THE PRESSURE CATARACT

One of the worst bits about work (not just my work) is the bit where you have to put pressure on someone because someone else is putting pressure on you.

You bet the pressure cascades down to them too; it always does. And at the top of that cataract, in echelons out of view from those of us getting drenched down here, there's usually a person who's promised something to someone and doesn't want to look bad. A lot of effort seems to go into the ongoing prevention of higher-ups looking bad.

I'm not at the bottom this time. Usually I'm in the cauldron pool, flapping about, but this time I'm having to keep asking IT to fix something so I can upload something else so that someone up there can see it and then pass it on to someone else, who needs it for a customer... and so on. Pressure down, finished-work up.

The higher up you are, the more often you swap pressure for completed stuff, and presumably the less concerned you are about the amount of pounds-per-square-inch, or maybe messages per square... chat window... you're exerting onto the saps below.

I've tried to do it nicely today. "Any updates?", "Sorry to bother you", "Apologies - me again", but the platitudes are starting to sound hollower with the repeating. It's not even their fault! I know that. They know that. Hey, maybe they even know that I know that, even if they don't know that I know they know that, but it doesn't matter - it's still not their fault.

Eventually, as pressure flows down, resentment makes its way up that waterfall too, as well as the begrudgingly finished work. Managers lose currency with their subordinates, for being 'pushy' or 'overbearing'. It builds up over time, and that's why, though it's not really me, I do feel horrible dishing out pressure.

So, when complete, I decided today to overflow the thanks to IT. I figured it was the least I could do: to be effusive, to be encouraging, and apologetic for the poking I'd been doing all day. It was rewarded with a thumbs up, which is about as good a recognition I could have hoped for. It made me smile. The only mistake I made was that I then subsequently expected the same thank you to flow down to me, when I'd delivered my bit upwards in the cascade.

No such joy. But don't worry - I'm not going to fall into the trap of passing resentment upwards this time. You see, for me, I know that I work for someone Higher, and the only thing that matters is what flows from Him. And I can tell you, it's a lot of things, but it's never pressure.