This week, I would like to pose a question: Does personal branding limit people's willingness to express themselves freely or teach us a lesson in common sense?
I ask because I was faced with a recent situation that got me thinking about this question. I frequently swim during my lunch break. There is a gym located across the street from my office, and it usually goes smoothly when I try to get in some midday laps. Earlier this week, things didn't go so well.
The pool, according to the posted schedule, should have been offering 3 lanes for lap swimmers. Instead, only one lane was open, and there were already two people in it. This lack of lanes was frustrating, but I often have to swim in a crowd. It makes for good triathlon training.
As I walk over to the lane and ease into the water, I notice that one of the lane's inhabitants is moving VERY slowly down the pool toward me with his head above water and his goggles off. Turns out he is a non-verbal man with special needs who I've seen in the pool before. By this point, he is about twenty feet in front of me, no longer moving and not someone I can talk to about swimming logistics.
I look over at one of the many lifeguards and make a gesture toward the man in front of me. She smiles back at me as if to say, "Not my problem." Keep in mind that more than a third of the pool is set up for recreational swimmers and currently being used by only one other person.
So, I guess my newest lane-mate isn't going anywhere. I flag down the lane's other swimmer before she can enter another flip turn and disappear. We come up with a general plan to swim around our third amigo and get to it.
Less than two laps in, BANG! We nail each other head-to-head. Apparently, our hybrid lane-split and circle-swim technique didn't work. If you've ever rammed heads in a pool, you know it is both painful and disorienting. I surface, spin around looking for what I just hit, focus on the woman long enough to semi-coherently determine that we were both OK, then shoot a death glance at the lifeguard who finally decides to address the issue by gesturing to the man in the lap lane that he needs to move all of three feet to his right into the recreational swim area.
I am now pumped up on adrenaline from my head banging, not thinking clearly due to a possible concussion, and extremely frustrated that the lifeguards would knowingly allow a situation like this to go on for as long as it did. (Lest you think I flew off the handle too soon, the un-enforced pool schedule and cramped conditions are a frequent frustration for me and my fellow lunchtime swimmers. We have a plaque of frustration that's built up over time. Mine had reached a breaking point.) Anyway, I get back into my swim and knock off what felt like my fastest 400s ever as my rage simmers.
Here's where the personal branding comes in.
After my shower, I felt ready to tear into the gym and the pool staff verbally and through any online avenue I could find. After all, the customer is always right. Right?
I decided against this course of action because I knew this single release of frustration would undo the years of positive involvement I've had in gym programs and ruin my personal brand in the eyes of the people who run the gym. Any online comments I made would also be out there for all the world to see and, depending on the context, could make me look like a terrible person and undermine my larger personal brand.
So except for this blog post, I swallowed my frustration and kept my comments to myself. I still don't like what happened, but it will probably happen again, and I need to get in my laps.
Looking back at it in written from, it really wasn't a big deal at all. (My skull is still intact, and I didn't drown.) I'll go ahead and post my story anyway because it perfectly illustrates my original question and might be an entertaining read for some of you.