We All Have Our Limits - "Miss Otis" really regrets. . .

I don't think I would take a page from this during such bleak economic times, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do. . .if the letter below is true. . .this gal has chutzpa! Check out this letter allegedly written by a former Bingham legal secretary in New York.


Before I go on, I need to say that I have enjoyed and mostly still enjoy working at Bingham. Through some early rough patches, and over mergers, there were times when I did not think I would stay. What has kept me from straying? You may say DUH, the economy - well that's now. Let me digress for a moment. I am a fierce believer in competence, loyalty, integrity and values, truly to a fault. I have been told that I hold people to such high standards that I cannot handle it when they fall from grace (hey, it's hard to be me). Why am I telling you this? It relates directly to why I have remained with Bingham for so long. The quality of the majority of Bingham's people. CHARACTER.

So why had I been asking myself lately if I am the "non-Stepford employee"? Admittedly, I am not a natural conformist (maybe it's the "Sag" in me). Perhaps, my time out on leave shielded me from this defensive personal change, or maybe (which would be typical of me) I had taken a SPE day when the alien pods arrived and snatched bodies. I then became completely disturbed by this entire notion. Our category, the mid to upper-middle class, and the up, up and upper class who are still employed must be cataleptic. Otherwise, we would merely be shallow, self centered and slightly morally twisted.

I was not alive during some of humanities more troubled times, plagues, WWI, WWII, including the Holocaust or The Great Depression. What little I do know about these times has been from documentaries or stories told from elders who gathered for card games on cardboard boxes by candlelight. Stories that echoed the character of the people of those times. There was no pretense of the "greater good" but the actual desire. People were grateful for clean water and to break a simple loaf of bread.
Now in "these" trying times we whisper our fears while sitting over our three dollar lattes, on our high-speed computers, yapping on our cell phones and blackberries, watching hours of garbage television and reality shows, playing video games and exercising with our Wii, and feel sorry for ourselves because we eat sushi one less time per week.

Laboring coal workers and factory line workers in small towns rightfully "fear" the loss of their jobs. We are fortunate to have superior upper tier management and a stable company (and health benefits). Although what we do is of importance, in most cases and with only a few exceptions, please let us not take ourselves so seriously as to think that we are boldly impacting the greater good and positive evolution of the human race or the planet.


So, although I am grateful for my job and middle class life, I realize that living daily in fear and conforming to play a Stepford role will not ensure either. Besides, I value and respect too many of the people at Bingham. I'll stick with good old CHARACTER.