Saturday, November 22, 2008

Grave New World

I have had a rare and rising sense of optimism these past few weeks. It began to seem as if things were working themselves out at last. I'd seen off the depression; I'd made new friends. Even the desire to write had come back, although not much actual writing had emerged yet (what appears here obviously being decorative spaghetti). But events of the last couple of days have thrown me off course again.

I can't say too much about it at the moment because I am involved in an investigation. Suspended from my job for something I wrote on Facebook. Just a comment left on the page of one of my friends, something funny I thought, but somebody saw it and reported it to my employer and now I'm being investigated for gross misconduct. Can you believe that? I didn't name anybody; I didn't name the company. But somehow I am supposed to have brought the company's good name into disrepute.

We'll see. Thankfully I am a union member so I won't have to go into the disciplinary hearing alone. But I still expect to be sacked at the end of it. It's ludicrous, and it would be a gross injustice, yes. But that is the way of the world. Obama's election produced such a feeling of euphoria on both sides of the Atlantic because the good guys very rarely win. Your mind is not your own anymore, dear reader. In your free time you are still a representative of the company who pays your wages; and if you behave in the manner of anything other than the characterless drone capitalism expects you to be you will be punished for it.

You have been warned.

7 comments:

All This Trouble... said...

Because I also fear for my livelihood, I will respond in email to this.

Chin up, Blue Fred.

Bruce Hodder said...

Thank you X

Holly said...

Complete and utter bullocks.

My mind is not my own? Fuck that, I spent 22 years, 23 almost, fighting for that right.

I believe my employers are fully aware of my mental illness and my right as an INDIVIDUAL to express all of my thoughts and feelings, especially outside of work.

You yourself dear Bruce have depression yes? You can state that whatever comments YOU MADE OUTSIDE OF WORK, is in relation to your mental issues.

No, I'm not suggesting you are "Crazy" just pointing out that you, like everyone else, deserves to be able to vent you, YOU, outside of work.

FFS this cow that snitched on you probably says worse shit on other sites, perhaps under other pseudonyms.

I hope justice prevails for you dearest.

All This Trouble... said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
tom said...

hope the hearing goes in your favor - aren't there some privacy laws that may have been violated on the part of the person who reported this? thinking about you

Bruce Hodder said...

Tom, I will check that one out. You might be right. Anyway, whatever happens I will get a book out of it. I started writing it today...

Bruce Hodder said...

Holl,
Yeah, they know about my issues with depression, so I could cite that as a defence. On some level my verbal outpourings probably ARE a product of my depressive nature. EVERYTHING I write is probably from the same source. Why else would you feel the need to reshape the world with your pen or your typing finger than if it didn't look horribly bent the way it does to me?

I believe I have a right, though, to say whatever the hell I want as long as I don't slander anybody or impugn anybody to the point that it wrecks their life. And like I said, in the comment on Facebook they are trying to screw me for I didn't name anybody or anything...

It's a weird fucking world we're moving into where people like her, the woman who reported me, have the upper hand and the ones with intelligence and personality and an individual mind are squirming to get out from under their boot. Something has become horribly twisted when perfidy and underhandedness are rewarded so fulsomely and honesty and integrity get you screwed.