of following the mentorship program.

It’s great to lay out a good plan, but that can’t distract you from the very real need to execute on that plan!  Good intentions are immeasurably better than meandering through life with no intentions at all.  But, good intentions alone won’t get you where you want to go.

So, back to Jim.  First, he provides us a little more context for that telephone call we heard in the last episode:

Jim: “I started a new business with my college friend. But, Pam doesn’t know....umm… actually, I did tell Pam, and we decided “no.”  But then I decided yes anyway, so, I’m thinking there’s another conversation coming, and it’s hard to know when that will be.”

And, later on, we hear another phone call that has Jim digging himself ever deeper into a hole:

Jim: “Right, and did you show them the market, yeah, and what’d they say, that's awesome, oh my god, wow! … its not even real yet, and I’m not going to tell her until its real”

Despite Jim’s secrecy, Pam suspects something:

Pam: “I think maybe there actually is something I don’t know about Jim”

And, finally, in a conversation with Darryl about their current employment situation, Jim is faced with the truth of what he has (and hasn’t) been doing:

Jim: “You doin’ alright man?”

Darryl: “I’m done. I gotta get out of here.”

Jim: “Yeah, not the easiest day to be assistant regional manager.”

Darryl: “It’s not just today, it’s every day.  Seems like the better title that I have, the stupider my job gets.”

Jim: “Come on, it can always get better, right?”

Darryl: “Yeah, right.”

Jim: “No, I’m serious, there’s always something better.”

Darryl: “Like what.”

Jim: “Like hypothetically, if I said that there was another job, that you and I could both have”

Darryl: “What kind of job”

Jim: “Something cool, like sports marketing, or…does that sound like something you’d be into?”

Darryl: “Hell yeah”

Jim: “Right?”

Darryl: “That sounds awesome”

Jim: “Ok but wait, what if I told you that it was in Philly, so you’d have to…”

Darryl: “I love Philly”

Jim: “Right?”

Darryl: “That’s not even a thought…”

Jim: “Not even a thought, its not even that far away, I could still commute, exactly.  Exactly!  Alright!”

Darryl: “Wait wait wait, so what, is this happening?”

Jim: “Oh its happening, lets just keep it between you and me for right now”

Darryl: “Ok, yeah yeah yeah..man, so Pam’s into it?”

Jim: “We haven’t talked about it but I think that she’s, I think she understands what this is…”

Darryl: “Oh, come on man, I thought you had something real”

Jim: “What, no no no, come on, this is real”

Darryl: “It’s not real until your wife is on board”

Darryl’s right: Jim’s order of operations is out of whack.  On some level, Jim surely knows this.  You can practically feel it in the conversation!  Jim knows he shouldn’t be keeping this to himself, and uses Darryl as a psychological stand-in for a higher-stakes conversation with his wife.

Eventually, though, Jim does tell Pam.  Unfortunately, it does not result in the resolution that Jim thinks it does:

Jim: “I don’t know what I was so worried about, I have the best wife in the world”

Jim is thrilled that his goal now seems newly attainable.

Pam: “I still can’t believe he didn’t tell me”

Pam is crushed by Jim’s out-of-character dishonesty.

There’s a lot here we could talk about.  Jim is flailing in some impressively destructive ways.  Luckily for our series of posts, he will continue to flail for several more episodes, providing ample time to cover more implications of the lack of consensus and communication with Pam.

But, in the context of the whole season, the most unique thing about this particular episode is Jim’s total lack of desire to reconcile the competing interests in his life.

Maybe it would have helped him to define those interests through a formal Mission Statement or explicit Goals.

But, I’m not so sure.

Even without having crystal clear goals, Jim is painfully aware of the inherent conflict between two of his most fundamental aspirations: an engaging, purpose-filled career and a happy, healthy marriage.

I hate to say it (because we all like Jim!) but, this one comes down to Character.

It can be hard to nail down exactly what Character is, or what it really means, but here’s a running start:

"So, what is character? Character can be defined as the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual. Not helpful? Well, maybe an exhaustive list of said qualities would do the job: integrity, honesty, loyalty, trustworthy, respectfulness, humility, compassion, fairness, forgiveness, authenticity, courage, generosity, perseverance, politeness, kindness, optimism, reliability, self-discipline, ambitious, encouraging, considerate, dependable, patience, grit, compassion, self-control, grateful, positive, proactive, hopeful, devoted, faithful, genuine...did that help?"

-Kevin from our post on Character

If your Goals answer the question “what?”....

….and your Mission Statement answers the question “why?”...

...then your Character answers the question “how?”

You get the sense that Jim was somehow hoping he could manage to play a foundational role in this non-local start-up without ever really coming clean to Pam.  And, therein lies the cardinal sin of Jim’s conduct here.  He was so focused on what he wanted, that he didn’t really care how it came into being.  

Resolving a conflict like that requires a great deal of self-awareness.  Effective goals are manifest in specific, objective language. Character, by its very nature, is much more abstract a measuring stick. As a result, it can be easy to rationalize prioritization of the former over the vague demands of the latter.  

Luckily, in the following posts, we’ll see Jim beginning to up his game on the Character front.  But as we’ll soon see, transgressions of Character are not so easy to atone for, and the ripple effects of Jim's conduct will follow him for many days to come.