John Linton I spend so much of my time attempting to plan various aspects of Exetel's activities, both short and long term, that I seldom get around to actually looking at my personal objectives - in many ways my 'life' has been subsumed into Exetel's 'life'. I got around to thinking about just what I might like for myself over the coming year for the first time for many years on the ferry to the TIO mediation meeting on Tuesday and I realised I hadn't really got any personal objectives beyond continuing to work to improve Exetel's operations and the working lives of the people that Exetel employs. It seems that I have not had a sensible look at what I really would like to do for myself for so long I couldn't remember the last time I did that. So I made a start on a list of things I would like to do over the coming year both within Exetel and by devoting more time to non-Exetel things. While I have made a list I haven't yet got around to checking it twice.
Unfortunately my first attempt at this exercise for many years produced almost totally negative things - things I would like to stop doing rather than things I would like to do. Now, while that could be a temporary 'mood' thing (and I will certainly take that in to consideration for the next few days) it is some sort of indication of how wrong I have got so many things over the past few years and just how far my understanding of ethics/morals/responsibilities/reasonable social responsibilities have diverged from those of the people and organisations I spend my 'working day' dealing with. Perhaps it was simply the distaste bordering on disgust I felt on that ferry trip at the thought of having to spend so much time dealing with the ethicless TIO personnel and their even more ethicless legal representatives and the sheer pointlessness of spending so much time in doing so. But I suspect it was only the catalyst to realising that I do spend so much of my time dealing with similarly worthless organisations and the people within them and the situations such people force upon Australia generally.
Perhaps I have reached the stage in life where "Qui cum canibus concumbunt cum pulicibus surgent" has proven to be true and I have become as bad as the people I deal with and that is the real source of my general dissatisfaction with so many aspects of my daily life. It is something to think about. I will now make some changes to my own working life now that I have realised just how dissatisfied I am with so many aspects of it and just how far I, and others, have moved away from the base reasons for 'creating' Exetel in the first place. It is not a sensible human condition to despise so much of what you do for either yourself or for the people you associate with. I think the antidote for this malaise brought on by being in the same room as TIO personnel and their legal no nothing advisors/advocates is to make a list of all the people I meet each day whom I get positive feelings from and get rid of the violent dysentery reactions occasioned by the TIO 'contact' - perhaps, like recovering from strains of dysentery, these black dog symptoms will pass in a few days.....
....so speaking of dogs, a man takes his dog to see a movie and as he and the dog are leaving a mate of his taps him on the shoulder and says "Hi Bill whats with bringing your dog to the movies? Bill replies "well he quite often enjoys a good movie". So his mate says "I could see that - he laughed at all the funny bits and he seemed to get quite emotional in the sad bits". Bill replied "Yes I found that very strange too. He hated the book".
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13 - generating paraskevidekatriaphobia for those who react to any friday falling on the 13th of any month.