I thank God for Lawrence O'Donnell--and other MSNBC News Hosts!
For over 20 years, I have had to be on medication for Job Burnout... What that means, in my case, is that I had been working many more hours to try to keep up with an impossible work load, without any sign of recognition from my superiors that they...even...cared...
I ask, would you have even tried to explain how you were feeling if, from the very first, with four new superiors above you, and not one had ever met with you to talk about the responsibilities of your office? Or, not once, asked to review job descriptions to learn exactly what was going on in your unit? Or, even stopped by once in a while to meet your employees, talk to them, and me, and ask how things were going? No, a new President, a new Vice President, a new Assistant Vice President, and a new Director of my office had rode in on white horses claiming they would save the day, that they knew everything they needed to know and that, an authoritative hierarchical structure must be maintained henceforth... Of course, none of those words were ever said--after all, they were all authoritarian, clearly, and were "Do as I Say; Not as I Do!"
I was in an environment of higher education on a land-grant university campus that operated state-wide, which meant the Federal Government was even more involved than with those who were not land-grant institutions. After I had already submitted papers for retirement, after having gone on an extensive medical leave, after being told by my doctor that I had to choose between my life and my job--frankly, there was no choice, I planned to leave an institution that I had loved for over 30 years, having moved upward from my first job in the Office of Personnel. And, to put the icing on the cake, after having absolutely no conversations with me about my employment with that administration, I was given a letter that my job had been eliminated... But, I remember now, that I did have one conversation with the University lawyer, about handling a dismissal of a man who I had been forced to hire. During that discussion he said something like, "You should be glad to have a job." To which I replied, "I used to have a career and I've never been interested in just a job..." There was never any mention of any wrongdoing on my part...
In fact, during my nearly 40 years, I had received just one performance review. That was in the '60s when the Director of Personnel gave me a letter of excellent performance. And, oh yes, the new Director of my office had given me a form letter something about my running the Office... as if I was the office manager. But, let's face it, he had no idea what I did and only turned to me when he realized that financial accounting of capital funds had gotten out of control, because he, who supposedly ran that side of the office, had never initiated any action toward financial management!
But, of course, I should at least mention that I had defied my Assistant Vice-President, and refused to sign a request from Human Resources that the actions taken by him, after I was released for return, was formally accepted by me... When I refused to sign, I said, "You may have a right to do what you did; but you don't have a right to my respect for what you did." He turned around and walked out...
And I have been defying authoritarian people ever since... I "could" be tearing my hair out each day if not for my faith in God, the very few personal connections I have made, as well as, having found Lawrence O'Donnell! It's not that I chose him "over" others who I also enjoy watching. But, this man was older, had had experience in Congress, had also demonstrated to me his concern with his "desks for African children" program--which meant he cared... Yes, he cares!!! His empathy as he discusses issues reveals just how much he wants to have all of his viewers know about how he views the impact of that newsbite on our lives....
This was important to me. During the years when Trump first came into Office, I had become a fanatic news watcher. At that time, I had never heard of MSNBC, so I was watching CNN daily. The reporters--at that time--were thorough and many expressed concern for the issues and what was happening... Once I found MSNBC, I immediately saw the difference in passion, of concern, and of working and finding research that supported what was happening that day--that time period! However, a series of recent medical operations made me stop to consider my health. I could not afford to move into another mind-melt. So, I chose Lawrence as the one individual who I recorded--I read most nights from about 5PM on... and I watch him most morning as I take my meds for the day.
My point is, that I have found a correlation between the environmental changes at West Virginia University, as I have seen in the government during the years from 2015 and forward--ten years!!! Unbelievable!
One thing I have learned is most important. My personal anguish and job burnout was and is minor in comparison to what Donald J. Trump has/is doing to the United States Federal Government! Seeing the change of a participatory president, James Harlow, as the first WVU president under whom I was employed, through to the last authoritarian set of individuals who were in their positions at the time I was forced into a medical leave and walked out of the job in response to my doctor's warnings, is, frankly, now not even worth remembering...
Except that as each and every day I listen to O'Donnell, I flash back to what I personally went through with bosses who had no time to know me as anything other than a workhorse they viewed that did a good job performing for them--until I didn't... And "fired" me!
Yes, I was once a 9-5 classified employee (although it was 8:15 to 5). That was in 1963 when I first started in the Office of Personnel. Later I moved into the President's Office and worked for two Provosts one after the other (title for VPs at that time) as Secretary. I then moved into a technical position in the Office of Facilities Analysis and Utilization and then continued upward until I reached a non-classified position. What that meant was that I worked any amount of hours in order to get the job done...without additional compensation. BUT, the director of that office, William Campbell, was an excellent supervisor, both interactive with his staff--we felt appreciated--and willing to train. Our office was the first-ever office at WVU and was established to centrally handle all things related to facilities management as required by academic units and auxiliary programs, and the federal government. Under President Harlow, all of the Provosts were, what you might call, his cabinet (including the Medical Center which was a first, so I also responded to the Vice-President, Health Sciences Center, as well as all Vice-Presidents physically located on the main campus--Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, Athletics, Off-Campus Activities.
Bill Campbell was well-respected and later, the Office of University Architect, which handled Capital Planning and Construction, was placed under his management. Only one staff architect was retained from the previous office. By that time, I was placed in charge of all activities which were previously directed by Campbell. He began to deal with an entire set of issues, none of which could be handled by the remaining architect. In fact, that individual's inexperience in dealing with the overall planning process, soon resulted in a need to relocate him and begin to add new positions which would merge the analysis side of the office with the capital planning side which was now to be developed. By the time that major leadership changes began, I was promoted to Associate Director of a unit now called Office of Facilities Planning and Management. It was soon clear that the new management planned to eliminate Bill Campbell who would be replaced with a "good ole boy" associate of the new Asst. VP. Next, when a vacancy occured in my area, I was forced to hire another "good ole boy" associate of the Asst VP... All men; all from Military Sciences ROTC.
At the point, when I later had lost a year of my lifeto conduct a complete audit of capital funding allocated to WVU, because the new director did nothing to deal with the financial management of capital construction, I returned to directing the unit for which I was responsible. Soon, I knew that the last hire which had been forced unto me, was unable to perform at what was a first-level manager position, but which was very numbers/detail oriented in a discipline that at that time was not being taught, but had to be learned through self-study. It was clear that the former Major had no awareness, nor interest, in learning what he needed to know in order to handle that first-level managerial position. In fact, as things were boiling up, this man came to me to share that he had gotten an "A" in one class now being taught under Educational Administration at WVU. He expected, I could tell, that he expected me to be happy. I couldn't be and said, "You expect me to be happy about taking a class and learning what you should have, by now, learned for the job you were hired to do?" This type of comment was what I was experiencing as things led up to my total collapse, which, by the way, for your information, resulted in my not being able to stop crying. My body had tried, but I had failed my body. It rebelled for my treatment. And, rightly so... Did I have a choice? I didn't think so. I had invested over 30 years at WVU and I knew it was the change of superiors that was at fault.
So, regurgitating all of my personal experiences is only to point out that in my own situation, lack of knowledge about the work required and an unwillingness, or, a lack of actual experience in order to visibly see and learn what was the total scope of responsibility for their new positions, to be learned by new authoritarian-type individuals, led to an ultimate total collapse of my unit, of which I was Acting Director by that time.
An interesting tidbit that my dedicated secretary told me later was that, an applicant for the Director's position was offered the job. He had worked at the University of Maryland where Bill Campbell had worked. When this man came looking for me, he learned that I was on medical leave. He wanted to talk with me; I had headed up a Facilities Conference that we hosted on the WVU campus and he had gotten to know me quite well through early planning, etc. When he asked if he could call me, my secretary told him that I wasn't accepting calls from anybody but her. He turned down the Director position. Of course, if I had known... but that's just not what happened, so why bother considering the "what ifs" in life...
Soooo, Trump who was once voting democrat, apparently saw that the republican party seemed to be the proper choice for a possible leap into the power of the presidency. He was right. By that time, the evolution of both parties was significant, as can be found in learning about our history of government politics. In essence, through reading many books and/or videos, I've concluded that the two parties have switched places, sometime around the election of Reagan, the first entertainer hired for the presidency...
Now is a perfect point in this presentation to point out that, until 2015 when I was settled in my new log cabin, doing gardening--actually cleanup of a property which had been neglected for many years due to the death of both owners. After I purchased my home, in 2015, I heard just one video which was heard across the nation about the Trump candidate, and which led to the Major Women's March on Inauguration Day, 2016. When a man, even if talking "good ole boy" or "locker room" talk as some called it, trash talking with another guy, claimed that because he was a celebrity, he could walk up, grabbed them by the pxxxx, and get away with it... I was, frankly, immediately on alert. I had had my share of sexual invitations while working as a single woman. I had handled them "professionally" as I wanted to do. At no time, was I to have, from men on campus, anything as vulgar, or crudely presented, as I heard from Trump. As I later learned in E. Jean Carroll's book, and from news, of Trump's exploitation of women in all forms, I was incensed... Let me just say, when Trump/Clinton were debating and Trump roamed around behind her as she spoke, I would have turned around and said, "I'll stop until you start acting like an individual who is a candidate for our presidency..." Shoulda been there! LOL
Then when I faced both family insults about my choice to become a democrat and vote against Trump, as well as learning that Evangelical Christian leaders had made a deal with the Devil/Trump. I became somewhat obsessed... I knew immediately as a book reviewer, that I had to start doing my research!
Yet he was reelected... Unbelievable! There are now rumblings about whether Musk had his staff hack into election machines, much more secretly than did Russian hackers during the 2016 election. However. I had thought of it, but then I remembered that for the first time ever, Trump said he had a "mandate" to act, I started to add 2+2...+3... get the idea... All the billionaires watched and learned about Trump. He wanted unlimited riches, power and glory... To even get anywhere, he would have to use "criminal actions" to get it... Power-hungry people came out of the underground... Project 2025 came into existence, which is the actual words that have been used for ALL Executive Orders signed, but not initiated by Trump--except maybe one of his latest, which was to withdraw Biden's ban on plastic straws. With all of the McDonald's he eats, straws are a very important need for President Trump...
And I have become more sarcastic, more short on patience, more acutely aware of the lowering of common sense intelligence of the average American who, in the past, may have not paid much attention because the government was at least visibly doing the things that affected them personally... For me, Affirmative Action, Equal Pay for Equal Work, Need for dual-career marriages due to low salaries, and more... But most of all, the loss of Truth as our guiding interaction on all things affecting the entire population of the United States.
What I have learned through the last 10 years with Trump in the picture, leading the people of America with lies, disinformation, and, importantly, lack of any information unless somebody became a whistle blower in some way, together with the proliferation of technological advances which have moved so fast that a visible loss of control has resulted in, at least for me and others with whom I've talked, a total lack of confidence in a government--a population percentage--that would choose to listen to conmen rather than working to seek out the truth and VERIFY!
God is a God of Truth...
What do you think He is thinking as He watches those who have chosen Trump, one who attempts to act as if he acts for God and can do no wrong...
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