Enough is Enough. I Say Who I Am. Screw Your Molds and Your Proprietary Behavior - A Much Needed Wake Up Call

You read that right.  I'm done bowing down to social norms.  I have been second-guessed and told that I need to be more 'respectful. more caring'.  I need to learn how to work in a civilian workplace.  I need to learn tact.  And so on and so on and so on...Every turn I have taken in my professional life since I have gotten home, I have discovered that morality, ethics, and merit don't have any place here.  I have been told I am too rigid, too uncompromising.  I have been put down, knocked down, condescended, treated poorly in every situation I have tried to stand up and do what's right.  I have been made to see myself as the weird/broken one who has my priorities skewed.

This is exactly what's wrong with this country.  The people who fuck up, move up.  The people who don't have the courage to stand up and do the right thing keep their job.  What happened to honor?  Integrity?  Courage? Loyalty? Duty?  Are these traits only instilled in the military nowadays?  Every place I look all I see is people wondering how they can get over on others.

Let's recap:  I stand up for what's right, for what I believe in and I get stomped all over.  A prime example is when I was working in the Middle East as a contractor.  One of the guys was I worked with was too lazy to clean the dirt from the equipment.  In stead he showed me the 'easy' way and took black spray paint and painted over the dirt.  When I reported this to my immediate supervisor, he did nothing.  I was forced to report it to the boss back in the states.  He did nothing.  He said it was my word against the other employee's and never bothered to look into it.  When nothing was done, I was put in an untenable situation.  My PTSD flared up something fierce and I resigned my position.  I felt I was powerless at the time to do anything about it.  No one was willing to step forward and do the right thing.  They were too concerned with covering their own asses that they refused to step forward and take responsibility.

In every job I have had since I got home from Iraq, I have ended up in a situation where I have been confronted by the disparity between my ethics and integrity and the lack thereof on the parts of the people or companies I have worked for.  It has forced me to recognize that there is no place for me in Corruptorate America.  I don't want to be someone else's manager.  I won't modify who I am and what I stand for just to squeeze myself into someone else's mold for the 'perfect yesman'.

It's been ten years that I have tried to do things 'their' way.  Now it's time that everyone learn to do things the right way, with honor and integrity.  I served my country to protect an ideal that is obviously dead.  Well, I may just be one man, but I will fight for its resurrection, come hell or or high water.  People here take what we have for granted and I have had my reputation, identity, and confidence stripped from me at every turn.  Even my family sees what I am going through now as just another disappointing turn for the worse.  They can't bring themselves to trust my judgement and support my belief in what is right. They see my unwillingness to compromise my beliefs and my integrity as foolhardy -  that I should be the one to learn to fit in.

It tears me apart to see even my family so broken.  PPL Corporation rode my dad for over 25 years.  He got merit pay raise after merit pay raise after merit pay raise.  When the economy tanked in 2008, PPL looked for ways to save a buck.  My father's reward for all of those years of exemplary performance at work was to be ignominiously shown the door just a few years from retirement because HE HAD FUCKING EARNED HIS HIGH SALARY THROUGH MERIT, DILIGENCE, AND HARD WORK.

 Now, for those of you who are seasoned readers of my blog, you will recognize that I normally have a more subtle way with words.  Well, the time for subtlety is over.  I will fight for what I deserve and for what I know is right.  I will show every Doubting Thomas out there that doing the right thing is something worthy of respect, something worth looking up to.

Yes, this blog is about my struggles with PTSD.  I am also going to use it to speak out against all of the things that make it difficult for veterans with PTSD to live in peace when they return home.  Part of living in peace is being able to make a living.  As long as corporate ethics and morality continue to be absent from the workplace, this is not possible.  It's high time that people stand up and work together to put an end to a culture of corporate ethical and moral turpitude.

As I said, I'm done with all of this.  If you get between me and my right to make a living, to support my family, to live in health in happiness, I will eviscerate you in this blog.  The gloves are coming off.

I'm giving everyone notice.  If you don't trust my judgement, if you don't believe in me, to Hell with you. I know who I am and what I stand for.  Doing the right thing is never easy.  It's also lonely.  If that's the price I have to pay I'll gladly pay it.

At least I'll be able to look myself in the mirror again and like what I see there.