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12:04 a.m. - 2002-08-22 On the train finally, I was musing about power politics - specifically those used by women. You see, I was trying to explain to my boss about a knock down drag out scrap at the last company I was consulting to where several women on the floor were fighting for the position of dominant female in the department. Yes, there is such a phenomenon with humans being part of the animal kingdom generally (although I have met a few vegetables and minerals in my travels)and no I don't mean the hierarchical corporate manager within the department - that is not necessarily the dominant female. I was trying to stay clear of the battle but it had reached the point where it was interfering with my ability to get my work done. I had to talk to all the parties involved and the perception was that if you talked to the "enemy" then you must be taking their side. Not true, but when emotions are that inflamed in a female battle no rational explanation is accepted. Anyway, most feminine set-tos tend to be fought out over clothes,hair, food etc because they still symbolize where women draw their power in society. Don't believe it? Think about the power of Martha Stewart to influence choices or the power of the clothing or film industry with respect to womens' self image. Now you've got the picture. My blouse problem triggered this train of thought because when the focus of the battle became who decided the details of a departmental pot-luck dinner, I wore a certain outfit that other women would recognize as saying leave me alone and out of your manipulations. Sort of like a man's power suit but women have a much more complex "clothes/body" language. I know men think we dress for them but really that's usually not necessary - a gunny sack would likely do; we dress certain ways as a form of non-verbal communication. So musing I arrived at work to find another type of power play underway. The theme in this one wasn't dominance though - it feels a lot more sinister. There have been serious security problems around the computers at work for the past few months. Data tampered with or missing, files corrupted, unauthorized use of terminals for various purposes. Huge sums of money flow through the companies I work in everyday. Is someone stealing and using the computers to hide their trail? Is someone sabotaging the company to make them vulnerable to a take-over or merger? Is someone trying to secure or consolidate their power within the company and so damaging the reputations of their "rivals" by making them look incompetent or impeding their ability to get their work done? I don't know and I don't care, but I do know that the project we have been working on for months has been a target for at least three months. It is hard when you don't know who or why, to find a way to protect your work. Even though there is increased security the damage still continues. I spent most of the morning repairing the damage - tying up my boss' time as well as my co-worker so we couldn't move forward with what we need to do. I used my discman to try and stay calm and focussed - "comfort music" today classic rock/folk like Gordon Lightfoot (great folk-country storyteller) and U2 to allow expression of the emotions I was feeling but which weren't safe to express at that point in time. I went for a walk by the river at lunch. We have an island park in the heart of our City that was where the lumbermill used to be. It bears the name of the family who owned it. The kick off for the corporate challenge for the United Way was underway when I arrived. A little further along the local community college drama troupe was doing "Shakespeare in the Park" in the open air theater - Midsummer's Night Dream Act 4 as I passed by, waves of laughter followed me for quite a long way past the stage - the crowd was really into the story. A couple of games of soccer in progress - children and adults; a couple of horses from the mounted police patrol - our men and women in black (very striking uniforms but I still think the blues were sexier)Back toward work through Chinatown's Sien Lok Park remembering the power play in that community between the group that wanted to develop it for a senior's complex and the group that wanted to create a model of a classical Chinese garden like the one in Vancouver. As in most things Canadian, a compromise was worked out where everyone won something but no one got everything they wanted. Civil I guess. Back to work and a meeting between our team and the company liaison about the project and the computer issues. Not all that pleasant for sure, but maintaining silence just supports the people doing the damage whatever their intent. Home was a very welcome sanctuary tonight. � � |