I’m not sure whether it’s a good idea to talk about this here, but who am I kidding – I have a loyal readership of about four. And as this is the latest in a long line of journaling that started for me sometime in the fifth grade in a blank book I bought at the Abbott Loop Book Fair and which consisted mostly of play-by-play accounts of Denver Broncos games from the mediocre early Elway years, I would be remiss if I didn’t make note of the not-so-good things that happen in my life, too.

So today was a not-so-good day at work. It’s never good when the best boss you can imagine working for gets unceremoniously, inexplicably forced out. But what’s worse is the way it was done, the complete lack of understanding those in power have for our entire organization and what we do, and the total disrespect they show to us on a daily basis, multiplied to the nth degree with today’s force-out. We’re left with the news that we’re now being moved to a totally different department (good riddance, certainly, but how about involving us in the process, or even informing us that there was a process?), that we no longer have a curator to oversee the entire operation, and we have a very bitter taste in our collective mouth over the whole matter. Incredible, that those in power are the least capable of wielding it with any amount of tact, courtesy, or simple understanding of how their decisions might come across.

The five or six of us spend our days striving to make ours a world-class institution, and it is well on its way there now, but instead of supporting our work, encouraging our progress, and working together to help us as well as enjoy the prestige we bring to the larger department, the folks upstairs have decided to cut off our head and ship us out. I can’t wait to hear the explanation behind this move, from why it was made to why it was made now, and why it was made in such a dysfunctional, ignorant, disrespectful way. It’s as though they had thought of everything else but the people the decision would affect the most, and they decided to tell us about it after it was made, before we even knew there was anything afoot.

My job still exists, I think, but now it’s more a question of whether or not any of us really want our jobs, and how long we can stand to do something when our ability to do great work and our passion to fulfill our mission is gone. We’ll see what changes tomorrow, and next week, and on down the road, but right now, it feels sickening and disheartening, though sadly, not really so surprising.