The Physicality of Power

The sticky crunch of dried espresso grounds underneath the ‘Enter’ key is a specific kind of hell. I’m currently digging them out with a dental pick I usually reserve for scraping oxidized lead from 1952 neon transformers. My hands are still slightly vibrating from the third cup of coffee-the one I knocked over when the email arrived. It was an email from the Director of Operations, a man whose primary contribution to the world is the ability to say ‘synergy’ without blushing. He told me that I was being ’empowered’ to overhaul the entire inventory system for the restoration shop.

No budget was mentioned. No additional staff were assigned. Just the raw, unadulterated power of my own initiative. I’ve spent 12 years restoring signs. I know what power actually looks like. It’s a 22-kilovolt charge running through a glass tube filled with argon and mercury. It’s physical. It has weight. It has consequences. But in the air-conditioned offices upstairs, ’empowerment’ has become a linguistic phantom. It’s the word they use when they want to walk away from a problem and ensure that when it eventually collapses, their fingerprints aren’t on the wreckage.

Leo G. knows this better than anyone. He’s been my mentor in the art of sign restoration for nearly 32 years. He once spent 82 hours straight trying to salvage a porcelain-enamel sign from a defunct gas station in Ohio. The client kept telling him he was ’empowered’ to make it look brand new, right up until Leo asked for the specialized chemical bath required to strip the grime without eating the steel. Then, suddenly, the ’empowerment’ didn’t extend to the $502 cost of the solvents.

The Euphemism for Abandonment

This isn’t just a cynical take from a guy who spends too much time breathing solder fumes. It’s a structural reality of the modern workplace. True empowerment is the delegation of authority matched by the delegation of resources. If you give me the authority to fix the inventory system but don’t give me the $1002 needed for the software license, you haven’t empowered me. You’ve set me up for a very public, very documented failure.

Why does this happen? Because ‘accountability’ has become the most terrifying word in the corporate lexicon. If a manager directs a project and provides the resources, they are responsible for the outcome. If it fails, it’s their poor judgment or mismanagement. But if they ’empower’ a subordinate, they effectively outsource the risk. The subordinate becomes a heat shield. If the project succeeds, the manager is a visionary leader who knows how to develop talent. If it fails, the subordinate simply wasn’t ‘proactive’ enough with their newfound power.

Respecting the Medium

In the world of craftsmanship, we don’t use these kinds of words. We talk about tools. We talk about materials. We talk about the physical constraints of the medium. If I’m restoring a sign, I need to know the melting point of the glass. I need to know the specific resistance of the wire. There is no ’empowering’ the glass to melt at a lower temperature. It is what it is. Quality is a result of respecting those constraints and providing the necessary inputs.

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The master distiller knows that you cannot simply ’empower’ barley to become a legendary spirit without the right casks and the right climate. You don’t just leave the barrel in a field and tell it to ‘be great.’

Just as a master distiller creating Pappy Van Winkle 20 Year knows that you cannot simply ’empower’ barley to become a legendary spirit without the right casks and the right climate, a leader should know that you cannot demand excellence while withholding the means to achieve it. But in the office, we’ve replaced the barrel with a cubicle and the climate control with a yearly performance review.

From Gift to Contract

There is a peculiar cruelty in telling someone they are free to succeed while ensuring they have no path to do so. It creates a culture of ‘busy-work’ where people spend more time justifying why they couldn’t do something than actually doing it. I’ve made mistakes myself. Last year, I tried to ’empower’ an apprentice to handle the final assembly of a sign for a local bakery. I told him he had full control. But I didn’t tell him where the spare fuses were kept, and I didn’t give him the key to the supply cabinet because I was worried he’d lose it. When a fuse blew at 6:02 PM on a Friday, he was stuck. I had given him the responsibility of the finish line without the tools of the starting block.

To fix this, we have to stop treating ’empowerment’ as a gift and start treating it as a contract. If you are going to empower me, we need to sit down and list exactly what that means. What is my budget? Who reports to me for the duration of this project? What specific decisions can I make without an email chain that includes 12 people who don’t know the difference between a transformer and a toaster?

Demanding the Frame

I finally got the last of the coffee grounds out from under the ‘Enter’ key. The keyboard works now, but the screen is still staring at me, waiting for a response to that email. I could type ‘Thank you for this opportunity.’ I could lean into the lie and pretend that I’m thrilled to be abandoned in the wilderness of the inventory system. Instead, I think about Leo G. and his porcelain signs. I think about the way a real artisan treats their materials-with a mixture of reverence and brutal honesty. If the steel is too thin to hold the enamel, you don’t ’empower’ it to be thicker. You buy thicker steel.

I start typing. I don’t use the word ’empowerment.’ I use the word ‘requirements.’ I list the 22 specific things I need to make this inventory overhaul work. I ask for the budget. I ask for the authority to sign off on shipping manifests. I ask for a dedicated assistant for 12 hours a week. It’s a risky move. In some circles, asking for what you need is seen as a lack of ‘initiative.’ But I’ve realized that I’d rather be seen as difficult and successful than ’empowered’ and failing.

As I hit send, the keyboard feels different. It’s cleaner, sure, but there’s a weight to the action now. I’m not playing the game of corporate charades anymore. I’m demanding a frame for my light.