Politics (file under No, not going back… just considerations)

Machiavelli once wrote; “The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.” How true?

When I was working at Reservation there was a fair amount of politics. The politics that existed between the front of the house and the back of the house. The politics that occurred between the entire front of the house. That of the back of the house. That of suppliers. Customers, etc. Politics abounds everywhere.

One of the things that always occurs to me is that in our society we exist largely in a meritocracy. I say largely because in theory we exist only in a meritocracy. Though both you and I know that this is far from true in any meaningful sense. Although it is a great idea to cling to.

At Reservation, there was an excessive amount of politics. There were those that were the elite and were treated as such. Then there were the plebes and then the slaves. As I look back at it now, though a good experience, I was nothing more than a slave. Please understand that this is nothing more than an observation. I was a willing participant and allowed myself to be taken advantage of. What that says about me is a whole different matter.

Now, at Without Reservation, I am watching as the ugly face of politics is trying to unseat the very real progress that I have made. The disconnect between the front of house and back of house is a little less so than it was at Reservation. However, the politics at Without Reservation seem somehow more vitriolic. More designed to instill pain and suffering and in my opinion it is because of a complete lack of understanding as to how a kitchen runs.

There are always going to be differences between colleagues for any number of reasons that are too many to list here but I am considering each and every one of them. As I am getting older I am able (for perhaps the first time in my life) to remove myself from the rabble rousing and saber rattling. For the most part because engaging in the politics of the workplace does absolutely nothing to help me, to advance my career or to help me get to where I am going. As a point of personal privilege here I would also like to say that I don’t consider what I am doing as a career. I think it is a personal choice that I have made to bring happiness, joy, satisfaction and the like into my life.

My fervent desire is that I see the political issues lesson as time goes forward. My belief is that they probably won’t. However, knowing this arms me with a massive amount of knowledge and leaves me the ability to formulate my next move. A lot like chess or war really. What would Sun Tzu say?

At any rate, as I consider this, I know that I am becoming something closer to what I have always longed to be. And though we are all political animals (in the Animal Farm Napoleon kind of way) I think that my lack of participation in the entanglements of politics is actually making me a better person.

Orwell wrote in Animal Farm; "All that year the animals worked like slaves. But they were happy in their work; they grudged no effort or sacrifice, well aware that everything they did was for the benefit of themselves and those of their kind who would come after them, and not for a pack of idle, thieving human beings."

Are you dreaming big and inspired?

A la prochaine

SDM