Politics

I'm not talking about national government politics.

I'm talking about daily politics. I'm talking about those politics that I see day to day, with my own eyes. I hope you'll excuse me if you find that the issue isn't general enough or related to a broad range of people, because this is about my social network.

This is the gossip politics, as i would call it; rumors and gossip being implemented into an existing working system that it affects the day to day running of the organization.

Once in a while, I would hear a collegue, a friend, or an acquaintance speaking thus and thus about another person. More often than not, the matter being said is negative. And more often than not, the matter is downright.... wrong. And I'm telling you this because I am a curious person, and whenever I can I try, without being too much a busybody, to hear both sides of the tale. Of course I have to deduce which parts of the tale is acceptable and which part is exxageration using my own logic and observation. This is the gossip part.

Why this happens, I can not say for sure. But we all have been brought up differently and we all see things in our own way to be sure, with some differences on how we view similiar matters. As an example, if some one questions about my religion, others might say its intruding or rude; I say the person is just being inquisitive. It's because I chose and was largely living among people who are open minded enough to be questioned, while others might live in a state of total unquestioning obedience towards the tenets of faith.

Thus, similiarly, we perceive the actions and ethics of people at work differently. A friend of mine is said to be one who easily complaints too much. The friend is unsatisfied with how he/she is being treated and demands for more. Or the person in question is making noise over some issues he/she is experiencing. I can see why others would label him/her as annoying, and have negative view on the person. But mostly these views are 2nd or 3rd hand information being passed down several tiers through other people. When I talked to the person in question, I can finally see the logic behind the persons actions. Of course, thats that person's point of view.

But in at least a few cases, I did my own observation and studies, and I find out the person was on the level, and that the general society is the one who got most, not all, of the facts wrong. People say he/she is bad, I found out he/she is an interesting person in their own right.

All that is still within the realm of acceptable interactions because personal opinion is for you yourself to decide. Others should not decide for you.

What ticks me off is when these personal opinions affect official matters and procedures. A person is looking for an opportunity of advancement for example, is turned down because the back talk among the other people is that he/she is a bitch/bastard? That's just wrong. And of course that's the clear cut example. Reality isn't always so clear. Back talk can sometimes affect our perception, for example, that by the time you actually had to judge the persons character yourself, you'd be so easily inclined to take anything that might support the theory. Suppose someone is accused of whining too much, and you try to be objective, but having been bombarded by these rumors and gossip, all it needs to convince you that a person is whiny is just the few, maybe just one or two, complaints coming out of the person. Or better yet, every complaint is taken as supporting evidence to the theory but every positive redeeming aspect easily cast way without much thought.

Then you ruin that person's chances and opportunity by denying him/her completely. We close off every legal and professional option within our power to them. Then we go off explaining why we did it, and said we remained objective.

I know for example a person who condemned another quite often, saying the other mistreated her because the other misunderstoof her and such, and this person was telling it to a lot of other people about the matter. I talked to the other person later on, and found out that the former was the one who misunderstood. Suffice to say, the latter had no misgivings to the former, and that the former just assumed the latter had, thus created his/her own misgivings towards the latter, claiming the latter misunderstood them.

I know I myself am guilty of all this in the past.

But there were times, when I labelled off these people but God was kind enough to let me know them personally later on in life, and I found for the most part, they were great people. There was a girl I knew in class, people called her a bitch and an attention seeker. I found out she was a friendly, kind and engaging person who is ever willing to cheer you up. Suffice to say, I still talk to her occassionally but have not said a word to those people who gave her a bad label.

I can't ask everyone to give anyone a chance, that's for you yourself to decide. But I would like to encourage that as soon as you think you had someone figured out... think again.