Living in fear

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. The primary reason of course is because once again my employer is doing a layoff of employees where no position is guaranteed to be safe and to the tune of almost 300 people this time. When you work in telecom you (I guess) get used to this constant cycle of life in which people with 10+ years of service are thrown out the door for no other reason than their salaries (after such time) are costing the company more than the amount for which a "fresh-out" of college from India could be had.

I think you get what you pay for. An experienced employee is worth a lot more than what they see on their spreadsheets. American is in a crisis of its own making - inability or more likely unwilligness to protect it's own assets; its products and its workers. In the end, all this unbridled lust for profits that American companies are grasping for without thought to their workers or the long term good of the country will result in a collapse of our economic system and those very companies who sought to satisfy their greed. America needs to wake up and smell the exports and realize that we are bleeding to death over the goals and desires of some nebulous group of people that are collectively referred to as "the street". Who cares what "the street" wants?!!! Who cares what their "expectations" are?!!! A profitable company is a profitable company whether or not "the street" agrees or not! Let's stop living in fear of what "the street" expects!

As I said, you would think that after a while you would get used to it but we never do... I have watched so many good, talented and devoted people get shown the door that it is nauseating and yet it continues as apparently the only mechanism for creating better profitability. Well, with that logic, why not lay off everyone and experience the ultimate in cost conservation and profit glut?!!! Oh yeah, without the workers, you can't continue... hmmm......

So, living in this constant state of layoff fear causes a lot of people to have health problems due to stress and anxiety. I was thinking about that this week as we went through yet another "down-turn", "right-sizing" and/or "reduction in force". No matter, the term, it's not very palatable in any form of expression. Anyway, it occurred to me that the American worker is living in much the same state as the young Damocles who learned a valuable lesson from a wise king.

The story goes that poor young Damocles, an excessively flattering courtier in the court of Dionysius II of Syracuse, decided that his king was most fortunate because he was a man of power. The king overhearing this young man's ill informed opinion decided to teach Damocles a lesson; he offered to switch places with Damocles for a day so that Damocles could experience this good "fortune". The deal was struck and Damocles enjoyed a great day culminating in a great feast. It was only at nearly the end of the feast that he noticed that hanging right above his head was a sharpened sword suspended by only a single horse hair!!! (see the picture?)



Suddenly the young man lost his appetite and begged the king to swap places with him again. Dionysius had successfully conveyed to the young man the perpetual sense of fear in which the king lived.

I think some people would say the king's intention was to convey the meaning - "man it's tough at the top" or something similar about how great power carries a great burden with it. Oh sure - pitiful them. I suppose there is _some_ truth to that. However, I think Cicero found the true meaning in this story and here is what he said:

"Does not Dionysius seem to have made it sufficiently clear that there can be nothing happy for the person over whom some fear always looms?"

I think that's the real "nut" of the story..... that a person who has fear over their head all the time simply cannot be happy. Whether we allow that fear to be hanging over our heads all the time (regardless of the the reality of the danger) is up to us. It was in thinking about this story that I decided the proper response to the times in which we live is not to fear them constantly and thus hurt ourselves but to put our trust in a higher authority and trust Him to help us through this life. Surely that is the basis of the Christian faith in trusting God to help us through tough times. I think there can be great peace of mind to be had in that approach and way of thinking. I intend to work on living that belief in better fashion. I hope you can too.

In short, our happiness cannot be real unless we learn to overcome our fears. God can help us do that.

Then, if the layoffs come, at least I leave an employer behind who didn't care for me as I walk out the door with someone who loves me very much and will continue to watch over me all the days of my life!! I'd rather put my trust in Him than some earthly and fickle employer.

Love to all,

Jerry