Little rebellions

I was rummaging around through my stuff today at work, trying to find a long lost item,  but turning up only outdated memos and such.  One such memo was a directive from months ago which I apparently ignored … and nobody seems to have noticed!!!  It is on salmon colored paper ( bad for a start) and has to do with Blood Borne Pathogens.  Everybody in our organization is supposed to have logged on months ago and taken the online training, only.. I haven’t.

The instructions tell us to go to the Global Compliance Network (it’s really a site, but I’m not linking to it because it scares me) and log on for the training.  It’s mandatory.  Thing is, it seems nobody is keeping track of whether we complete the online training or not.  Nobody’s making a list and checking it twice in order to find out who’s naughty or nice.  God, Santa, or somebody in the upper echelons of power seems to have dropped the ball.  This is the most liberating thing that’s happened to me in a long time.   I don’t do the busywork, and nobody even seems to care.  And now that I think of it, I don’t even intend to do it!

What’s wrong with teaching …

…. is this. What utter nonsense. I’ll choose the spike heels, please, because my teaching style is kinky!

I work for Mr. Maliki

OK… so I’m reading the NY Times this morning and I am struck by a remarkable thing. The leader of Iraq, Al Maliki, is summed up this way in a private memo, written by the U.S. Security Adviser, and leaked to the NY Times:

“His intentions seem good … and sensitive reporting suggests he is trying to … force positive change,” the memo said of the Iraqi leader. “But the reality on the streets of Baghdad suggests Maliki is either ignorant of what is going on, misrepresenting his intentions, or that his capabilities are not yet sufficient to turn his good intentions into action.”

Who amongst us does not work for a similar boss?

Earth to Lao-tzu .. come in!

The Master does his job
and then stops.
He understands that the universe
is forever out of control,
and that trying to dominate events
goes against the current of the Tao.
Because he believes in himself,
he doesn’t try to convince others.

Tao te Ching, verse 30, (Stephen Mitchell)

Yes…. sounds good in principle. But did Lao-tzu ever work in an educational instsitution? Yayayayayayaya yiiilkes! (shouts to self). Brugghhhhaaa! (shakes head and rubs drool from slack jaw). Here it is, a fine Saturday morning when I should be rolling out of bed late with not a care on my mind and all I can think about is the appallingly slow rate of change involved in even the most elementary and obvious decisions that needed to be made yesterday but still have not been made around me, above me, beside me, with me. It becomes embarrassing, not to say hugely frustrating to see obvious solutions to problems, and then to see those in control fail to make those decisions.

Is it like this everywhere, or have I landed in my own special circle of bureaucratic bungling? Can it be possible? Why do I, a small cog in a big wheel, feel like a human cattle prod, every time I engage in an exercise in the bloody obvious? It’s like herding cats, loading mercury with a pitchfork, rolling a great rock up a hill… only to see it roll back down again, every day, every day … unless somehow, with some herculean effort, you manage to actually get that rock up to the top and pushed over the other side once and for all. But wait, the rock comes back up the backside of the hill and down on top of you from behind as you are brushing your hands together and walking complacently downhill, falsely assuming that you have actually solidified a piece of business, once and for all.

Lao-tzu, what were you thinking??