WORKING: a commentary

Greetings, I have not blogged in a very long time. All I can say is that I have been distracted. I left my previous job, which is a blessing. I enjoyed it for a long time and then it became unbearable—been there done that you say. So I have been mentally reflecting on the world of work. Work means a lot to the person—a roof over your head, food on the table, all kinds of pragmatic practical things, and hopefully one gets to do a few things that bring you pleasure and joy with the money you earn. Yes, I know the best things in life are free—sunshine, a cool breeze, and a loved one’s smile. (I wanted to add clean water to my list of free good things and then I realized free clean water is somewhat rare in the US and around the world—very, very sad, actually appalling.) For many people their work defines how they see themselves in the world and has a big impact on self-esteem and self worth.

I cannot express in words how frustrating it is when I hear government officials refer to educators, civil servants, fireman etc. as lazy thugs. I do not get to say what I would really like to say about those officials because as an educator/counselor I am to live my ethics. It is truly unfortunate that there is no ethics requirement for government officials--an outside, objective professional oversight organization like the law requires me to belong to.

Over the past two years, nasty people at work did me in. I went to work each day bringing 30 years of solid work experience, three graduate degrees and a sincere, genuine desire to help the students and the faculties with whom I worked. The place I worked was an inner city school district—their management model is if we treat you like dirt you will be motivated to work harder, and if we say you are incompetent then we have no reason to raise your salary--very sneaky on the administration’s part. Young insecure workers have their self-esteem eroded to the point they doubt their abilities, then they display a lack of confidence to prospective employers.  The woman they put in charge of our department has known aggressive tendencies. She verbally and mentally attacks others and then giggles and sings to herself after having shredded you emotionally. She meets the DSM criterion for Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

The question is what can you do if you are employed by a sick, dysfunctional work place? Well, I was lucky enough to be able to go to the union to protect myself. But the power of the union has been eroded in many work places, which is sad. I was financially able to move on. Which is good for me—in the end I am hopeful and idealistic. I know I will succeed at creating a new career for myself.  

But it also makes me sad because we are an integrated social system, every time an administrator undercuts an employee’s self worth, or insults a profession that weakens one of the supporting factors (the worker, the actual citizen) that makes the US economy work. “United we stand divided we fall” in the microcosm and the macrocosm. For example don’t complain if student attendance and achievement levels go down after you call teachers lazy thugs—why would “rebellious” teenagers respect information taught by lazy thugs?

Just in case your curious half of my fellow psychologists are leaving the department at the end of the school year. Times being as they are I’ll probably get emails from psychologists desperate for work wanting to know the name of the school district I left.