If Only the Czar Knew

In Czarist Russia, there was an expression often used by people bemoaning some difficulty:

"If only the Czar knew."

The idea was that if the Czar caught wind of the misconduct or injustice, he'd put an end to it. Truth be known, the Czar probably knew of many of the problems and yet saw no reason to change matters. Those who used the expression may well have suspected as much but it was nonetheless reassuring to think that there existed at least a remote possibility of reform.

"If only the Czar knew" was an expression of hope.

You can hear equivalent lines in the workplace - "If the manager found out about this, heads would roll" - and a natural question is, "Why doesn't the manager know about this?"

In many instances, the manager doesn't know because he or she doesn't want to know. (To learn about some things triggers an obligation to act and many managers are conflict-adverse.) Others don't know because they lack the ability to spot a problem when it's dancing on their desks. Still others will know but will steadfastly deny that they know. Those are the most irritating.

I knew an executive who had the habit of adopting an innocent choirboy expression whenever any problem arose that had a career-jeopardizing odor. "How can this be?" he'd exclaim before rushing to affix blame to anyone other than himself.

His act was sufficiently plausible that he rose in the ranks.

And one day some credulous superiors tapped him to be the new "Czar."

Ah, if only the Czar knew.