A whole world of different folks post on these threads – all are here for their own reasons. The one commonality is that everybody wants to see the company succeed, because everybody wants to gain from its success.
The bringing together of such a diverse group will always result in conflict, and it is up to the individuals within that group to maintain a level of humanity which allows all in to continue to function within it.
So many of the comments on these posts would never be made if we were all dealing face to face, and this is the most disappointing part of the anonymity of internet forums to me. We should all deal the same with each other in any situation – it is common courtesy.
I, like Graham, am an electrician by trade. Making decisions in an industry where a bad one can cost you your license (and thus your career) or even more profoundly, somebody’s life, tends to make you a little insular ... because you have to back your judgement no matter what other's opinions may be. You learn to deal with direct conversations, because those conversations are important when deciding on a course of action between tradesmen with differing opinions. The end result, though, is that at the end of the day, we all sit down and have a beer and a laugh, because we respect each other’s ideas and the motivation behind them.
Graham was blunt in his message delivery, he did not suffer fools gladly. It was not, however, malicious, or petty, this was a person who dealt in true reality on a daily basis, stating what he thought – the way sparkies do between themselves. I recognised it the moment I bumped into him. It is this characteristic that allowed him to put his identity forward as he did – both here and on FB.
His passing needs to be a reminder to us all that what we say on these threads may be the last thing we ever say to somebody – and perhaps we all need to take a step back, relax a little, and remember that a huge percentage of the people here want the same thing. Shooting from the hip is fine – but not if it delivers anger and humiliation, and not if it adds nothing to the conversation.
To everybody who posted here, your contributions were wonderful. I hope Graham’s family gets to read this and gains an insight into the respect he held – they know the man he was, and would understand all of the comments.
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