Broken System IV: An Open Letter to the Powers-that-Be

by Anonymous Guest Contributor

To Whom it May Concern,

Hi. You may not know me – at least, not very well. You probably are not familiar with my experience, qualifications, or accomplishments. Which is ironic, to say the least, because I have worked for your organization for many years. What’s more ironic is that – at this point – a large portion of our policies, systems, and even curriculum have been created by me, and all the kids we work for know me by name; and yet – we have likely never even exchanged names or a handshake.

So you wouldn’t know that I’ve been working with youth professionally since I was a youth (over 15 years, to be more precise). That I have over six years of formal classroom teaching experience. That I train and mentor other teachers and youth workers (most importantly – your organization’s staff). That I have coordinated programs and workshops for groups ranging from 10 to 500 youth, covering topics from Identity, Culture, and Diversity to Conflict Resolution. That I have taught art, music, math, psychology, public speaking, English and many other subjects (with curriculum of my own design) to middle school and high school students. That I have been a case manager and family contact and support specialist. That I was managing a middle-school arts after-school program in my early twenties. That mentoring youth is just what I do.

Oh – and that I have dedicated myself to your organization for almost seven years.

All that said, though – you still don’t know me. And so it will be hard for you to know where I’m coming from with what I’m about to say. You don’t know how seriously I take my work, and how I’ve dedicated my life to doing it better. That I am willing to get over myself on any number of levels if it means better serving the youth I work for.

And that I speak to you now out of full respect for who you are and the good intentions I believe we all share.

But you don’t know these things, because you’re not involved at my level (nor I at yours). We do not interact. Your role on the board is not your main priority, as you hold other full-time positions. You just make some decisions from time to time about where the money goes, what programs we should be running, things like that. I get it. You’re not in the thick of it – you’ve got a lot of other things going on – so you just haven’t had the time to meet me, officially. That actually all makes sense to me. It does.

But this is where my problem lies – you have veto power over me and my peers. When it comes to the big decisions, you have final say. And that makes so little sense, it kind of blows my mind.

Again – I say that with full respect, but let’s just think about it a moment: What if I came to your place of work – the businesses and organizations that your expertise have brought to very high, very profitable places – and told you that some decision you were about to make was a bad one?

Most likely, you would laugh me out of your office, asking me who the Hell was I to question your decisions? Had I been running your type of business/agency for over a decade? Did I have a track-record of making tons of money through sound strategic planning? Did I have any experience? And part-time dabbling on the side wouldn’t really count, right?

It would be a joke. A mildly offensive joke. To come in there, thinking that – just because I was smart and capable in my field – I could possibly know better than you in your element.

But can you see where I’m going with this?

This is exactly what you have been doing to me and my peers (whether you realize how direct it is or not) for the past six or seven years (or more). You have over-ridden our decisions for years. Or – worse yet – you have made a million organization-specific decisions (that I haven’t been a part of) without ever questioning your own expertise and the sense in you doing that.

Because I ask you, with all due respect – who are you to be making any of these decisions? Who are you to have the right to fire me – from a job and line of work that I have dedicated myself to, that you have not – over my gall to question you on this matter? Who are you?

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