SELL BY DATES

  Once upon a time shopping was a whole lot easier than it is today. You went to the shelves to pick up what you needed or wanted, (not necessarily the same), put it in your wagon and paid for it. Today, standing by any chosen item, one can begin to think that there is either a requirement or a custom to do this: pick up item, preferably from the back of the lot, gaze at sides, bottom and top, replace and redo with another of the item, shake head and pick up one's choice. What is this custom?

It is a sell by date comparison. It is a shopper's awareness that the fresher ones will be put in the back, hoping that people will simply come by and pick up one closest. I suppose it works often enough for the practice to be continued but those of us of a certain age can easily recall the time when sell by dates were non-existent and we had one less criterion over which we obsessed. Yet we survived. Today one can find these dates on practically everything from soup to nuts, edible and non-edible, and most mind boggling, on items which have no deterioration over time.  Yet there are those dates, front and center. The sad thing is how we buy into that and pursue that which need not be pursued. In so doing we fritter away time and effort where they are wasted rather than where there is desperate need of such input. And then we wonder why a project is late and/or of secondary quality. 

 Without a need to be cruel, sell by date usage and functioning can be applied to human beings if done properly. We wonder why, when there are so many ways in which we can differentiate the ability of one to carry out one's responsibilities without demeaning the one being evaluated.  Using such a system would allow for continued productive contributions from most, as misplacement due to physical demands or age restrictions or experience necessity would be halted. Each person would feel and work better when talents and abilities are   suitably matched. A person would not feel discarded, but rather valued and the atmosphere of the workplace and the morale of workers within would much improve and a happy comfortable workplace is conducive to more productivity and willingness to work in tandem, rather than in competition.

Some positions require knowledge, ability and desire to use tht knowledge to contribute to others, to help people, to make techniques easier to use, or to carry out and carry on. To make use of the experience, the knowledge, the insights of one's life's work, highlighting top of the line contributive value rather than emphasizing one weakened. Age, physical stamina, experience, ability and willingness to give over the benefits of one's experiences to one more capable at this moment to fulfill all necessities. 

Use rather than, discard. Value rather than demean. Thrifty rather than wasteful. Know and acknowledge sell by dates but also the longevity and flexibility of others. 

Now sit back and review your life, your experience in the workplace and in various organizations. Who, when and where could have benefited from the evaluation and the application of sell by the dates of ability to fulfill a position to the best of one's capability, to fit the needs of the entity and to allow for flexibility and transfer of knowledge to others without discarding all the positive that remains, all the too valuable to lose and so difficult to rebuild.

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.

  All with much to contribute. With much to build upon, all with the provision of hope.

Maybe one day to be appreciated.