Thursday, February 24, 2011

Old Business

 So last summer I was locked in battle with the powers that be at my paying job. I chronicled the events here at the first salvo, not knowing it would grow, and then here as it developed into something I had trouble understanding, then went further here as the battle lines were drawn and ultimatums were presented. I mention my continuing effort to deal with the situation in the opening paragraph here. Finally, I share the outcome (my decision) here.
 Now the reason this is all being brought back up now is that if you read all those posts again (I'm certain you ALL read them the first time, right?), then you noticed that I mentioned I was having an article published in a Occupational Safety Magazine that "touched" on the subject at hand?
 Well, as it turned out, the article was not published in September as I had been told. It was, in fact twice as long as that publication ever accepts and would not fit in the magazines preferred format. You writers out there might guess where this is going, but you'd be as wrong as I was. They picked it up as a 2 part feature in the January and February issues.
 So it hits the stands and my ESHW sees the article in her copy. She won't even mention it to me. She confides in a mutual co-worker that I "obviously wrote the article to offend, insult, and embarrass her" and it was just a result of my being a poor sport. Obviously, the ESHW is bad at math because I wrote the article in April, more than 4 months BEFORE the afore mentioned confrontation. The EHSM has not mentioned the article at all, or at least not to anyone who will share the conversation with me. It strikes me as strange that my 'front line' co-workers have seen the article and are slapping me on the back and offering congratulations for getting something published, as well as commenting on how they felt the article made 'excellent points that should make people re-think things they do'. Yet those who work in that particular discipline, and who should strive for such publication, choose to avoid any acknowledgment that the articles exist.
 There is no victory in winning a mental battle with unarmed people.
 I just thought that those who followed the original series would get a kick out of the follow up.
UU

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