Is it impossible to avoid criticism and stress when a lot of people want the same thing at once?

Asked by JLeslie (65447) August 19th, 2021 from iPhone

I’m watching what is happening during the evacuations from Afghanistan and thinking about Biden’s statement that basically he said he knew there would be difficulties no matter how it was done.

Then I think about when the covid vaccines were rolled out in the US, and I saw people rushing for the vaccine and frustrating with lines and difficulties making appointments, criticizing how it was being done. I kept thinking, not everyone can be first—hold on. Now, people are worrying about the same thing happening for third shots, not realizing it’s very different now. Now, supermarkets, doctors, and drug stores have the shots aside from health departments and hospitals, so it’s available in many more locations than the first three months of the roll out.

Last month I overheard my husband on a zoom call with work telling the senior team the complaints to anticipate from employees if they change a certain policy.

I think of myself and how I handle change, and how my stress can be heightened, and I can be critical of decisions made by others. After being through enough of these situations, and having been a manager, I know often times the decision makers already know what the reactions will be before they put a plan into place. They just tolerate the negative criticism as part of the process. Sometimes they anticipate incorrectly, but often I think they do know.

I’m not trying to excuse when leaders create and execute bad policy and procedure, I’m just saying probably all decisions when it comes to great times of change or dangerous missions probably never have a perfect solution.

What do you think? Does knowing this make it easier to handle going through or witnessing these situations? Or, does it make you feel like a number or a pawn?