What do you do when you know you have done nothing wrong but the environment you’re currently in demands you to do an action contradictory to your nature?
What do you do when you are forced to be reprimanded or chastised for something completely out of your control? Do you take your lumps and carry on, or do you say something, anything to someone in hopes that they can help the situation?
That is the question I’m asking dear readers. As I get older and further in my chosen career field I become more aware of the “the game.”
What is the game? Well the game is a mixture of actions, perception and true administration/hierarchy judgment lunacy. You start out with a certain number of points. The points are at a different value for everyone, depending on certain criteria.
If you are a straight male you have the greatest number of points in the game. A minority male has half the points of the straight male. Females have one third fewer points then both males. Minority females have the least points of all. And then finally if you’re homosexual or transgender, male or female, you find that you’re right above the female minority.
The whole object of the game is not to get dinged and have points removed.
All points and dings are kept in the imaginary ledger of your superiors and if you run out of points you are asked to leave your current environment or situation. So how do you lose points?
You take the action of a person who has worked in a certain career field or position and you judge them harshly on everything and anything. What they wear, how they speak to people and what they do when they think no one’s looking.
Then you put that through the perception field. Is what they’re doing at work and off work representing the company, organization or business in the best possible way?
Finally we factor in the administration judgment lunacy equation. If ever one of your underlings or workers show their supposed superior is wrong or the underling corrects them then they are dinged.
Now with all that being said how do you win the game? In all honesty, you don’t! You work hard and do everything right. You keep your head down, please the right people and always try to conduct yourself in a professional manner.
In the end, it all just comes down to luck. You’re never going to truly be the point winner when others start so far ahead of you. You can always be dinged and thrown out of the game at a moments notice because of something that was out of your control!
So why play the game? You play the game because there is always that chance even if it is a one in a million chance to win.
To win means that you have a chance to rewrite the rules of the game. A chance to make everyone be able to start off on even footing. The chance to make your situation the best it’s ever been for your family and loved ones.
It’s a chance to right wrongs and have a sense of pride and contentment in yourself that others can’t or won’t even attempt to dream of.
Finally, it’s a chance to tear down the game altogether and start everything anew on a fresh level for everyone. So I leave you with this question, now that you know everything there is to know about the game: Would you still play it?
Justin A. Baker
Staff Writer