Wednesday, February 15, 2023

Just a face in the crowd? April 19, 2013

  


An off the cuff response to a comment to her latest photo posted on Facebook may supply a bit of information about her motivation, helping to fill in some of the gaps her personality profile.

She cropped her picture out of a group shot in the office to use as her profile picture. When several family members commented on how pretty she looked, she responded that it’s easy to look pretty when she is surrounded by love.

By implication, she is saying that the people around her are offering her protection and love.

This is an odd comment considering the fact that mayor’s office is known for its internal conflicts, back biting and office politics.

As savvy as she is, she is also naïve. And tends to become a true believer, much as she sounded when I spoke to her on the phone last fall about RR.

Whether he current faith is a carry-over from back then or not, I can’t say.

More than once over the last few months, she has made it clear that she sees herself as a good soldier in a good cause, something she seemed also to reflect when working in our office.

She always starts out that way, and then seeks to trickle up, and to find a position of authority, something she has only particularly accomplished in the mayor’s office, although it is clear she may never get the position of power she believes she deserves.

My best guess is that she has been allowed access to the inner sanctum, and does their bidding – digging up dirt on political enemies and such, while also serving as the photographer and other roles.

But there is a glass ceiling – not based on her gender, but on the fact that those who have power covet it, and she may not be able to easily rise up through the ranks as she had in other places where the internal mechanisms were much simpler.

She is one of the group, but has yet to rise above it.

At our office, I was a little scared that she might end up my boss after she managed to trickle up. But she was forced out by The Small Man and others before she could accomplish that.

(I still wonder how life might have turned out at our office had she become the boss, and what tasks she would assign me as punishment for having offended her during her rise to power).

While she seems to paint a picture of a perfect world, and apparently is willing to do just about anything to maintain her place in it, ultimately it is an illusion, because she really doesn’t want just to be one of the boys (or girls as the case may be), but to be someone of distinction (which she probably deserves, being smart, beautiful and clever).

As I have said before, there is not room for her at the top in that world. She is may be savvy enough to survive, may even have an aspect of ruthlessness needed, but ultimately, she’s not the kind of snake that thrives in such a world, and if she wishes to get distinction, she will have to move on to some world where she will find an easier way to trickle up.

 

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