The humanistic stance puts the accent on human freedom and choice at the expense of a healthy recognition of its counterpart of necessity and determinism. A decidedly existential approach will always include a thorough consideration of realities, limitations and consequences. A serious analysis of the human condition cannot fail to notice constraints as well as liberties. The humanistic arrogance which believes mankind to be the centre of the universe and which encourages a blind pursuit of individual rights and freedom can only lead to disaster.

* * *

Unfortunately some of the prevailing assumptions in counselling circles are based on this type of short-term vision. Clients are sometimes encouraged to put self-development or self-actualization before anything else. In this way an ethic of wishful thinking is embarked upon. People are helped to take their lives in their own hands and to believe that their current lives are based on a number of mistakes which can be easily eradicated.

In reality life is a little more complex than that, for people are rarely engaged in anything without there being a number of good reasons for it. Only to the extent that a person is aware of the wider existential context of her situation can she begin to move forward with a sense of direction. Picking up notions about what is desirable from the current ideas in circulation can only lead to landing oneself in an impasse if the implications and consequences have not been fully thought through privately. Counsellors have to be particularly careful in monitoring the client’s personal investigation of the wider context. It is only too easy to influence a client towards change without previous reflection.”

(van Deurzen-Smith, E 1998. Existential Counselling in Practice, Sage, London, 12-13.)

There are a few types of workplace bullies, but they often share characteristics similar to the following:

• They are at heart insecure.
• They lack validation from others outside of the workplace.
• They often tie up their entire ego in their self-perceived workplace persona.
• They are often very lonely, lacking means of expression and support outside of work.
• They often have a perception of self which has little correspondence with how they would be described by others.

These characteristics can become part of their power within the office, as others often have a natural tendency to feel sorry for the oppressor, only to then become the object of bullying by the very person for whom they feel sorry. This reliance on the good nature of others can itself become part of the toolkit of the office bully, as he or she alternates between attempting to portray self as the victim and (once this portrayal is at least partial accepted) attacking the very staff who show sympathy.

The first step in dealing with the workplace bully is to understand the common characteristics of the bully and to understand how the sympathy of other staff is often used to the advantage of the oppressor.

1. People with a clue stopped printing everything they wanted to read – instead they read online, download and/or print to PDF, etc. It is offensive to see the massive stacks of paper and tomes that you want to read (but probably never will), which you have thoughtlessly printed out with no consideration for the environment.

2. Walking around the office to make sure everyone is in their designated seats is not management and you cannot assume that people who sit at their desks are working. I cannot tell you the number of people I have seen on Facebook at work, whose dinosaur bosses assume these staff members are working just because they are at their desks. How embarrassing! Successful modern workers put in long hours, but some of these long hours are in front of the laptop watching TV until midnight, while they slave away at their work. Lazy employers wander around the office looking for bottoms on chairs, but the modern supervisor looks at the quality of work being done and understands the sort of hours that would have to go into the production of such work. Such supervisors understand the nature of work in the modern world.

3. The emphasis in the modern world is on content and not on superficial appearances. In your generation, you sat at a desk in your silly business attire and “looked busy” when your boss walked past. Modern workers dress in a way that you would consider more “casual” (not realising that what you are wearing looks like the stuff from the grandparents’ closet, which was sent to the opportunity shop years ago). One of the things I noticed straight away when I started working in Sydney all those years ago was how relaxed Aussies were in their work attire. It has been good to see this more relaxed trend developing globally. You might have been able to do little work, but convince your boss of otherwise by superficial appearances, but this is not how modern business (by and large) works.

4. Modern bosses understand what they don’t know and trust their staff to do the work they were hired for (including those who are hired for IT related work). The 1960s boss was worried about losing his or her job, so tried to keep all control of projects and other work with him or herself. Only the smallest parts of projects were delegated, with ultimate “power” and decision-making remaining with this incredibly insecure person. Modern projects require that work is delegated to responsible staff and that these staff are able to get on with their work.

5. You learned how to use some simple software, such as MS Excel, decades ago, but you need to know that this is not impressive and not everything is desirable in MS Excel. There are many more desktop applications and server based software and no one is impressed with poorly considered, planned and implemented spreadsheets. Allow your staff to bring your office procedures into the 21st Century!

One can be angry at this insecure supervisor who is stuck in an earlier age, or one can ultimately pity him or her. To tie one’s self-image and worth so much into work that there is no professional progress, no trusting of staff, no ability to let go . . . such a person deserves sympathy, rather than scorn. The dinosaur either needs to get training (and perhaps therapy), or else needs to move over and let the office become the more productive environment that it could be in his or her absence.

Here’s to the future of business and to dinosaurs being where they belong – in museums!

[Disclaimer: Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.]

First, it is not terribly simple to sort out your “friends” into adequate groups. I have, for example, different groups of people that I  like to keep separate. These groups would include:

• My few religious friends. These are people that I have been close to since I was very young and I am more than happy to have them on my list, but not always happy to share all of my content (posts, links, etc) with them.
• My Free Thinker friends. These are the people that I have befriended since I left religious America so many years ago. These are the people with whom I would share almost anything – including jokes about religious people.
• My work colleagues. These are business professionals in education, online marketing, counselling and a number of different fields in which I have experience and colleagues. I prefer to share business related posts with these people, but to exclude them from some of my more “interesting” jokes, links and other posts.
• My family. I am happy to share all content with this group.
• My students (and former students). With this group, I want to share professional content relevant to their area(s) of study.

Facebook has never been good for channeling content at such refined levels. I tried to create a second account where I discussed more “professional” content, but this never worked terribly well. First, people on my other account began to request to be added, which sort of negated the whole purpose in having the second account. Second, I began to get confused as to which account I was logged into and posting – for example, using my iPhone with the business account and then forgetting and posting things for my family and friends. What a mess!

Google+ resolves this problem with “circles” – a bloody fabulous idea! I can create as many circles as I want and channel content to suit to each group. This is reason enough to change to Google+, in my opinion.

Second, if you have ever advertised with Facebook, you would know that whether or not your campaigns are “successful”, the Facebook team can be tight-fisted and unbending – think, for example, of the FB insistence early on of DAILY payment for adverts and their inadequate ability to deal with many international currencies.

Looking forward to developing my circles in Google+!

One of the things that appealed to me about this move was the chance to interact with indigenous Australians here in the Top End. I have always been fascinated with indigenous peoples, from the Native Americans of the Southwestern United States, to my limited experience with Maori in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Regarding Aborigines, my first interaction was in Sydney in 1999. I was working in hospitality and two aboriginal women came into the hotel where I was working. Two Australian staff were at the desk and said nothing as these indigenous Australians approached the reception desk. The interaction was eerie – the women stood there, saying nothing and feeling uncomfortable and the staff looked straight through them, as if they weren’t there. After a pause that seemed to go on for ages, I stepped up and asked these ladies if I could help them. This was my introduction to the relationship between indigenous and other Australians and it has been observed many times since. In my experience, indigenous Australians are ignored and the results of this can be seen in a number of ways, including the surprise you see on their faces if you walk past and say “hello” or smile as you pass them.

A few weeks ago, while I was having lunch, there were comments among the women with whom I was sitting comparing Aborigines to primates and I was absolutely shocked. If this is the sort of response in “professional” environments, what can we expect otherwise? It breaks my heart to even begin to imagine the treatment of these beautiful people in their own land.

Last night, an aboriginal man was sitting across the street from my house and crying. My wife asked if he was alright and then came into the house to see if I could talk to him. When I got outside, he was gone. One can only begin to imagine the pain that these people have had to endure at the hands of generations of invaders who often don’t consider them human. When whites arrived in Australia, they thought that they could take the land and they used a ridiculous legal fiction to support this desire to take what they wanted – the doctrine of Terra nullius. Under this doctrine of “land belonging to no one”, the Aborigines were “no one”. In my experience, many Aborigines are still treated like “no one”, or like children who need to be guided by paternal interventionist laws.

Perhaps a bit of empathy and respect are needed!

If you are in competency-based training and you want server-based open source software where students can upload, discuss and have their work accessed online, then you must check out Mahara open source e-portfolio software for yourself.

http://www.limesurvey.org/

I trialled this software years ago, when it was still “PHPSurveyor” and it has come a long way in the last five plus years.

I installed the software on my server and began creating surveys in minutes. By midnight of the same day, I had seventeen surveys live and ready for completion by stakeholders.

I love open source and when it is server-based, even better. I would recommend giving LimeSurvey a try!

We have always loved New Zealand, but I leave with the notion that we will never return. My wife wants to keep our house as a holiday home and come back from time to time, but I don’t share that vision. It will take something like 15 years to get Christchurch into decent shape again (so says Mayor Bob Parker) and with the work situation being generally so terrible in NZ, there will be little to draw me back to the Shaky Isles.

In three days, it will be “Goodbye, Aotearoa!”