Worklife
Issue No. 4 - February/March 2002
empower or overpower?
by Tom Shaw
As a freshly promoted sergeant in the British Army, I was thoroughly enjoying the status and perceived power of my new position. Part of my job was to conduct the morning parade at which I had to inspect the junior soldiers to make sure that they were “All Present & Correct”, (clean uniforms, freshly shaved and not in need of a haircut.)
In those days the regulations stated that a beret had to be worn tilted to the right and with the cap badge directly over the left eye. One young Craftsman, lets call him Smith, enjoyed looking cool, by wearing the badge in the middle of his forehead, and with both sides of the beret tilted. After having corrected this several times, I started to get a bit annoyed. As soon as the parade was over, he would re-adjust it to his own style. This irked me tremendously, and I became determined to teach him a lesson. I ordered him to wear his battle helmet instead of the beret. This of course caused him to be ridiculed by his peers, but I was absolutely sure that I was “doing the right thing”.
For whatever reason, this soldier must have been just as determined as me, and at every opportunity, he would revert to his favourite style, and the war of wills continued. The crunch came one day when I sent a Lance Corporal to bring Craftsman Smith to the guardroom where I was on duty. The corporal came back with the message that Smith “would be down later”. Feeling that my authority was being challenged, I re-dispatched the corporal, with two other soldiers, to bring the Craftsman to me “under escort”, and immediately.
When they returned soon afterwards, I stood Smith rigidly to attention and gave him the biggest dressing-down imaginable. I verbally assaulted him by ranting and raving about how useless he was, what a waste of space and so on. I was so intent on making sure that Smith learned his lesson, and so certain of my own Rightness, that I forgot that here stood another hu...
