To a Boss Who Just Won’t Give an Inch

Wouldn’t you love to go out in a blaze of glory? On your job, I mean. How great would it be to have a “Gunfight at the OK Corral” moment with your boss in which you come out looking like Wyatt Earp instead of one of the Clantons?

I’ve fantasized about that from time to time -- engaging my boss in a battle over principle -- a battle in which, even with my job on the line, I hang tough.

As the fantasy goes, we go nose to nose, with me dishing as good as I get, and people then talk about me for years as the man who wouldn’t break. Sadly, the fantasy always ends up with the same moment of clarity: I have all the backbone of an Easter lily.

I’m starting to feel some internal rumblings, however. I’m thinking I have it in me, after all, and that today is the day to tell the world. Something big is gurgling up while I’m typing, and I don’t think it’s lunch.

The inspiration has come from another media figure who recently stood like a mighty oak in the face of corporate pressure. Maybe “mighty oak” overstates it; let’s go with “sturdy plant.”

The role model is Sandra Tsing Loh, who had barely registered on my radar screen until she was fired this month by public radio station KCRW-FM after an obscenity wasn’t bleeped from one of her prerecorded bits. However, two weeks later, the station changed its mind and offered Loh her job back -- and she said no.

Management admitted it was wrong, but Loh took a stand. I won’t be treated like this, she said in so many words. Wow. I wonder if I could say something like that. Especially if my boss were in the same room.

I can. There’s plenty I could say. I’ve rehearsed it many times. It should have been said long ago, but I’d been too worried about a pension.

Loh stood her ground. How could you not be inspired by someone who didn’t like management’s heavy-handed style and let them know it?

I’m in the media too, you know, and it’s not like I don’t have issues.

My bosses are aware of them. Lordy, are they aware of them. It’s just that occasional complaints about how you are shackled tend to lose their sock if you follow them up by taking your boss out to lunch afterward.

Those days are gone. As the Bible says, what profiteth a man if he gets his pension but wilts in front of his boss? My issues haven’t gotten widespread attention, because I’ve chosen not to go public with them, in large part because of the backbone thing I mentioned earlier.

But now, with Loh’s example driving me onward, I feel my resolve stiffening.

What’s my issue? How is management shackling me, keeping me under its thumb?

Sharp-eyed readers note that this column runs in this same space all the time. Week in, week out. Notice the lack of wiggle room when it comes to space. I’m locked in to the same amount of space every time I write. In the arcane measuring system our computer uses, that length happens to be 134 lines.

That means that no matter what the subject is, it’s limited to 134 lines. Does that sound like freedom to you? It doesn’t matter if I were writing about Mars or my laundry, it’d have to be said in 134 lines.

You can see the restrictive, choking effect that could have on a person. Do you see how, after a while, a man of principle would have to take a stand?

For me, the time has come.

While I have a forum, I’m using it. Call this my Loh moment.

No more free lunches for the boss, no more holding back just because of some cushy retirement plans. I am man, hear me roar.

So, with thanks to Sister Loh and countless others who told it like it is, let me say this to my bosses: From this day forward, I

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Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. He can be reached at (714) 966-7821, at dana.parsons@latimes.com or at The Times’ Orange County edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626.