Little League World Series

[pzarquon]

Re: Little League World Series

Indeed. "The agony of defeat" is very nearly as big a part of the picture as the "thrill of victory." Maybe you don't want to dwell (and maybe that was the complaint), but I would think that in any competition, it would actually be weird to show only jumps for joy and high-fives and not the long faces on the other side.

I think we all felt for Curacao, as we felt for our own kids. The mix of emotions is what makes the experience that much more amazing.

[Kilinahe]

Re: Little League World Series

I don't really like sports. I don't really get emotional about games on TV and I really can't form an educated opinion about teams or strategies or anything.

But dammit if I didn't cry during the news when they were showing footage.

[Surfingfarmboy]

Re: Little League World Series

I heard there was a bit of a flap on the East Coast, where ABC cutaway from the game just as it was tied in the sixth to cover the hurricane. I think a lot of folks will be looking forward to a rebroadcast, somewhere.

You are correct. ABC did cut away from the broadcast for hurricane coverage here in the Northeast. Fortunately, I have cable here, so I just switched over to ESPN, who picked up the broadcast of the game, and was able to watch the remainder of the game.

[Kekaha Roots]

Re: Little League World Series

We can at least agree that there are perhaps some jobs that you would never quit in order to watch your son play in the Little League World Series, yes? For example, you didn't see any soldiers in Iraq leaving their posts for this.

Teachers are in an interesting spot; we're free to leave if we must, but when we do, we totally screw hundreds of students and the administrators. When I agree to do this job at the start of the year, there's an implied commitment that I'll be there at least through to the end of the year. You can bet that if I'd quit my job now, in the second week of the school year, to see my kid play baseball, it's not the kind of thing that makes other schools line up for my services, and they certainly wouldn't be offering me a thousand bucks more than I made at the school I quit!

As for the guy getting his position back, I'd like to know what you'd tell your other employees.

You have some extremely valid points in this thread, scrivener, but I'll add my .02 worth:

We don't know (well, at least I don't) what kind of financial position Mr Enos was/is in. Perhaps he & his family are financially stable and they could afford to take some time off of work without having sacrificing their well being. I don't know the terms of his employment condition when he left, either. Did he just outright quit at the last minute, or did he give his company notice that this event could happen, or was he given sometype of personal leave?

Many people-oriented companies will work with their employees in special circumstances like this given that there is plenty of notice. I think I read that he was in the construction industry, so he might be involved with a union. If that's the case, then it's probably a lot different. Nonetheless, in my management career I have always accommodated people with personal leaves as long as there has been advance notice. For example, a few years ago I had an employee who wanted to adopt a girl in the Phillipines, but this meant that he had to leave for eight weeks. Since he gave me plenty of notice I was able to approve his request.

To answer your question about "What do you tell your employees when he comes back?":

That can be very tricky & difficult if it's not handled correctly. I would say that if an employee is brought back w/o an official opening, it's going to create some resentment, or even the perception of favoritism. If there is an opening and he qualifies to get his job back, then there shouldn't be a problem. However, if this happens, then a discussion between the manager & employees needs to take place to explain everything, IMHO. If not, then some employees could still view this as favoritism.

[Pikake]

Re: Little League World Series

...Now...I reckon a movie based on this LL Championship will be in production next. Heck, they may even throw in the part about the dad who quit his job to watch his son play.

[Moto]

Re: Little League World Series

We don't know (well, at least I don't) what kind of financial position Mr Enos was/is in. Perhaps he & his family are financially stable and they could afford to take some time off of work without having sacrificing their well being.

From what ABC reported in the World Championship game, Mr. Enos took out a hefty loan (I believe it was in the range of $12,000) to pay for this trip.

I don't know the terms of his employment condition when he left, either. Did he just outright quit at the last minute, or did he give his company notice that this event could happen, or was he given sometype of personal leave?

From what was reported, he asked for leave of absence without pay to go and watch his son play, and was denied. Therefore, his decision to quit.

Many people-oriented companies will work with their employees in special circumstances like this given that there is plenty of notice. I think I read that he was in the construction industry, so he might be involved with a union. If that's the case, then it's probably a lot different.

From what I understand, Island Ready Mix concrete is a subsidiary of Ameron Concrete. Amaron is a unionized company, however, Island Ready Mix Concrete is not.

Nonetheless, in my management career I have always accommodated people with personal leaves as long as there has been advance notice. For example, a few years ago I had an employee who wanted to adopt a girl in the Phillipines, but this meant that he had to leave for eight weeks. Since he gave me plenty of notice I was able to approve his request.

Being a small company, Island Ready Mix, must have made a business decision and probably could not afford to have Mr. Enos gone for the extra 2 weeks. This is speculation.

To answer your question about "What do you tell your employees when he comes back?":

That can be very tricky & difficult if it's not handled correctly. I would say that if an employee is brought back w/o an official opening, it's going to create some resentment, or even the perception of favoritism. If there is an opening and he qualifies to get his job back, then there shouldn't be a problem. However, if this happens, then a discussion between the manager & employees needs to take place to explain everything, IMHO. If not, then some employees could still view this as favoritism.

On the other hand, I wonder how his fellow employees feel about what happened to him and how it could affect them in the future (should they want to take unexpected leave of some sort)? Because of the result of the team, they have become island heros (Justifiably so, with their never quit attitude).

Not easy decisions on both sides of the fence. I fully understand why Mr. Enos did what he did. I also understand why Island Ready Mix Concrete may have done what they did.

[mel]

Re: Little League World Series

Doesn't anyone else have mixed feelings about this father who quit his job so he could watch his son play baseball?

I've been monitoring this thread for the past week or so and haven't commented on it until now.

I am not a big sports fan and did not watch any of the games. However I have to congratulate the Ewa Beach baseball team for a job well done and winning that championship. This is probably the feel good story of the year for Hawaii, especially when we have other issues that have been bad for the state manifest themselves in recent months and weeks.

That said, I have to agree with Scrivener on the issue of the father who left his high paying job just to go on a trip to watch baseball. Sure his team won, he was there with not only his son, but his entire family, as he took out a $12,000 loan to finance the trip to the mainland as news reports have indicated.

However on KITV 4 news last night it was also mentioned by his former employer, that 1. this man used up all of his vacation time as well as other time off options and 2. the employer had to be fair to all of his other employees in not allowing this person additional days off. I can understand that. If you use up all of your allotted time off, you are not entitled to more.

The firm he was working for is a small business and they have to do what they have to do to meet their contractual obligations.

It is lucky that Ewa Beach won the national title and world series championship. The person in question now has offers from other firms to drive trucks for them. The Governor even stated that someone else will hire him.

However, what if Ewa Beach had lost in the early rounds of the playoffs and had to come home a few weeks earlier? Would this guy have been fortunate enough to get the kinds of offers he got? I don't think so.

It all boils down to financial responsibility IMO. He should have stayed home and kept his job. I doubt the new offers would pay as much as the cement company he worked for.

Lastly, this is a point that Rick Hamada at KHVH also agreed on. So finally someone is in the same company as Rick other than myself on this board. Way to go Scriv!

[LikaNui]

Re: Little League World Series

I had hoped the Ewa Beach kids might look in on this thread as yet another source of numerous congratulations for their hard-earned championship, but with all the father-bashing I now hope they don't. I wonder how the son of that man might feel in reading messages about his father. Here the young man has just won a world championship -- a WORLD championship! -- but instead of celebrating that fact, a few folks have gone to analyzing the behavior of someone they don't know. The issue is, perhaps, a legitimate question, but I guess I just wish this was a kinder, gentler thread. It's about the KIDS.
Maybe we could transfer those posts to another thread?
And in response to an earlier question, it appears that KITV is indeed looking for a time spot to re-air the game. Hooray!

[Glen Miyashiro]

Re: Little League World Series

I had hoped the Ewa Beach kids might look in on this thread as yet another source of numerous congratulations for their hard-earned championship, but with all the father-bashing I now hope they don't. I wonder how the son of that man might feel in reading messages about his father. Here the young man has just won a world championship -- a WORLD championship! -- but instead of celebrating that fact, a few folks have gone to analyzing the behavior of someone they don't know.

Someone like... say... Tiny Tadani?

[Kekaha Roots]

Re: Little League World Series

Nonetheless, in my management career I have always accommodated people with personal leaves as long as there has been advance notice. For example, a few years ago I had an employee who wanted to adopt a girl in the Phillipines, but this meant that he had to leave for eight weeks. Since he gave me plenty of notice I was able to approve his request.

I forgot to clarify one point when I initially wrote the above: I could only allow for someone's personal leave if I have the appropriate staffing levels to still run the business effectively. Obviously, if I'm short staffed and someone's temporary departure would adversely affect my operation, then I wouldn't be able to approve this type of request.

Mahalo.

[Moto]

Re: Little League World Series

Sorry, in my response to Kekaha Roots above, I attempted to respond to the questions/statements individually, however, my responses were incorporated into the quote section, making it difficult to segregate my response from Kekaha Roots statements.

This is what my full response was:

We don't know (well, at least I don't) what kind of financial position Mr Enos was/is in. Perhaps he & his family are financially stable and they could afford to take some time off of work without having sacrificing their well being.

From what ABC reported in the World Championship game, Mr. Enos took out a hefty loan (I believe it was in the range of $12,000) to pay for this trip.

I don't know the terms of his employment condition when he left, either. Did he just outright quit at the last minute, or did he give his company notice that this event could happen, or was he given sometype of personal leave?

From what was reported, he asked for leave of absence without pay to go and watch his son play, and was denied. Therefore, his decision to quit.

Many people-oriented companies will work with their employees in special circumstances like this given that there is plenty of notice. I think I read that he was in the construction industry, so he might be involved with a union. If that's the case, then it's probably a lot different.

From what I understand, Island Ready Mix concrete is a subsidiary of Ameron Concrete. Amaron is a unionized company, however, Island Ready Mix Concrete is not.

Nonetheless, in my management career I have always accommodated people with personal leaves as long as there has been advance notice. For example, a few years ago I had an employee who wanted to adopt a girl in the Phillipines, but this meant that he had to leave for eight weeks. Since he gave me plenty of notice I was able to approve his request.

Being a small company, Island Ready Mix, must have made a business decision and probably could not afford to have Mr. Enos gone for the extra 2 weeks. This is speculation.

To answer your question about "What do you tell your employees when he comes back?":

That can be very tricky & difficult if it's not handled correctly. I would say that if an employee is brought back w/o an official opening, it's going to create some resentment, or even the perception of favoritism. If there is an opening and he qualifies to get his job back, then there shouldn't be a problem. However, if this happens, then a discussion between the manager & employees needs to take place to explain everything, IMHO. If not, then some employees could still view this as favoritism.

On the other hand, I wonder how his fellow employees feel about what happened to him and how it could affect them in the future (should they want to take unexpected leave of some sort)? Because of the result of the team, they have become island heros (Justifiably so, with their never quit attitude).

Not easy decisions on both sides of the fence. I fully understand why Mr. Enos did what he did. I also understand why Island Ready Mix Concrete may have done what they did.

[Linkmeister]

Re: Little League World Series

KITV said several times last night that they were trying to get permission to rebroadcast the entire game, so keep watching. They're also doing a 1/2-hour special Friday night; more info will probably be provided then.

[scrivener]

Re: Little League World Series

...but with all the father-bashing I now hope they don't. I wonder how the son of that man might feel in reading messages about his father. ... but instead of celebrating that fact, a few folks have gone to analyzing the behavior of someone they don't know.

I don't think it's fair to say that the tone of my contributions or mel's contributions really qualifies as "father-bashing." All we said was that we have mixed feelings about this and thought it was worth mentioning. The media is painting this sacrifice one way, and I think there's another way to look at it without bashing the father. I guess what I'm trying to get at is an analysis of our priorities. OUR priorities (as evidenced by the public's reaction to this story) and the media's priorities (as evidenced by the way the story is presented).

As for whether or not we should be concerned about what the team thinks if they should look upon this thread, I guess that's debatable. We didn't seem to care what Malia Song or John Berger thought, and they didn't have tons of positive media coverage to counteract whatever might have been said here.

I said it at the start of my first response: What the team did is wonderful. The boys and girls should be proud of their accomplishment. Someday, I hope they find other, more mundane things to be equally proud of, including a commitment to a family and to co-workers and employers.

[scrivener]

Re: Little League World Series

I would like to add something else here about the media's response to this World Series victory. At the end of Marisa Yamane's report last night, Yamane said that the team learned an important lesson: That persistence pays off.

Do you understand why I'm annoyed at the news reports? The lesson here should not be that persistence pays off, otherwise if the team had lost, the lesson would be that persistence doesn't pay off. There were two very, very good teams in the finals, and there were several very, very good teams in the entire World Series. Every team there played hard, was devoted, made sacrifices, and played as a team; that's how all the teams got there. Yamane's statement implies that since persistence pays off, the teams that lost weren't persistent enough. That's baloney, and we all know it. There are ten kazillion wonderful, valuable lessons baseball can teach us, whether we win or lose, but the media is focusing on the winning, and that's the wrong lesson.

I'm happy they won. It's a huge thing. They learned a great deal. But howsabout some perspective here?

Also, and this is a very small, very petty thing: Marisa Yamane, in her recap of the game, said that it was tied at the end of regulation, so the game went into "overtime."

[Kekaha Roots]

Re: Little League World Series

Sorry, in my response to Kekaha Roots above, I attempted to respond to the questions/statements individually, however, my responses were incorporated into the quote section, making it difficult to segregate my response from Kekaha Roots statements:

Mahalo, Moto..