This seems to have been the year of disconnection.
It started off with being one of the top five performers in a company of 350 and being told that unless I agreed with American right wing corporate propaganda I would not progress in the role.
When I objected to this I was terminated as ‘not being a good fit.’ I would have been with the company now if it had not been for the force feeding of badly made corporate propaganda videos from a wide variety of companies.
Let’s hope Hugo Boss doesn’t make the uniforms, kids.
This week I got a metrics warning from one company who three days later promoted me and gave me a 25% pay rise.
I recently left a very well paid position because at entry level I knew far more about the business than the manager who had been there for years, on the grounds that if I didn’t she made it very clear she was going to invent reasons for terminating me. As this year has been hard enough, I took a short cut and again returned to freelancing. She chased me out of the door shouting that she was going to report me. I replied that I had already reported her.
I was offered two jobs this week. I will probably take both of them, but in the meantime am increasingly being offered shifts on a job where I sit and do artwork whilst waiting for the work to come in.
None of the people I met in actual workplaces seemed to have any connection to each other, instead waiting like baby birds for the great wage provider to tell them what to think.
We are already in a state of fascism. People rely on the money supply and the TV to tell them what to think, and I see little in the way of resistance. This does not bode well for free thought.
The world has become entirely crazy. I was discussing this with my friend, an international political journalist in Eastern Europe this evening, and she also sees this happening. I discussed with another friend, an artist and film director, and his comment was that since 80% of the population were morons anyway, what I am slightly shocked by is actually just another 18% or so going the same way.
I think the most shocking thing of this year was sitting discussing management with a person who described themselves as senior, who agreed with my comments on what management should be but had so little to do that he was going to go ahead and ruin my career in order to show that he could fill in some paperwork.
I am, sadly, less shocked by the actions of the Staring Brats, although the effects were devastating on my life. Apparently male sexuality is so acceptable that it is entirely right and fair to destroy someone because you aren’t getting what you want and then openly admit it in writing.
I am not sure at what point people became so disconnected from themselves and others.
Themselves, because it used to be that you were entitled to be a free thinking person as long as your work was okay. Now there are a myriad of non-related work reasons for you to be abused, and there is no protection of your right to think for yourself.
Others, because at least one person this year has openly suggested that I was doing something wrong by dealing with the family commitments. The idea of the elderly as refuse to be got out of the way seems to be prevalent with stupid people. My peer group, on the other hand, have largely taken care of business, despite our declining rights and access to pensions and benefits taken for granted by the selfish and overpaid boomers, who then proceed to have the nerve to complain about the millennials, who largely share their more thoughtless views but for more impressive reasons.
I feel rather fortunate to come from a time when people still connected with each other, who regarded it as shameful to isolate others on the grounds of age, gender or race and who – shock – horror – actually saw each other in person. Perhaps it is our reliance on technology and interaction with the screen that has reinforced the glass wall?
In any case, I am feeling very confident that what I have to contribute is worthwhile, so I will be spending the near future finishing up unfinished work for Wolfe, Boris, and Little Shiva prior to doing an awful lot of writing.
I am crossing my fingers that the very serious chap hasn’t lost my number. He does know about Ina, which is rather worrisome, but we live in hope that he can see past that. It is a lot to take in, I do appreciate that, but it is mostly hard work rather than being particularly intrusive.
