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wait to hear your story,” came back Leo to Collin.

      Donna then continued with her presentation. “I had only a semi-awareness of the social and psychological forces that influenced my life in its younger years. By younger I mean in this instance right up to the age of twenty one or twenty two; around that age, as well as I can place it now. I think I was in the realm of the majority in that regard. I find that most people do not really understand such things, even at a much older age. Some never do. Yet they get through life in various ways, depending on their personal makeup and other circumstances.

      “Referring again to me personally, in retrospect this semi-awareness wasn’t sufficient for me to learn to maneuver my way through life. I just pressed on with perseverance, patience and firmness. I would say, I developed a high degree of stability, a stability that stood, regardless of the circumstances. I took what came, high marks or low, acceptance or rejection, affection or scolding, fair treatment or unfair, all in silent forbearance, always pressing on to do my best, regardless of circumstances. Needless to say, the burden of this influenced my life greatly, both favorably and adversely; favorably in that I became hardened considerably, with regard to my sensitivity to criticism or unfriendliness. I developed, and rightly so, I would say, a sense of confidence in my own character, and felt that generally I was a good, pleasant, and likeable person. I was well liked by the right kind of people, and this helped to somewhat offset the effects of the others.

      “These others, however, did affect my mind-set and consequently my career. Even though I graduated from high school with very good grades, I had not the slightest inclination to go on to university. When I look back at that, I can now see that I was unconsciously steered away from it by the unpleasantness of academic life caused by the obnoxious characters, both teachers and students. It was a case of the obnoxious minority overshadowing a majority composed of both friendly and neutral people. For survival purposes I handled the circumstances of the time by becoming hardened. But I coped with the future in advance, by saying to myself, why go through more of this, when it doesn’t mean that much to me. As I look back now, that was my semi-conscious reaction at the time.”

      “There was also another factor that had an equal influence on my steering away from a university education. It was family circumstances at the time. Up to a year before I graduated from high school, my father had been a car sales manager in an auto dealership. Then in the year previous to my graduation, the owner of the dealership retired from business. My father bought him out and became the new owner. It was a crucial time for my family, and although some financial help would have been forthcoming for me to continue my education, and in addition I could have earned some myself, I turned it down. I felt it would be an extra burden on my family, not only financially but in other ways as well. ‘Why put my family through all this?’ I thought, ‘just for me to have to take more of the basically unpleasant life I had through my school days.”

      “Collin spoke. “Donna, may I for a moment, change the emphasis of the conversation from the influence circumstances had on your mindset, to the circumstances themselves in your final two years of school?”

      “Well, yes,” Donna replied, questioningly, just what do you have in mind?”

      Collin continued, “I have in mind the fact that in the year before you graduated from high school, your father became the owner of a car dealership in your home town. What I am curious to know is just what change of attitude took place towards you by teachers and students because of your father’s change in business status from employee to owner.”

      “To my friends and friendly acquaintances, it made very little difference, Collin,” replied Donna. “They were generally happy at my father’s success, and thought it was just great. For the neutral ones it didn’t seem to make much difference either. But for the obnoxious ones it did make a great deal of difference. They had been nasty to me before, but now more so. But most notable of all, now as I look back, was the change in their motivation for being that way towards me. It was a change, and yet in a sense it was the same, basically at least. What it amounted to was that when my father was just a very successful salesman, I was snubbed for trying to be a big shot. When my father became the owner, I was snubbed for being a big shot.”

      “You were being discriminated against because of your father’s success?” queried Collin.

      “Yes, oh yes, that’s it,” replied Donna.

      Collin questioned and pried further. Her father’s success was only one factor. There was that other affecting element too. He would like to bring it out to increase Donna’s awareness. “Donna, were you not also discriminated against because of what you were yourself? You were and are what we are calling a fine person.”

      “Yes,” replied Donna. “I wasn’t aware of that at the time, but when I reflect back, I can now see that it was so. There were some other ‘big shot’s’ children around who were not picked on. But when my father became owner of the car dealership, that seemed to give them all the more license - they could now more openly pick on me because I was ‘a big shot’s daughter,’ so they inferred with their side-swipes and innuendo.

      Collin led Donna back on course again in the telling of her story. “So you abandoned the way of the academic life for the business world, did you Donna?” he asked.

      “Yes,” Donna replied, “I prepared myself to be a stenographer and went to work eventually in the offices of a large manufacturing company.”

      Collin smiled at her sympathetically, “was it any better there for you, Donna?” he asked.

      Donna shook her head as she returned the smile. “Not really,” she replied, “not for me.” The place where I worked was known as a reputable company. My experience there was quite different in essence than I had in high school, but no Collin, it wasn’t any better for me,” she said with an emphasis on the ‘me’ at the end of her sentence.

      Dr. Eldren came in with a suggestion. “Perhaps Donna, you could tell us in detail something of your experience in office work that would be helpful to furthering the understanding of the group members. That could be the main thrust of your contribution, if you wish.”

      “All right, Dr. Eldren,” Donna replied. “I will try.”

      So Donna resumed her story, now in the sphere of her career in office work. “I went to work as a clerk-typist,” she said, “and as usual when a person is new in a place, you neither know people nor are known by them. Apart from the feeling one gets from being eyed by other people who are trying to figure you out, you are in a kind of pleasant vacuum where you haven’t yet come into close association with anybody. There are people all around you, and in the course of their synchronizing their work with yours and showing you how the system operates, there is an all around almost perfunctory friendliness.

      “Only as time goes by does this preliminary friendliness become enhanced or marred as people figure you out in their own way and either accept or reject you to varying degrees on the basis of their speculative opinion of you. So for approximately my first three months with the corporation I had no unpleasant experiences to speak of. During that time I learned my job well, did very well with my work, and was gradually given more responsibility. At the end of the first three months I was given a substantial increase in salary on the merit of my work.

      “However, one cannot be involved for a prolonged period in any organization without being eventually caught up in its social joys and trials. As time passes you find out who are your friends and who are not.”

      Collin asked, “Donna, do you not find that out as you do your work better and better and perhaps get a promotion or raise in salary?”

      “You sure do, Collin,” Donna replied, “but I was fortunate in my first year in that I was in a department where the supervisor appreciated good work, punctuality, and decorum.”

      “Don’t all supervisors appreciate these qualities, Donna?” asked Albin.

      “Many supervisors do not appreciate decorum at all, Albin, and often these same supervisors appreciate good work and punctuality only to a degree. I am

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