I had begun by wanting to say something about my unpleasant experiences with stupid, arrogant manger-types.....But somehow those memories seem to be slipping away.  I once knew a manager who refused to be angry until.....He accused me of disrespecting him.  What an interesting and revealing moment that was....

In the days when I was employed at an International School, we regularly were insulted by bizarre meetings where nothing happened.  I would say that my colleagues at the time were sufficiently professional and committed that, had a meeting actually had some value, they would have gladly and attentively attended.  But, most meetings happened because a higher authority had decreed that there must be weekly meetings.

One day we were engaged in some sort of watered-down (buy it from a company) psychological game to proof "how it feels" to be excluded.....(Oh sorry, just let me open my mouth and let my audience hear my "not from ' round here accent", and I know how it feels....)

Of course, the ability to imagine how someone else feels is very important, but this idiotic game....well,
it was soooooo obvious.....

And only an idiot could imagine otherwise.  (Strange how I could not tell the manager all of this....)

When I was sixteen I began to attend the University of Texas-Austin, and in the week before, at a so-called Orientation Session, I attended a certain event.  I had been advertised as something about racism.  I don't recall the exact title.  When I got there, the white, mostly male audience sat there as darker skinned students stood in the front of the room and insulted the horrified young men (who I assume came from small towns).  They said things like, 'Shut up Honkie!", or "White boy.....".

It was funny.  The audience did not know what was going on.  I started to laugh.  A tall Chicano man, with long dark hair became enraged with me, pushing me and shoving me, forcing me to leave the room..... Maybe I am crazy, but it seems to me now that he asked me why I didn't shove back,
and I actually said something about Gandhian non-violence.  I think that enraged him even more.          ( Don't get me wrong.  I didn't actually know anything about Gandhi, but I'd somehow gotten the idea that this method might be a good one.)

So, you see, dear reader, I never fit in wherever I go........

But what I meant to say was this:  The manager who refused to get angry was insulted when I left the pseudo-psychological session in which teachers were treated like children in order to explain social exclusion (or whatever)......All of this nonsense had been orchestrated by the manager.  Obviously, he could not have thought it up all by himself.  (I have no idea where he got the idea.)

And, I suppose he thought it was clever.
And his intentions were good.  He doesn't want children to be bullied.

But, really, it doesn't take such silly theatrics---whose goal is obvious from the first step......

Anyway, I simply left from this charade when I saw what was going on.  And that insulted him.
It's a pity I didn't take the time to sit down with him and explain at length why left.

But, there's a high probability that he wouldn't have listened.  And since his name is above mine on the great organizational chart in the sky, my words wouldn't have counted......

So, you see I don't see that there is any especial dignity involved in forms of employment which require  obedience to managers who are, actually, not particularly imaginative.  And it is a sort of hell to see them every day.....