Who gets on the naughty list? Who gets crossed off the list?  What does it mean to get crossed off?

I have been making a list since mid-November of all the people I was going to give a Christmas gift to. Santa Claus keeps a list going of all those that have been naughty and all those that have been nice.  Have you ever wondered who really gets on the naughty list and what happens to them?  I don’t have a physical/hard copy naughty list. But for sure, there is one running at the back of my mind every day.

Naughty lists are all the rage this past year.  Have you been watching the television show Revenge? The first season was phenomenal because of how the protagonist kept that list of who she was to exact revenge upon. We loved seeing names crossed off the list as that meant revenge had been executed. Oh, the devilish delight!  The second season of Revenge (currently underway) has been a bit underwhelming since it veered from that list and got into some convoluted conspiracy theory, white-haired assassin plot. Hopefully, the writers will get back to that naughty list that is accompanied by a photo of all the people that had done her wrong, or rather had done her father wrong.  Placing an “X” over a photo of someone can be so cathartic, no?

On Dora the Explorer’s Special Christmas episode, Swiper (the thieving fox) was placed on the naughty list by Santa Claus.  I had never really seen such a naughty Santa list before.  How refreshing.  Sometimes, there are some kids that are just plain naughty.  Now, I am not saying take Christmas away from a rambunctious 4, 5, 6 or 7-year old. But come on. Some of those tweens are just asking to be placed on the naughty list. Then what you do with that is another thing. On the Today show, a few weeks back they featured a family that decided to shame their daughter by having her wear a poster that outlined her bratty deeds.  I wonder how that family’s Christmas season is going? Did Santa eventually put her on the “nice” list?

What about that new show Arrow? I just started watching it on one of my cell phone applications while I work out.  It’s actually good. Go figure. Anyway, after being stranded on an island for five years and watching his father commit suicide as they are drifting in the seas in a small lifeboat, the protagonist becomes a dark superhero out for revenge on those that have ruined his city. He has a list! Oh, that scary yet delicious naughty list. How will he exact his revenge on those therein?   At the end of the first episode, he crosses one of the names off after beating the crap out of the guy and stealing 40 million from his bank account.   He didn’t actually steal it, he redistributed it.  He even used an arrow to beat the crap out of the guy.  Sound familiar?

Historically and on television currently, the naughty list is meant to redistribute wealth, enact social justice and set right the wrongs of the past.   That’s heavy.  I don’t think I have any such list. Plus, I don’t know Kung Fu or own an arrow.  Yet.  I can play mind games though! Wink wink.  Those that are naughty can be by definition: disobedient, evil, wicked, badly behaved, mischievous, unwholesome, jokester, impish, raunchy and disorderly—just to name a few.  It can be a truly bad, evil person or it can be a funny bad person.  Did you know that Chaka Khan had a music album entitled Naughty?  Wonder what she was trying to convey with that album (which was her second)?

So, below is my naughty list. Who made it onto my list? People who just weren’t quite nice or didn’t pull their weight.  Those that made life a little harder than it had to be.

• Business partners who are actually not very good playing together in the sandbox.
• Colleagues who fake-hug and demand it.
• Employees that cause others to have to work longer hours or weekends because of their incompetence.
• Conveners who actually cause strife and don’t  actually bring people together
• Individuals whose egos are so big that they cannot see past themselves to truly help the cause they claim to be such a part of.
• People who expect you to handhold them through every work assignment
• Those that can’t handle feedback, blame you for doing your job and feel self-righteous about blaming you  (good luck to your next employer).
• Individuals who throw others under the bus, repeatedly.
• Individuals who mostly project an angry persona—Note, it’s hard to work with you!
• Those that just think about how they can data mine a community based organization’s programs solely for their own benefit.
• Individuals who are consistently late to meetings.
• Individuals who treat knowledge as a weapon to be hoarded.
• Those who think they are good managers but are just messing up all the progress you made
• Those that think it’s cool to gang up on a person in a meeting and don’t have the guts to own up to it when called out on it.
• Those with delusions of grandeur.
• Those that ignore your repeated emails requesting important information.
• Bullies in the workplace (take it somewhere else)
• Trolls –That’s all I’m saying.

This naughty list may seem mean-spirited but considering that Santa Claus creates his own naughty list and he is revered across the world, why not? It is actually a good tool to reflect upon and see how things can improve or how you can avoid going through future stresses. Learning who to avoid is just as useful as learning who are good potential partners.   Of course, I just probably landed on someone else’s naughty list. Who is on your list? Whose list are you on?

Now, if only I could learn to shoot a bow and arrow. And where is my cool leotard superhero outfit? Can someone get me that for Christmas?  Pretty please, I have been nice and good, I promise!