Interactive Learning: HE in FE

Paper Therapy

Much of what i'm going to write here is about my personal life but bear with me for there is a twist in the tale ... (ha - do you remember Tales of the Unexpected? Now I'm showing my age - haha!).

Today has not felt good. From waking at 5a.m. and not really getting any proper sleep after that, my son squealing like a mini-pig due to a small (miniscule in fact) scrape on his big toe, a colleague letting me down big time, my computer playing up at work ... I go on a little but believe me the little annoyances went beyond the list .... right through to my buyer (house-wise) threatening to gazunder, it has been a bit (?) of a stressy day.

By about 4pm I was fit to throw some plates but having none easily to hand resorted to a mini-whinge at my poor long suffering admin support/PA/factotum. She grinned at me and asked whether I had ever seen her tearing up post-its at her desk - which I have. She said to write the name of the offender/ offensive item on a piece of paper and then tear it apart with venom. Not one to leave matters to chance, I ceased the nearest piece of paper, scrawled my buyer's name across the whole A4 sheet and then went into action with gusto. Oh boy does it work! I felt the stress reduce whilst tearing at his name with rather uncharacteristic levels of aggression ... woooo. The fight or flight syndrome was conquered. Ok so it was temporary, but it did make a difference.

I'm not a one for role snobbery and Flo (not her real name) is as valued a colleague (and friend too) as any of the others on the SMT. She has a fantastic capacity for empathy and calm and a whole raft of these tricks up her sleeve.

What am I trying to say. Well I guess its one of those sanctimonious sounding observations about human variety, skills sets and practices which work together to bring forward the functioning (or even blossoming) community. Flo is at the heart of a wider community and her participation, whilst being the only 'non-academic' is central to the effective functioning of the whole. She has a promotion opportunity next week .............

posted by Jane @ 6:04 pm