a to z: i is for i fight the power (unemotionally)

Warning: humor + feminism + past experiences + insight = my opinionated post that some may find offensive.

In the corporate workplace, personal characteristics are scrutinized. Performance is appreciated, but who you are is constantly under judgment. People’s characteristics fuel office politics and gossip. Not achievements. Not the people themselves for who they are.

These characteristics are ambiguous and subjective and highly dependent on situational variables and industries. Impartiality in an educator could be negatively viewed as cold and unaccommodating; yet, impartiality in a judge may be positively viewed as logical and unbiased. Even further, impartiality in a teacher may be negative when working with students with special needs, yet positive when mediating an argument between two students.

Fighting authority, for one person, may mean asserting independence (aggressively and individually standing up against unjust authority). For another, fighting authority may mean rebelling against unrealistic demands (maybe in the form of passive aggressiveness). How one chooses to expose these characteristics results in corporate labels. “She’s one of those people who does her own thing.” “She’s one of those people who doesn’t do shit for herself.”

Above is my list (in no particular order other than alphabetical) of my own characteristics and my own opinion of where I usually am on each continuum of characteristics. The reason for this list is to better explain what I’m like when I emotionally fight corporate authority. With the exception of “impartial,” all other characteristics slide all the way to the right… to the “too much” side. That’s me in a nutshell when I’m partaking in emotional fighting. Conversely, when I’m too complacent and feeling “low,” I tend to slide all the way to the left side, again with “impartial” as the exception, sliding all the way to the right.

When I fight authority and take a non-emotional stand against “the man,” I win. In reality, I think what really happens is that I’m able to create a situation that doesn’t need fighting. So essentially, I win. We all win. No anecdotal advice on how to win here. Just a combination of characteristics that just so happen to work well together (in my opinion) to take an unpleasant/unfair/negative situation and transform it into an amicable one… as long as I remain unemotional. That’s how I win.

• A to Z Challenge: I
• Daily Prompt: Fight the Power – Tell us about a time when you fought authority and took a stand against “the man.” Did you win?