My answer to the question prompt for June 8 2025 is:
Humiliation is not something that can be joked about.
I was a volunteer in an institution. The staff viewed me as a threat, a potential employee, who could be replacing one of them comfortably entrenched in their pigeon-hole. The supervisor thought I was in over my head and challenging her position as I held a higher paper qualification.
Can you guess what she did?
She staged an intervention, to stop me in my tracks, so that I would withdraw myself from her work place. Later, another two staff from the same department, also staged counter-supportive dramas. Their messages were clear. Even the manager in charge of the volunteers also staged her own type of put-downs.
Simultaneously, the staff talked to me about continuing to volunteer for free, in activities for the clients of the institution. I was still reeling from all the humiliations. My main concern was that I couldn’t work for free. I had to pay my transport and lunch. At home, I had to pay for my living expenses. The manager said I should find a job, then come in on weekends to volunteer.
I understood the whole point of their staged dramas. It was to humiliate me, shave off my confidence and self-esteem, and make me think I’m so lousy that I should offer my time for free.
I didn’t feel well being there. At the end of two and a half weeks, I stopped going there.
I took some time to heal.
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