Habitat and Niche and Sheena

Sometimes ago there was a world news that a big CEO of a company had to resign for a spying and surveillance scandal. Well the story was in the company for a while .The names of the victims were changing from A to B but the activities were on.Sheena was a contractor in the same company and she was a victim of surveillance too Well alas she had no voice there since she was not an employee. But the question is by removing the CEO will it going to stop. No it will not since it is there in the core of lots of people with different reasons and ulterior motives. The main reasons are human insecurities jealousies egos and survival in a negative way. Insecurities jealousies and egos are three very critical factors of human psychology today in the survival process. No one will accept but it is the same "Habitat and Niche" kind of mentality in the human work place. So today my piece is not about psychology but it is a story of an unknown woman named " Sheena"and some of her work experience.
This is a true story but I will disguise the characters with different names. The story is about the work place and human insecurities ignorance and jealousies and how it affected Sheena's life.
Sheena grew up in a loving family and atmosphere where there was intellect and wisdom, mindfulness and inner growth, spirituality and faith. Most importantly love and kindness.But her life changed after marriage . But they say if you see the world positively any circumstances can become positive and she wanted to do that. But it was not easy.
Sheena found a good job after lots of jobs searches and struggle. She was really happy.
She went to work and found a desk beside a guy name John. John was an old black african male in his sixties spoke in broken english but had lots of friends. The head of the team Zoe was an Italian guy who told Sheena to be careful of John. Sheena did not pay attention since she was eager to learn the work. Management issues arose and the good guy Zoe had to leave and some other Polish lady Kat came and took over. John's behaviour changed drastically. He was a guy who was not scared of any body and with nothing to loose kind of mentality. He was not at all intellectually smart and not wise at all  but survived in the corporate world for almost his whole life.
But the question is how. The reason being you do not need intellect nor wisdom to survive in the workplace you just have to know how to play the game in the so called manipulation trade. John was an expert into that.
He had a bad ratings in work never even cared to do the trainings or assessments and used to laugh at people who were doing it. The team of 20 members knew him and kept their distances But what about the people who were outside the team. So John was most of the time not in his desk chit chatting with other people and building relationships.  Days went over and Sheena found that John was too much into her business. He was watching everything she was doing, eating and even wearing and making inappropriate comments. Every morning Sheena was going to work and had to sit beside John since he was not moving from his desk. He started stalking her following her making inappropriate comments and started physically coming near her. He was a serial liar.
Since he was in the company for a long time and popular with other team members every body wanted to overlook his behaviour as nothing serious. But it was unbearable for Sheena. John knew the value of making connections with right people so he knew people in the HR too and eventually was very secure . He was treated like a godly figure specially by some minorities like some Philippians spanish, black who just came to US or had a language problem. He was using the race card here and there but he was more racist than any one. He boasted everyday about his connections and how no one could touch him. He was a complete show off and tried to display it.
People were sympathetic towards Sheena but no one was taking any actions and Sheena knew that complaining will make things more worse. So one day Sheena took her own decision and when John came she moved her desk to another empty desk near the head of the team who was a british lady named Ashley. John got furios and his male ego got hurt and he went ballistic. Sheena knew the issue will become very large but she had so much trust and faith in Ashley. So Ashley who took over Kat was from London and was very strict and an exceptionally good human being. She was a lawyer by profession intellectually smart and emotionally intelligent. John could not manipulate her and she knew very well what he was in one glance.
But he had planned his negative manoeuvres. So there was a small team of John's supporters  headed by another team honcho went to Ashley with complains about Sheena Their story was like the following
1. Sheena is a racist and insulted John.
2. Sheena is a six (or a thief stealing company datas and other important stuff)
3. Sheena is a slut and going out with men.
4. Sheena is of high risk to the company
John being a good guy was keeping an eye on her and since she moved from her desk the company was of high risk so Ashley should order Sheena to go back in her desk and John will keep an eye on her.
Ashley immediately knew everything and said "No" Sheena will never go back there.
Sheena could breath a sigh of relief and found herself alive and safe again. But John was going ballistic and nuts. But things did not end there in fact it started from there again.
So as the days went by no one was talking to him and he was treated really harshly since Ashley understood his ulterior motives.His reputation was ruined and he was blocked from going to  meetings and events and having his favourite free drink and free food.
But John attacked Sheena in different ways he started telling his supporters to keep an eye on Sheena and they were following Sheena even in the rest room since John was an angel to them.  John's creepy eyes were following Sheena everywhere and Sheena was feeling disgusted.
Alas again with management reshuffle Ashley had to go back to London and an Arabic lady Leila took over. John found his way again and was elated. Only thing John was moved to another team headed by an Indian guy named Sunny.
This time John was ahead of his trade mark game. Sheena started receiving threats and negative text messages in her mobile. Jealousies and insecurities can take people any where. So one fine morning Sheena received a VOIP message "Her life will be ruined if she do not listen to him with no names" voip messages cannot track the phone number so it was so easy .He wanted to ruin her reputation that was his main goal. Every other day some messages were pouring in her cell phone. Sheena had to go to the police for help. The police came checked the messages and told her to change her number or go to the special investigation team for more result. Sheena lived alone with her two kids. She had no time for any of the nonsense. So she just ignored everything thinking things will fall into places. But no her belief was not true. When restructuring hit the company and lots of people lost their jobs Sheena's name came there too.Sheena some how grabbed a contracting job to sail in the river. Eventually after few months she heard lots of other teams had to leave too And heard John's name was there too. John thought Sheena had to do something with his loss of job since the team head was of Sheena's race.
So again the story started in a new way. John told every one in the company he have a big house in Suffolk and drives a BMW and so on and so forth to influence them. One day early in the morning when Sheena came out of her building saw John in her neighbourhood walking by and watching her with creepy red eyes. She was scared. She knew immediately what was going on. But with the struggles in her job and life Sheena chose to ignore him. Since she realised he can do anything just to survive and no authorities can be a threat to him. Complaining might make things worse.
Sheena found another contracting role in a good company and she thought she will make it this time.
Willie was John's closest friend and John was his mentor and Willie was in the investigation team in Sheena's new workplace. He never had a name and address in the previous work place and used to converse with John only. John was like a god to him. But in the new place he was huffing and puffing and taking decisions. Sheena had an eerie feeling but wanted to believe in the goods. But just like his mentor Willie is a part II of John. Since he had a voice in the company and had a good network  he kind of started a campaign against Sheena. Sheena was in surveillance in the company and her reputation was damaged. In fact Sheena was followed in the street too by Willie and his supporters. Willie was watching Sheena whole day from his desk He was paying respect to his mentor. "Sheena was a threat to the company"was the message.
So how John and Willie manipulated the whole scheme.Lies were spreaded about her in the company and it was believed since no one knew the previous history and Sheena was never accepted and believed. Specially the ladies were also against her. She just prayed to god and went to work .
Sheena talked to one of her friend in the contracting company. She was even blocked to talk with her managers since she was a threat to the guys.
She started to lose her interest and self confidence . She became quiet and detached since people already had an impression judgement and verdict against her. No one asked her anything and she was treated negatively. Talking with her was a sin for some guys . When a lie becomes a truth. When a lie is spoken over and over again it becomes a truth. Some people know how to do it and they do it with a plan and mastery. And they are the master manipulators.
So my point is how you believe something is true or false. Don't you do an official investigation with proper facts checking and proofs or you just believe a he said and she said stories. If some one reputation and job is at stake don't you think you should do a thorough investigation with proper authorities. Willie's lies treachery and negativity won at the time period.
Sheena always believed "What ever you will sow today you will reap tomorrow But life has given her so many challenges and struggles . She really believe life is like a river and you just have to accept it and flow with it. The only thing that matter in life is being kind and compassionate to each other and make the moments enjoyable. Hopefully she finds a land .

Moment

After a long time I am chit chatting in my blog again. It is a good feeling and also getting tempted to write often . But sometimes feeling like Rip Van Winkle the guy who fell asleep in the Catskill mountain for twenty long years and woke up to find  so many changes. But changes are part and parcels of life as it moves on and the river flows . We need to adapt to the changes and only have to think about the present moment. The past is gone and the future is just a thought. Whatever we have is the present moment and if we can make that happy that is all we need. So enjoy the simple things in your life and enjoy the moment. Because tomorrow is just a virtual reality.

Ethics and Integrity

Ethics and Integrity are a subject matter of every organisation now days. They are not a skill and they cannot be learned through a webex or taking an assessment. This is your character. The traits comes from your internal growth or wisdom. Well we can say that the traits are implanted in you from the way you are raised in your childhood the values and principles implanted by your family. So Integrity Ethics they come from your family background and not with an educational certificate. Education can polish them up. With Education you can make powerpoint presentation of the subject or a webinar. Inner growth or wisdom are completely your own it is not a skill nor it can be taught.
So we see some people with integrity who know the value of ethics and some are struggling to learn it in books and online. Compliance and ethics are interlinked in the sense that in an organisation if
people are ethical which is really rare then work become less and simple. But most of the time it is the opposite. Even though people are trying to find out the flaws and corruptions in other countries and in other people if these people comes under the microscope then it might become a different story. But alas they are so blind to see that.
In John Wooden words" It is better to be concerned with your character than reputation . Character is your strength your integrity it is who you are while reputation is what other people think of you it comes from their insecurities and ignorance" You cannot change others .
Everybody's experience in life is different with my experience I see people with values and integrity are silently tolerating the pain and anguish of the other group who are shamelessly beating the drums of their insecurities and arrogance without even having a little bit of realisation.


Ethics is not only a simple word nor it is a skill that can be taught or delivered.
It is simply a character and traits of this character comes from your own wisdom. Ethics cannot be taught nor it can be learned in one webex. But here in every organisation people gives priorities to the subjects and treat it like a skill. Ethics comes from  your internal growth and from several factors. 
So we can ask how ethics and integrities are higher on some people and none in others. 
It comes from your values and principles, how you are raised and it starts from your parental upbringings. It does not belong to people with higher educational certificates nor to people with lavish lifestyle. It is the internal growth of a human being and it completely belong to the individual.
Having a training on the subject or giving a lecture on it will not strengthen it. Ethics and compliance are related like rights and wrong. So we can say if your organisation have really ethical people which is rare you do not have to be very cautious. But alas that is really rare . Even though we are very actively trying to find faults in other countries other race other individual in the name of compliance and investigation if the same person comes under the microscope he will have multiple discrepancies.
But it is very normal and natural none want to see that. Moral integrity and ethics are not teachable nor can be learned by doing an assessment it is the values and principles you have while you are raised. Family background and not educational background is helpful here. Education can polish it up but cannot create it. You learn what you see while growing up as a child. That is why we can see lots of people with less privileges have integrity and honesty while the richer one needs training on that through white paper or webex. 
Since everybody's personal experience is different in life I can say in my work experience I have seen people with integrity are quiet now days tolerating the pain anguish and the atrocities quietly. Their values and principles are not allowing them to be aggressively shameless and insecure . It is a shame and facade that the other force is so ignorant that they do not even a grasp the idea of the reality. They are beating the drums and music of their insecurities and ignorance lies and treachery with a big smile and gala.