generalspeaking

Congratulations Dear Colleague!

Beware the hidden agendas of those with whom you share a workplace. All may not quite be as transparent as the facade presents.

If you have been naughty, not at all nice, there may very well be a deep and abiding, simmering resentment among your co-workers. Who may seek in some measure, at some time, to retaliate. To invest you with the knowledge that you have not impressed those people with whom you have shared many working hours in an entirely agreeable manner.

So tread lightly. Be a kind and compassionate individual, empathize with the travails of your colleagues. Be as one with them. Do not be demanding, do not demean them in any way, or cast doubt on their capabilities. Trust them, and turn a friendly face to others, for your life, yes your very life may, at some future time, depend upon their goodwill.

Their goodwill is yours for the asking, for the taking, be cognizant of that. Here is a trifling little story with extremely unfortunate overtones. As a case in point.

In central Japan, in a small town near the ancient capital of Kyoto, a retirement party took place at an inn in Ritto, in celebration of the retirement of a 60-year old man, an employee of a transport company. Traditionally, Japanese depend upon their employer as a source of emotional and social support. Taking employment is seen as devoting one's life to the employer, and vice versa.

Their very lives, traditionally, revolve around the company for which they labour. The company represents a true life-line in the social system of the country. It offers a decent living wage, an honourable occupation, a dependable social system, one that takes itself seriously, treating its employees to company picnics and parties, as an extended family.

But human beings are just that, and bad feelings and poor relations among co-workers can result, perhaps particularly among those who are thrown together in a working, plus an integrated social relationship where inner feelings must be suppressed in favour of presenting a unified, pleasant front.

Japanese society requires no less, for to cause any kind of fuss, express dissent, is not favoured as part of the social construct. In Japan, the square peg is pounded into the round aperture, taking its place with the other, compliant round pegs.

And Japanese are really socially aware, skilled in presenting a smooth, untroubled exterior, extending courtesy to one another, very aware that nothing unsettling should occur in public. Japanese men enjoy going out of an evening to imbibe liquor. And they do not hold their liquor very well, although they enjoy drinking, and enjoy the atmosphere of drinking with friends in a social venue.

There are not very many mean Japanese drunks; instead the demeanor is unremittingly pleasant, although certain social reservations become relaxed. At this celebratory party for the retirement of this individual, matters may have got slightly out of hand. But you know how it is, when you're in the midst of a crowd of well-wishers and suddenly hands surround you, and lift you, and then there's a friendly toss?

Yes, you're quite helpless to defend yourself, physically overtaken by the collective weight of a larger physicality that subsumes your own.

Thus it was that this man preparing to retire to a quiet life of retrospection and introspection, simple pleasures and relaxation - perhaps even to undertake a long and leisurely temporary retreat in a temple, or to finally surrender to a life-long wish to undertake a pilgrimage to a sacred shrine, had his intentions interrupted.

His boisterous work colleagues, doubtless in their cups, riotously lifted him and threw him into the air. What an exhilarating feeling that must have been, to fly through the air like a bird... Except, no one, it would appear, thought it might be a cautionary step to also catch him, interrupt his fall, set him back on his feet, averting the potential for a nasty collision with the ground.

And thus it was that he fell, his neck and backbone shattered. He was paralyzed, and died ten months later, of blood poisoning. His widow is rather upset. She has filed a complaint with the police.

Labels: That's Life, Traditions

posted by Pieface @ Thursday, December 18, 2008