Today’s poem is dragged from the deep recesses of the archive. It was written on a scrap of paper one evening as I was coming home from work on a rickety old diesel bus. In an epiphany earlier that day I had decided to start looking for another job. I had been employed to do a very specific task and deliver a well defined outcome, but at every turn my efforts were undercut or blocked by people at various levels up and down the food chain …I realised that the words of that particular organisation were unlikely to ever transform into meaningful action. I also realised that I am not the sort of person who’s prepared to wait ten years for an organisation to catch up with me.
Latency Being in a latent state is perhaps the most soul destroying of all states. It’s the knowing what needs to be done, having the skills to do it, but never the opportunity or mandate to act. Organisations can enforce latency on the talented, either intentionally or unwittingly. Or leaders can establish spheres of influence that can go beyond what the Job Description says. Being shot down, told to be quiet, or sent down exhausting garden paths that lead to nowhere... distraction techniques designed to sap energy and support the status quo. I recall the moments and faces so easily because it’s been such a frequent occasion in a career punctuated by false starts, faux opportunities, and wolves dressed in sheep’s clothing. How do you dialogue with that?
Angele Toomey Poetry 