I'm Ba-ack!
Don't make folk feel like Window Air Conditioners!
By W. Owen Thornton

Hello everyone.  I have been gone a long, long time.  You would think humankindness was no longer a priority in my life.  Far from it.  I appologize for my absence.  Several technical problems as well being too tied up with my Master's Philosophy degree have prevented me from being here.  But the technical problems are disappearing and the Master's work-load is coming under control, so I'm able to make a quick announcement now, and I'll make a more substantial post in a little bit.  I'm hoping a few days, not a few months.

For now, I'm going to wax philosophical.  My technical terms will be subject and object. A subject is a person ... someone like you or I.  But we CAN also be objects ... that 'person over there with the briefcase and yellow scarf'.  We are both subjects and objects simultaneously.  In the work world we are Kyle or Sierra, doing our job in work carol number 285 and 312.  To our bosses, most of the time we are subjects: Kyle who zones out and gets his work done, or Sierra, who brilliantly presents materials to the staff.  But these gifts we bring to the workplace, these contributions we "subjects" make can be objectified.  Boss's can and do see us as assets to the company.

In regards to human kindness it seems "okay" to consider us to be objects ... a part of a team of people who contribute skills towards our company.  People are business assets.  My concern here is this.  Managers should never objectify people to a person's face.  A subject should never be made to feel like an object (even when we know we 'are' objects).  When you objectify a person, make them appear to be an object instead of a subject, you diminish a person ... you make them a "thing" instead of a person. 

I know someone who had this happen to them recently.  My first goal was to confirm to them that they are still a subject ... that they ARE a person ... not just an asset that can be added into the benefits of the "bottom line".

Subject/object situations can be difficult to handle.  But remember: treat a subject like an object to their face ... and you've dehumanized them.  You've made a person feel like they are no more important than a window air conditioner. 

For the sake of human kindnness ... always treat subjects as subjects.

Toodles

and be kind to one another out there, eh?