one value of titles

When my mother’s friend Julie became a nurse toward middle age, the thing she said shocked her most was that people started to obey her commands without question. She would walk into a room and tell a man: “Take off your shirt.” And– he would take off his shirt. She said it took some getting used to.

I’m finding something similar with the administrative title I have this year. For one thing, if I send someone at the University a congratulations about something, they are always really really happy about it. For another thing, I can send someone a tedious piece of paperwork and say: “Any chance you can have this done by the end of next week? That would be great.” And they send it to me a few hours later. Or at least most of them do.

If you were, say, President of the United States, it’s incredible to think how much effort you might be able to leverage with a simple request.

[ADDENDUM: I seem to recall an Amy Carter story from my childhood… Amy was writing a school report, and asked her President father a question about some country or other. He didn’t know the answer, and phoned the State Department to ask if anyone there knew. Mistaking the question for a direct Presidential query, State Department staff prepared a rapid and encyclopedic report on the issue, and Jimmy Carter was somewhat embarrassed to respond that he actually just needed to know the answer for his 11-year-old daughter’s schoolwork. If memory serves, Amy only got a C+ on the report.]