Replying to LO24329 --
Dear Organlearners.
Chuck Saur <csaur@remc8.k12.mi.us> writes:
>Although I haven't the book anymore, (I lend books and
>seldom get them back ;-) I believe that Kurt Vonnegut in
>Timequake refers to employers as "energy vampires".
>(Or was that on this list?) This recollection is rather fuzzy,
>but the smile I had at the time is still there...
Greetings Charlie,
Your comment reminded me how much trouble I had in giving
this topic a most neutral name. I first named it:
Why use a person?
But it sounded very cynical so I changed it into
Why hire a person?
But even that sounded too much money based to me so that
I finally changed it into the name it now has.
My intention was to get as much brainstorming from fellow learners as
possible. I suspect that all the replies will form a fine pointer as to
why we form human organisations. I am delighted by the richness of the
responses up to now. I cannot, even when trying to, single one of them out
as more outstanding than the rest. Its like looking at a rainbow -- which
colour in it is outstanding?
I also tried to avoid a too positive name. One which I thought
of was
Why allow another person working with you?
Little Jessica is now experiencing this issue at school in terms
of "playing" rather than "working". Is it not fantastic -- a child
trying to understand "child organisations"!
To get back to what you have wrote. Yes, I have used a couple of times the
cynical phrase "free energy vampires" on this list, but not in particular
to employers. The first time when I became aware of this phenomenon was
during a chemistry lecture in 1981. While trying to help the students to
understand the topic (I cannot even remember what it was), I suddenly
became aware of my mind working on two issues: "what I am doing FOR them"
and "what they are doing TO me".
I know it now sounds cynical, but that is how it was. I sensed that they
were not so much interested in what I could teach them as they were
interested in using me to get "free energy" from me. They were craving
for "free energy" and every question asked pointed to it. In other words,
using words from the topic itself and your suggestion, they were employing
me rather than I being employed by the University's Council.
After my initial reaction "its wrong what they are doing to me", I began
to think of it as them signalling to me of their very deep need for "free
energy". It made me think very hard about myself as a teacher. How do I
teach and why do I teach?
I will trying to avoid more exploration in the "free energy" angle since
Leo Minningh has done some of that for us. Nevertheless, I feel compelled
to write the following before signing off:-
One of the great classic novels to me will always be Bram Stoker's
Dracula. Stoker's compassionate exploration into the human spirit and his
artistic expressions of it in that novel is truely remarkable. Even
Dracula had to employ fair maidens!
With care and best wishes
--At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
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