July 2010 Archives
“Everyone You Meet Is Fighting A Hard Battle”
About six months ago I joined Twitter. I’m still not sure if I like it but what I do know is I met this very talented writer and instantly connected with her. Please take the time to read her last blog because I couldn’t have said this better myself! Thanks Karla Bryant for allowing me to post! And for those looking to read all of her blogs and those she will post in the future, there is a link available down below.
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” Plato wrote those words over 2,300 years ago. An interesting footnote to history may be that Plato had once been a wrestler, but we all know that’s not the kind of fight he was talking about.
We read those words and know exactly what is meant. We are familiar with the lay of our private battlefields. We have our strategies, our victories, and our losses. Our scars are usually invisible to everyone other than ourselves. And, we’re never quite certain when the battles will rise up again. We only know that they will.
Plato believed there were three levels of of human nature: passion, courage, and thinking. His proposed goal was, through thinking, courage would overcome passion to bring one to a higher level. Later, St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, among others, would expand on the idea. Yet, aside from philosophical discussion, aren’t these the components of so many of our personal battles? Right vs. wrong, what we want vs. what is best, what must be done vs. the easy way out.
It’s all familiar to us. But what we forget is that everyone around us, from the stranger in line in front of us at the post office to our closest friends and family members, are just as vulnerable, just as battle-weary at times.
One of the clearest examples I’ve seen of this was when my late mother-in-law was in an assisted living facility. The residence was lovely, the employees compassionate. Yet, the battles of the individual residents were less hidden than they are with the rest of us. One woman would work so hard to maintain a conversation, trying to mask her bewilderment at the rush of words that were somehow so difficult to follow now. A man, a veteran from a distant war, struggled to keep his dignity while trying to walk on his own to the dining room, where he’d feed himself with a trembling hand.
It took little effort to exchange a few words with them, to offer them a smile and nod. The challenge is remembering to do that with everyone we encounter. No one deserves less.
http://www.karlabry.blogspot.com/
I Am The Music
Another poem found in my daughter’s room while cleaning. It’s hard for me to believe that at 14 this is what goes on in her mind.
I am the music, the soft sweet melody.
The bluebird’s song, the lion’s roar.
The blues of the saxophone, the beat of the drum.
The everylasting note simply touched on the piano.
The chime in the wind, the whistle in the air.
The classical violin plays my sorrow, my depression and despair.
The melancholy ballad sways with woe.
But the electric guitar is strummed with an ecstatic motion.
The notes and chords are abundant with joy.
The drum is my anger, a powerful rythym, a strong and fierce pound.
But the voice is my expression.
Words and lyrics form and travel from my soul to the public.
My scream, my song, my poetry…..my voice.
I am the music.
The Rose
I wish I could take credit for this but I can’t. My 14-year old daughter, Samantha Jo Polverari, wrote it and while cleaning her room I found it amongst the chaos.
She started out as nothing but a seed.
With love and care she sprouted.
But still only a small stem of green.
Time passed and she began to bloom.
She is a flower.
A beautiful, delicate rose.
Her beauty is breathtaking.
You feel a force around her.
You are pulled closer.
But beware of her thorns.
A prick on the tip of your finger is all it takes.
She is small, but of great value.
Appreciate her for who she is, and she will show you love.
Show her no care, and she will parish.
Her stem will curl and her petals will fall.
She is a flower.
A sensitive creation, a gorgeous masterpiece.
She is a rose.
The Rise & Fall Of Corporate America
Corporate America. There was a time when the ideal job would be found here. I was raised in the late 50’s. Back then you did one of two things when you graduated high school. You either attended college or you got a job. My parents didn’t have a lot of money and I was their 6th child, so college was not an option. While I was in high school I participated in a work co-op program where I would attend school until noon and then went to work at Insurance Company #1 in Hartford for the remainder of the day. This led me to my first real full-time job working in Corporate America.
Over the past 35 years I have spent the majority of my time in the insurance industry. I did extremely well for myself at Insurance Company #2 considering I had no college education. I started as a secretary and a year later transferred into their training program for computers where I spent the next 11 years working my way up from trainee to a team leader role in Information Technology. I have always been a high achiever so working hard and holding strong to a solid work ethic have always paid off for me. Until now.
Working in a corporate job in the 70’s and 80’s meant job security, fair pay for a day’s work, solid raises and bonuses for those that excelled, and the best benefits one could ask for such as life and health insurance and paid time off. But something changed along the way. Corporate greed has become the status quo for not only companies in the U.S., but companies all over the world. Most are now driven by profits and the bottom line and very little regard is given to the people who get them there, whether it is the employees who work hard or the customers who purchase their products or services.
The first time I noticed this “change” was in the late 90’s. I had departed the corporate insurance industry in 1992 and owned my own video store while simultaneously performing as a professional actress in New York. My second divorce, however, forced me to make a change and I once again returned to the insurance industry for the financial stability it offered. Although I joined Insurance Company #3 as an experienced systems analyst, I didn’t realize until I was through the door that the salary offered to me upon employment was extremely low compared to what other system analysts were making at that time. I shrugged it off and told myself that I was used to working hard and rising up the ladder quickly, so no harm was done. In a matter of four years I was promoted to an Associate Director position with 16 direct reports. That was the last job I held in Massachusetts before migrating to California.
During my tenure as a manager at Insurance Company #3, I was appalled at the bureaucracy involved even at that level. I was extremely frustrated that I could not do for my direct reports all that I wanted to in return for their dedication and hard work. Again, being the optimist, I chalked it up to the company itself rather than the industry as a whole. For that reason alone I could not wait to get out of Insurance Company #3 because I didn’t want to be part of the problem.
Fast forward to my migration to California in 2004. I attempted to work at a non-profit job after my arrival, because I wanted to hold a position with a higher purpose than I was accustomed to. Unfortunately it did not work out because the CEO of this non-profit (and I use that term loosely) was a psychopath and spent most of his timing screaming at his staff and degrading the gay people in our office on a regular basis. As his Executive Assistant I grew tired of such a toxic environment rather quickly. I went on to working for myself as an Office Manager for a well-established CPA in Oakland. I loved the work and the woman I worked for, however there wasn’t enough work to keep me busy, and it is not in my nature to work more slowly to take advantage of an employer. I was paid hourly, I had no insurance benefits, and 25-30 hours a week was not enough to maintain my very high mortgage at that time so I was forced to move on.
Where did I end up? Back in an industry I knew only too well. This time I returned to Insurance Company #2. Since this was an organization that I loved and respected because they always seem to care as much about their employees as the bottom line, I figured I was home free until retirement. But I couldn’t have been more wrong. Now that I’ve been back for five years, combined with everything I have read or watched on the news, I have finally come to the conclusion that it is Corporate America as a whole that has completely deteriorated. I don’t have to read about it anymore because I’m living it.
At the end of the first quarter all employees received an email from one of the COO’s of the company and here is a small portion of that email: “I am pleased to announce that Insurance Company #2 has reported yet another quarter of successful results. As a whole, the company delivered first quarter net income of $319 million and core earnings of $545 million. Thanks to your hard work and dedication, not only have we generated another quarter of strong results, we have in many respects outperformed some of our strongest competitors in the marketplace.” Note: This is the kind of money they made during a recession!
It would be nice to share in their excitement, but it is difficult to do as I watch employees who are working hard and are dedicating themselves to these companies that give little to nothing back. Raises and bonuses are small to non-existent and are only given out to the men and women at the top. Downsizing, lay-offs, and outsourcing continue to occur placing a heavier burden on those that remain. Even those that boast about giving “flexible” work arrangements do not communicate that those kinds of perks are only given to higher salaried positions and not those on the front line who are doing the real work to make the company’s profits.
I remember reading a couple years ago in Working Mother that Insurance Company #3 was rated in the Top 100 employers because of the benefits and flexibility they supposedly offer their employees. Say WHAT? What I want to know is WHO is rating this company? It certainly is not the disgruntled employees that are breaking their backs to keep the place running. Oh, and speaking of being disgruntled….you’re not allowed to grumble about the work conditions or how much you’re disrespected anymore. Thanks to the recession (and even prior) the attitude from higher level positions are “If you don’t like it, leave. There’s 500 other people out there waiting for your job who are willing to do the same job for less.” I just don’t understand this way of thinking. What happened to motivating employees to do their best and being a great company to attract the best talent? Does anyone do this anymore?
So this what my 35 years of hard work and dedication have come to for me as well as a number of my friends and family members who have given of themselves in the same way. We are de-valued on a regular basis and are treated like nothing more than a number. Every day these companies find creative ways to pay us less, work us more, give us less benefits, and cheat us out of our retirement. We can also forget about job security, as that is a thing of the past. Never have I seen so many incompetent de-motivating managers who have bought into the “bottom line at all cost” mentality, which includes sacrificing you, the day-to-day worker, in the hopes that they will get the promotion that they’re after. It is a sad state of affairs and I’m glad that I’m close to retiring. Becoming a Walmart greeter is more and more appealing to me every day.
But let me also say one last thing which is the whole point of this blog. I strongly feel that the laws of the Universe are always at work and there is a quickening occurring on our planet right now. Karma appears to be relentless and God is holding us accountable for our actions more than ever before. People are not able to get away with the kinds of things that remained secret for so long. Whether it’s sexual misconduct of a politician, a racist comment by a celebrity, or an abuse of power by a local police officer, everyone is at risk of being exposed and I do believe that large corporations are not exempt. Just ask Toyota who, according to Forbes Magazine, has fallen from #3 to #360 ranking of the world’s leading companies for 2010. One thing I know for sure is that unlike our judicial justice system, spiritual justice is ALWAYS served and those that have earned it, and continue to earn it, are going to reap what they have sown in a large financial hit or even a great fall as the rest of us, the employees or the customers that made them who they are today watch.
