Why Do People Throw Their Weight Around? It’s Not Cool!

Monday, July 30, 2007 at 11:25am by David Askaripour in Life

I moved from Manhattan to Queens just over a month ago. I miss Manhattan, but I’m still there all the time so it’s not too bad. Before moving into my new apartment there were some issues that needed to be taken care of such as: painting the rooms, fixing the rack in my closet so I can hang-up my clothes, and some other things.

After a few days of living here, I was promised that my closet would be installed and the apartment painted on a certain date. When that date came and I was still without a closet and unpainted walls, I said to myself: “okay, no problem…maybe my landlords just forget.”

Another week went by with a few more promises to have the closet installed and rooms painted, but, again, there was absolutely no follow-through, just a bunch of empty promises and false commitments.

It’s now the fifth week and about 7 false promises later and still nothing has been done. Every time I called, left voicemails, emails, smoke signals, etc… I got the same response: “Ohh… sorry. I was busy. Something happened. We’ll get to it this weekend. I’ve been so busy with this and that.”

So at this point there really isn’t anything else I can do, besides moving out which would be a HUGE hassle that I would not want to endure at the moment. This is a case of someone throwing their weight around because they know that they can.

Someone who throws their weight around is someone who does or doesn’t do things just because “they know that they can” and there will be little to no immediate affect on them. We see it all the time in business — all the time.

You know, when your boss lets you know that he has the final say and no matter what you do or think, it really won’t matter because he can just overrule you at any time. He goes out of his way to make you understand that your word is valued less than his and that his word will ALWAYS trump yours.

I guess it’s an ego thing. When people feel the need to push their weight around, they are usually lacking something within and are desperately trying to find that “something” by imposing their inadequacies unto people through mistreatment and misuse of power. It’s absolutely disgusting to see this happen.

Have you ever found yourself throwing your weight around your partners, employees, and friends? I’m sure that you have at some point. We all have. But it’s bad for business. It’s bad for karma. It’s bad for EVERYTHING. It’s a weakness in one’s character, really. Or maybe just a lack of understanding.

People shouldn’t be focusing their energy on diminishing other peoples’ values and making false commitments just because “they know that they can.” When you do this, you are tainting yourself. You are losing the respect of others. You are disempowering yourself no matter how “empowering” you may feel at the time.

A company with such a leader at the helm is bound to fall apart. It’s a boat that’s either going to sink or you’re going to fall off because all that weight that you’ve been pushing around is going to push you overboard sooner or later.

Don’t misuse your power. Use it to unite, not divide.

Update: Fellow young entrepreneur Patrick O’Keefe may be a victim of someone throwing around their weight. Check out his story and let us know what you think.

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