An Epidemic of Sammyglickism

An Epidemic of Sammyglickism

By Warren Boroson

There’s a word for a good employee, a desirable employee, a desirable colleague.

Namely, a “team player.”

    Not necessarily someone on a sports team. A cooperative member of any group.

    Someone at the Vanguard group once told me what Vanguard looks for in an employee. (Vanguard is the class act among final firms.) People who think in terms of “we,” not in terms of “I.”

   In short, someone who thinks first of helping other employees or the employer, rather than helping himself or herself.

   Example. In baseball, a home run hitter is up. There’s a man on first, none out, ninth inning. The home run hitter could try for an extra-base hit—or a bunt, and sacrifice the runner to second base, where a hit might score him. A team player bunts. A Sammyglick, putting himself first, swings for the fences.

    There’s an astute saying: “A people hire A people, B people hire C people.”

    B people are reluctant to hire A people—because they may show up the B people. In fact, they may eventually be promoted OVER the B people—because of their excellence. Whereas A people are self-confident. Jon Stewart hired John Oliver. A hiring A.

   Well, what’s the opposite of a team player?

   A word for someone always looking out, first and foremost, for his or her own interest Not for the interest of the team or the employer or fellow workers. A non-team player. Someone who doesn’t cooperate; someone who competes.

    There is such a word. It comes from the loathsome protagonist of the novel  “What Makes Sammy Run?” by Budd Schulberg. (I bought the novel, but couldn’t finish it.)

      I’ve met a goodly number of Sammyglicks in my long and undistinguished career in journalism.

   In fact, at my last job, the editor—an authentic Sammyglick--killed my financial column. It was a nationally syndicated at Gannett News Service.

   When I first met this editor, he said that readers identified me with the newspaper. I knew then that I was in trouble. Soon after, he killed my nationally syndicated column, saying it wasn’t “local.” I offered to write just a local column. He smiled a smile of satisfaction, and said no.

   At Medical World News, there was one editor who made suggestions about the magazine. And would relentlessly remind people when his suggestions proved successful.

   I could give other examples.

   Of course, Sammyglicks are sometimes useful. They may come up with good ideas. And they may not be Sammyglicks all the time. Sometimes they change. Perhaps just temporarily.

  Is Sammyglickism increasing? I don’t know, but I’ve run into a lot of it. What causes it? I guess you get it from your self-seeking parents and self-seeking brothers and sisters.

  And someone I know argues that Sammyglickism is far more common among Republicans than among Democrats, among people like the Koch brothers and Richard Nixon. Rich people who want to lower their taxes, not increase the minimum wage, and keep immigrants from entering the country or getting citizenship.