Elisabeth\’s Blog

Karen Armstrong

I just finished reading "The Spiral Staircase". I very much enjoyed the book- although at times it was tedious and overwrought – particularly when she was discussing her personal trials with epilepsy and boring jobs – but she shared some amazing insights along the way as well.

Continue Reading Karen Armstrong…

Work

Yesterday, I was listening to another complaint about who said what to whom and when. This time it was an employee complaining about a manager – the employee said that whenever she did something wrong, the manager could write it up and put it into her personnel file. But whenever the manager did something wrong, the employee couldn’t “write it up”.  Of course we hear about power imbalances and the like, but this was a stark reminder that some people have access and others don’t. And I had nothing to say to her. For example, why weren’t the good letters from clients put into her file along with the “bad” things she did? What standards are there to protect someone like this?  None, really.  We confer authority onto people and trust that they make the right decisions. Sure, there’s recourse, but sometimes life just isn’t fair.

I know a man who is dying

A man I know is dying.
Every day I see less and less of him.
He talks, garbled and confused.
We exchange glances; I wait patiently,
Knowing he is dying.
But we cannot speak of it.
I want to ask him, gently, “Are you ready?”

I want to say to him, “Please go.”
Please do not sit behind your desk, answering your phone.
Attending to matters.
As if they were important enough to fill your last days alive.

Terror strikes my heart when I think that our last words spoken
Will be to tell you that I signed the form and sent it back for your approval.