hmm. had an actual conversation with nightmare coworker today that seemed mutually productive. she apologized for saying some bullshit that hurt my feelings and i clarified that my intentions are to help not to undermine her, and we both agreed that there's no competition against each other and that it's the lack of growth in our role that's the problem. it was...productive.
and further cementing for me that it is time to begin making my Exit. i will be sending out my resume to a few places this weekend.
i'm still processing the conversation, and am struggling to place myself in where i am responsible to better my behavior. because i genuinely don't want to be an ass, even though i really don't like this lady and will jump for joy the day i never have to see her again. she stated that she knows my intentions aren't to hurt her, and that she thinks i'm very kind. i apologized for if my behavior came off as undermining her, and said that my intentions are only to better my own growth—and that i know she's trying to succeed too. i validated her feelings, and complemented the effort she is putting in.
where i'm struggling with is: am i in the wrong/causing harm and needing to change if the issue is that her feelings are incongruent with what she knows of my intentions? her feelings are her responsibility (WOW i almost typed "her feelings are my responsibility". i feel like that's a freudian slip) and she states that she knows i don't mean to hurt her. i'm going to try to be more clear in wording my intentions with her (she feels like me trying to take work off her plate is to undermine her. when really, i'm caught up and see her getting overwhelmed, and i want to help and also have something to do since i'm bored).
but i'm really struggling to look at my role in this and pass judgement on myself. i can and want to do better, and i don't think i did anything wrong, but i'm always so hesitant to say it's not my fault or i didn't do something bad. like i can't trust my judgement on that. my intentions were good, her bad feelings are ones caused by her insecurities, which she more or less has expressed to be aware that they are not true—the hurtful thing she said to me, she acknowledged was said out of hurt and not what she actually thinks. so, is it fair to say i'm not the bad guy? i'm not in the wrong? i know good intentions that still result in harm don't absolve anyone, but when the things that are clashing are insufficient communication and reactive insecurities... i'm not a monster, am i?
2 notes
·
View notes
you mentioned how hlvrai is an interesting form of storytelling and i think thats part of why it got big- same with taz and other dnd podcasts- people like the authenticity of it. theres no big writers rooms working to make it "perfect." its all very in the moment. the actors arent actors- theyre not reading off a script. everyone whose playing a part are equally a part of the storytelling process. everyone is making the script up in the moment, and things happen either to immediately make their friends laugh or make their friends go 'holy shit thats awesome' or (my personal favorite) to give their friends the opportunity to do something cool!
its an honest form of storytelling that we're kinda losing with the way media is so sanitized and washed out and forced to be marketable. like, i struggle explaining hlvrai or dnd podcasts to my friends when they ask what kind of content i watch, because theres really no comparison to it (unless they also engage with that type of content). its like people sitting around a campfire telling stories, just to pass the time and engage in creativity. and i think thats why people like them, theyre just fun and real.
i got a little rambley but overall: i think hlvrai and these types of media are popular because theyre honest
i think there's truth to this, yeah!!! :) there's a lot to be said for stories where the storytellers are present/visible, esp when they're all close-- it's like being invited into their warm, fun little friend group for a little bit, even if it's just to observe. it's a kind of antithesis to the wave of polished and soulless media that has become more and more of the stuff out there in the past ten years (spotless set design, everyone is beautiful and no one is horny, reliance on the Save the Cat method, i don't have enough links to sketch this whole thing out but yes: the number one word is marketability). these are lonely times; stories told by real people in real-time are a breath of fresh air, especially when there's the doubled wild cards of 1. wtf are my friends going to pull out of their asses next and how do i keep this balloon-story in the air oh god and 2. dice-rolling/weird g-mod stuff à la the helicopter heap, etc. it's great fun to see people up against these odds who manage to pull together a semi-cohesive story anyways :)
i don't think we're really losing this kind of story-telling, though it is becoming less visible in a marketability-lowest-common-denominator-blockbuster-content-production kind of way. but you're right that these kinds of practices trace back to telling stories around a fire, or while spinning thread or sharpening flint-- it's deep in our core as human beings. our lives are very different from those of our our ancestors 50k years ago but in the grand scheme of things, we've barely barely changed. we still want those stories. we still want to tell them, too. even as inhuman companies beyond our individual grasps manipulate things far above us, try to distract workers from too-long days at work with stripped-down marketable manipulative garbage, there will always be people making weird, niche art: friend groups who stream goofy improv together, people who write thousands upon thousands of words about their OCs even though only 3 people read it, toby fox in his basement, DnD podcasts with fewer than a fifty listeners, stick figure webcomics updating every day, pre-teens scribbling about sparklewolves in their composition notebooks and shyly sharing a little bit with the other weirdo in their class.
but yeah. especially for those of us who don't necessarily have the energy to create as much as we'd like, story-telling that has the foundations visible, that is honest about what it is and where it's coming from, that has at its core the desire to make one's friends laugh-- it's great! it's fun! it's a good antidote to the big polished crap :)
22 notes
·
View notes