War on malignance

Malignance can be found alive and well and prospering in the offices of those large corporations or government employers that have evolved to serve the needs of the public. Like the DoE. Or the halls of further and higher education. Where does the malignance come from? It comes from targetting, ruthless or otherwise. Targetting doesn't take into account the needs of individuals. It holds no sympathy for life or its crooked road. Targets are bald faced demands without finer feelings. You know your in trouble when your VP talks about "milking the cash cow". This breeds fear in those that have to live up to the targets and contempt in those whose job it is to make sure the targets have been hit. Managers today are those faceless malignant creatures who only have one master to serve. The master of capitalism. The face of education these days has two sides. There is the caring, sharing side. The one that would be educators have to comply with in order to be able to pass in their knowledge within the hallowed class rooms. The PCE or Cert Ed as it is known to those who have achieved its status. The Cert Ed is all about the student experience. Student centred learning. Student led learning not Tutor led. Then there is the other face. The cold hard face of business. The face where the only thing that matters are the numbers. Bums on seats, candidates on a register. Milking the cash cow these days means drawing down funding from Learning and Skills Councils in order to feather the nests of those peculiar creatures the malignant narcissists.

In case you are not familiar with the story of narcissus the abridged version is thus. He was the beautiful son of a the god Cephisus. He was so beautiful that all the women in the land fell in love with him. But he rejected them all. Among them was the nymph echo who could not speak for herself, she could only repeat the words of others. One day while walking in the woods they became separated. Narcissus cried out for her "Is there any one here" but she could only reply "here, here, here". She tried to step forward and give him her love but she could not proclaim it, so he rejected her. She ran away and hid in a cave until nothing was left of her but her voice. A goddess was so angry with him that she made him fall in love with his own reflection in a pool of water. So in love with his own reflection was he that he could not bear to leave the reflection and eventually turned into a flower, which is call Narcissus.

The war on malignance is a war on those narcissists in the work place that have nothing more to offer but the preening of their own reflection. Those shallow self absorbed creatures that are so wrapped up in their own status that they are willing to sacrifice what little integrity they have or indeed any person or persons who demonstrate that they have an ounce of integrity. Because integrity is the greatest threat to malignance. Integrity shines a beacon of light onto those that are afflicated with this incurable disease of malignance, so much so that it makes them feel incredibly vulnerable. For they know not what it is they lack. They have no aspiration towards having integrity. Oh no they are far too busy working towards getting as many glittering baubles of capitalism on their Christmas Tree as they possibly can. But somehow they recognise that the light shows them up for what they are. Shallow, fickle actors.

Education has lost it's marbles

It started on the 20th of March this year. I found a letter at 4.pm that told me to attend an investigation. Someone had dobbed me in and I was to be looked into for running a business while being employed by a college. I knew exactly who it was (although no secret was ever made of that) but before the I even attended I knew her, because I had seen her one Monday morning as I was coming out of my office (the one I run my business from). I had hoped she wouldn't tell but she did and the smelly stuff hit the fan that day. Anyway she told so hence the investigation. I was a little peeved that the letter arrived just as I was about to break up for Easter, but this was a pattern I became familiar with. Anyway, I promptly went off sick, and the letter kept coming urging me into a meeting. I tied up with my union rep and we talked about ways foward. They sent me for an assessment by the firm the use to monitor occupational health. He recommended I'd return after 7 weeks and that they treat me with kid gloves on my return. On the 7th May I returned to work and within 5 minutes my line manager came and invited me into meeting with the VP who is also my HOD. I refused on the grounds that I wanted my union rep with me. This was a wrong move, because from here all hell let loose. She got herself into a state and threatened me with the Principal. By this time I was feeling a little rattled. My hubby who with me at the time. (Long story) ran down to get my rep but it was too late, the P arrived and asked me to go with him to a meeting and when I asked for my union rep he suspended me. I was just about to leave when the VP barrelled up to me and started to demand my pass, my computer and my phone. I gave her my phone, and told her that she could have the computer the next day. (The hubby could deliver). I then began trying to get my memory sticks off my lanyard. At this point she began grabbing at them and kept saying give them to me. So I told her she was a bully. The P laughed so I look him in the eye and said in a very loud voice "and your a bully too, and now everyone knows that I have told you to your face". I pushed through them and tried to get some scissors from across the room but no one would give me any. I supposed I looked angry. Eventually I got my memory sticks off and collect my things and started to leave. By this time they were standing near her office door by the exit. As I passed I asked P if I was going to be paid while suspended. He said I was but she still kept trying to get me into a room. As I was leaving I dropped some plastic wallets full of learning materials, as I bent down to collect them the P snortled again. When I got up I said to him "you'll laugh on the other side of your face before this business is over"



Why has education lost it's marbles? Because of this. Throught my 7 year career with this employer I gave 110% of my efforts. I worked longer hours than they paid me for as a routine. I have even been know to give up my holiday to attend to a problem that they had. I put up with a myriad of minor bullying tactics by several people, and a major bullying period from my then boss who had an affair with a member of staff right under everybodies noses. When they eventually did come out there were rumours that they would never go anywhere with this college but those rumours did not hold out. They both got promoted, even though they had conducted the affair during working hours.



What did I get. Sacked for breach of contract for running a business on the side. It's not as though I was in competition with them. My other stuff is counselling and therapy. Not only that but they did me for "working during my allotted hours" which is untrue, and threatening behaviour because I got upset when they goose stepped me out of the office in front of 30 people. But nothing counts, non of the good work or the loyalty or creativity counts for anything. The college can treat me in this way because I breached my contract with them.