Tuesday 17th July; Going Back to Work With Celebrities

So, I went back to work yesterday, after my week long holiday. When you have been away for any length of time you expect things to have happened, news of changes in management, or even who’s been hired and who’s been fired (no, I haven’t suddenly began working for Lord Alan of Sugar) gossip in other words.  But no, for me it was a simple case (as it always is) of get back into the swing of things right off the bat.  There were the usual pleasantries of ‘morning’, in the dourest of tones (that’s Mondays for you), and then crack on with the work. I’m not suggesting that as well as myself, the guys I work with are dull but it could have felt better. I often wonder if I give off a vibe of unsociable acceptance; as in people are accepting of my presence but would rather not talk to me.  True, I am one of those people that, given the chance, I will air my opinion, depending on the topic of conversation, but I’m mostly quiet and unassuming.  I have learned to think before I speak at work because not doing so has caused me to get in to trouble once or twice; a perfect example of this is the time I decided to air my views about the recently deceased Jade Goody.  She had died just a few weeks earlier, after suffering from cancer.  I was not a fan of hers and I was annoyed that she was receiving so much attention. 

I understand that with clever editing TV companies can increase viewing figures of certain programmes; to be fair to Channel 4 no editing was necessary to clearly see she was bullying her fellow Celebrity Big Brother house mate Shilpa Shetty. This was a few years back (before I started writing) but even then I knew I had to write down my frustration; not of the Big Brother incident itself but the silence placed on me by over sensitive and worrisome management. When it came down to it I was highlighting the fact that we put ‘celebrities’ on pedestals, and for mostly the wrong reasons.  They are viewed as either saintly when they die or role models whilst alive. Timing wise, my opining may have been too close to Jade Goody’s death for some but the only reason I was shut down mid-rant was that “you may upset someone in the office who has been affected by cancer”

I was not trying, in any way, to suggest that I didn’t care about the feelings of those that had been affected by cancer; I was merely expressing my opinion that I would not get upset by the death of a so-called ‘celebrity’ So much for freedom of speech!