Batman and Other Things

I'm back! I know it has been a while but life gets busy when you're employed and happen to be a professional weekend warrior (if you don't know what that is then you're not enjoying your weekends enough).

For those of you who caught my blog early on you may have noticed some changes to previous posts. Let me tell you - you never stop learning. Those changes were made because an important realization in my life based on some unforeseen circumstances.

I've done you all the injustice of being a hypocrite. I've talked about rising above and kindness, when in reality I have not done so with previous posts. As a Christian believer I know I am not the one to serve justice where justice is due or even judge where justice is due. 

This past weekend I was watching Batman Begins, when the character Rachel spoke to Bruce about justice verses revenge and profoundly said, "No, they're never the same, Bruce. Justice is about harmony. Revenge is about you making yourself feel better." I do not consider my most recent posts as my go at revenge and I want the emphasis to be on the lessons learned, but I do realize the things I have been saying have not been Christ-like and in no way has it been an example of rising above. Harmony was not accomplished in any way.

So from here on out I plan on keeping it classy. My focus has always been and always will be on the life lessons I've learned while being an entry-leveler. I look forward to writing more about my personal experiences, the things that have worked, and the stuff that hasn't. Life is tough enough as it is - no need for all of us to go through the hard stuff when we can learn from one another. 

I'm sincerely appreciative to all those who read my blog and struggle everyday with life. Keep up the entry-level sub-par work.

The Other Woman

Welcome back! Thanks for taking the time to read my blog and as always I hope you get a little something out of it. 

Competition in the workplace can be a good thing, but it can also be a really really bad thing. I was hired for a position that was also filled by someone else... awkward! Let me tell ya - pay means nothing if you're living in fear of losing it.

When the woman arrived to work I already had a bad taste in my mouth. To make things worse she was 20 years (give or take) older than me and had been working in the industry for about the same amount of time.

Over the next three months the other woman and I lived in a constant state of competition. Whether it was all in my head or not she was the enemy.

Competition can be good and bad for a company. In this case it was bad, but I did my best to manage it with grace. If you ever find yourself in the position of fighting for your place be sure to constantly scan your moral compass. When I compromised my values for the sake of safety in my job or winning the task at hand I took away from the opportunity to build up instead of tear down.

Later on the other woman and myself had a chance to talk about what had all happened and we both realized had we let the competitiveness go we could have built an empire between our two sets of skills. Maybe that's an exaggeration, but it was sad to know that I had let three months of opportunities go because I was afraid to lose the job I ended up leaving anyways.

God was so good to mend that relationship before I left, but it won't always work like that if collaboration and kindness can't break through harmful competition.

See you next week. It's going to be a good one.