Scott McClellan: Employee

Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan has written a kiss and tell book about his days at the White House.  This long time friend and employee of George W. Bush blasts the President, being especially hard on Bush and his closest advisers regarding the Iraq War.

Call me a curmudgeon, but I’m sick of kiss and tell books, whether the subject is Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton or W–or whether the subject is an employer in the more traditional sense.  If you’re working for an employer who’s unethical, dishonest, or unlawful, you need to get the heck out of Dodge.  Or you need to have a showdown with the powers that be.  Or you need to blow the whistle with the appropriate government agency.  Or you need to file a lawsuit bringing all this to light.  If you stay, then you need to keep your mouth shut, until you’re subpoenaed to testify under oath.

There should be no blind loyalty–no my president, my country, my employer, right or wrong–no homage to the trappings of power–no rationalization of the truth.  But if you’re part of the inner circle as McClellan was (he was the point person for the Bush spin machine, for goodness sake), it takes more than audacity to write a book that diverts any blame from you and places it on everyone else.  In time, Jeff Skilling will no doubt write a book blaming the Enron debacle on the deceased Ken Lay–or maybe Satan.

This is, alas, what we’ve come to.  It’s rare to find much loyalty in any workplace.  That goes both ways.  The Bush White House is known for discouraging pushback, open discussion, vigorous debate.  It’s said to be a my way or the highway, do what you’re told operation.  A lot of workplaces are like that.  In those workplaces, the culture is one of fear, not loyalty.  And it’s much more likely that when employees leave, they’ll have no compunction about blasting away.

The McClellan book should give us pause.  As employees, do we spend so much of our time with people we don’t like or respect and wouldn’t mind writing a kiss and tell book about if we could make some money?  As employers, is it our desire that employees leave running the show completely to us and never express any dissent even when they feel strongly about something?  As employees, are we invested in our employer as a worthwhile institution that does more than give us a paycheck?  As employers, would we throw our employees overboard in a hearbeat if it would drive our share price up a tick or two?

The recently departed Bo Diddley was right:  “Don’t trust nobody but your mama.”

1. 

   ACU Frank says:

   June 3, 2008 at 1:19 pm

   If this was anyone but McClellan, I might have some interest in the book… but McClellan was the guy who blasted everyone else who wrote a W tell-all. Maybe he just didn’t want the competition on Oprah’s booklist.
2. 

   John Phillips says:

   June 4, 2008 at 7:45 am

   Scottie wouldn’t do that, surely.

   Don’t have time to read this one, but from what I’ve heard and read in a couple of reviews, there’s nothing new in it. So, his kiss and tell has already been kissed and told.