...And Unnerving Additions

Facebook is an odd thing. 

I have just over three hundred friends on Facebook; I have met all but two of them and can honestly call them friends... some more than others unsurprisingly, and others I sometimes wonder if I would still like them if I spent regular face time with them today, but the past we shared was rosey enough not to have to go there. I make clear on my profile that I am not interested in amassing thousands of contacts rather than having a way of being in touch with some of the people I met in my life. People still send me 'Friend Requests' but I rarely respond.

Another odd thing is when people I have known but would not call "friends" contact me. I do try to consider the time that has passed and how the person might have changed and how important the reason for any fall-out might still be, but I will have a good nose around their profiles before I might accept them... I got a request from a manager of an organisation I worked for last year for four months. I just looked at the request for ages thinking "why?". I did not have a bad relationship with this person, but I don't want to share any of my life or my thoughts with them.

 I find it hard to believe they actually consider me a friend. Does this person want to find out if I am saying anything about the organisation? The job was one of those examples of me accepting a job that claimed to be about change and development but was in an organisation convinced that it was already brilliant at what it does, but had pretended to be interested in change in order to secure funds. There is a programme on UK TV called "The Million Dollar Intern" where young millionaire entrepreneurs spend a couple of days undercover in failing businesses as people seeking work experience before revealing their true identities and offering insights into turning the business around. The business owners always resist the most obvious of suggestions, at least initially, despite accepting that what they have been doing hasn't been working. I'm hardly young, nor a millionaire, but I recognise the frustrations of these 'interns' from my time working in this organisation. I was very disappointed not to have had the opportunity to offer what I know I could have done for this organisation, but not one suggestion was given more than a polite reading until I just did what I was told, accepting duties that were far removed from the job description. I was relieved when the opportunity arose to be able to walk away from it: Thankfully I didn't need the money and was doing it out of pure enthusiasm- at least initially. I did delight in sharing the insights about the organisation and its leading honcho in particular that I'd gleaned from the contacts I'd made with nearly thirty organisations AND from the volunteer staff (tee hee) who all eagerly volunteered similar assessments of the people I was trying to serve, but that I had decided not to share with my masters. I didn't think humans could go that colour and still live.