MEDIA CONTEST: My boss once said ... Words of wisdom and woe from former supervisors

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ACC MEDIA CONTEST --  During my career, I've worked for a lot of different people -- some good, some bad, some civilian, some military, some for years and some for a few months. I've learned from every one of them; some showed me by deed and word what to do, and some showed me what not to do.

Sometimes, in talking to your boss, there's a phrase he'll use over and over again, to the point it becomes a punch line at his going away. Sometimes, he just zaps you with a thought or idea that makes such an impact it stays with you years later.

Here are some things my bosses have told me over the years:

"If I have to do your job, one of us is redundant."

As a new captain, I was unsure of some of the decisions I was making, particularly those involving customer service ... I was gun shy after receiving complaints and started to run every decision through my commander.

Finally, exasperated, he told me he didn't need me if he had to run my flight for me -- or in other words, take a risk, make the decision, learn from it and move on.

"It is not your bosses' job to get along with you, it's your job to get along with your boss."

I worked for a commander for two years who I just did not get along with -- she seemed to exist to make my life miserable. No matter what I did, I couldn't seem to do anything right. After a while, I tuned out and stopped talking to her, put my head down and prayed for a permenant change of station.

The group commander called me into his office and told me to get my head back on straight -- the mission was the most important thing; whether or not I liked my boss was irrelevant. I needed to do my job.

"Lowest ranking has to drive."

As a new lieutenant, I worked in an office with GS-11s and 12s designing uniforms. We were TDY about a week out of every month, and as soon as I arrived, I became the office travel agent and designated driver in strange cities and rural areas where the uniforms are manufactured. I paid my dues for 18 months as the lowest ranking, and I lived to talk about it ... and now I can navigate my way around both Washington, D.C., and rural Georgia!

"It doesn't take any brains to flip a burger."

Many services commanders are cross-trainees from other Air Force specialty codes. One year, I worked for a non-services officer who hadn't asked to be the services squadron commander.

After one too many complaints about the dining facility, she raged to her office walls that the job couldn't be that hard, so why couldn't her Airmen just get it right?

Unfortunately, her door was open, and the Airmen in the orderly room heard everything. That commander never recovered ... word was out in the squadron three minutes later that she didn't think her troops were very smart and couldn't do their jobs. She never even tried.

"It is what it is -- nobody died no property was lost and the sun will shine tomorrow"

Sometimes, it's easy to get wrapped around the axle about small things that, when looked at in the scope of the big picture, aren't that important at all.

My group commander used to say "look, it is what it is -- nobody died, no property was lost and the sun will still rise tomorrow." Especially in light of what other troops were going through in Iraq and Afghanistan, complaints about the price of beer at a deployed location were just not that important when put into perspective.

"That's like taking food out of your little old grandmother's mouth."

We've all been on a boondoggle T D Y or spent money at the end of the year just so it wouldn't get taken away, or bought new office chairs when we really didn't need them.

My boss used to say his grandmother paid taxes out of her fixed income, and wasting government money was like taking food out of her mouth, and for what?

When I was deployed, I couldn't believe the amount of food wasted in the dining hall all because it was "free."

Things are never free -- someone is paying for it, and that someone could be someone who really can't afford it.

I'm sure I've said something in the past two years -- good or bad -- that my squadron will remember years from now. Hopefully it was good and will make them stop and think at some later date. Even if it wasn't good, we learn something new every day, from everyone we meet -- and that's one more thing a boss once told me.