Week 20
Days 134–140 · Justice
Day 134
A little power, used straight
Watch what a little authority does to you.
You don't have to run a company to hold power over someone. You set the schedule, so a server's whole week bends around what you decide. You train the new hire, so your patience or your sighs teach them what this place is. You take the… Read Day 134
Day 135
The same fairness to the lowest rung
How you treat the person with no leverage tells the truth.
It's easy to be fair to the people who can hurt you. The client who could walk. The boss who writes your review. The vendor you'll need again next quarter. Fairness comes cheap when there's a cost to being unfair. The real test is the… Read Day 135
Day 136
First, do no harm
Before anything clever, just don't hurt anyone.
When you've got authority, the temptation is to use it — to fix, to push, to make your mark. But power's first job isn't to do good. It's to not do harm. The harm that comes from someone in charge is rarely dramatic. It's the shift cut… Read Day 136
Day 137
Reach for the word before the whip
Authority is the last tool, not the first.
When you can make someone comply, it's tempting to skip straight to making them. Write them up. Pull rank. Threaten the schedule, the review, the report to the boss. It's fast, and it works in the moment. But reaching for force first is a… Read Day 137
Day 138
Reward what's earned, not who you like
The fairest call is the one that ignores how you feel about them.
Here's where holding power gets hardest. You have a good shift to hand out, a name to put forward for the promotion, a little slack to extend or withhold. And the easy move is to give it to the person you like — the one who laughs at your… Read Day 138
Day 139
The power you hold at home
The people who depend on you can't file a complaint.
The biggest power you hold all week isn't at work. It's at home, over the people who can't quit you. A small child has no leverage at all — they get the parent they get. A teenager can't write you up for the mood you bring through the door.… Read Day 139
Day 140
Power answers to something
Whatever authority you hold, it isn't yours to spend on yourself.
Look back at the week. The schedule you set, the junior you trained, the customer at your mercy, the lowest rung you chose to pay in full, the favor you gave by desert instead of by liking, the need you met at home before it was asked. One… Read Day 140
Read more on this week's idea
Stoic Fundamentals · Book 1
In Your Control
A whole book on the Stoic dichotomy of control: what is yours, what is not, and how to live by the difference.
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