Hypocrisy

At one of the places I do a contract there is a program offered that helps children in schools to learn empathy (I've writtten about it before). Whenever the program is talked about there are glowing reports of how children who have been through the program will stand up to bullies and defend children who are picked on.

A couple of days ago, after a lot of struggling, I spoke up for a co-worker that I felt was being marginalized. I was told that while my concern was understandable, it was not my issue, and that the decision not to include her in a process was the correct one as she was a casual person, not a civil servant. The ultimate irony is that the process she was excluded from was one meant to form an emotionally/socially healthier workplace.

We hate it when our children exclude based on someone's skin color, eyeglasses or body weight. But it's okay to exclude based on arbitrary labels of job status. Our children should challenge their systems, but we won't challenge ours.