Thursday, August 26, 2021

Calling All Underdogs!

You know – it’s often said that experience is the greatest teacher.  Well, I am a living testimony that it’s all true! I’ve unfortunately had to endure my fair share of the dog eat dog life on the job – so much so that I have grown intolerant of any kind of underhand attitudes and behaviors from others in my professional life.  Like I seriously have no clue how people actually “fake it to make it”! Is that still a thing?! 

Over the years, I’ve come to realize that I have a certain passion for labor relations. I suppose I shouldn’t be too surprised about that.  You see, as a child growing up in the Caribbean, I often got to attend May Day celebrations with the adults in my life.  Back then, I was more excited about the festive atmosphere to be honest, since I had no real appreciation of what the day truly represented. Now that I’m older, I can boast of being wiser.  Boy did my forefathers sacrifice blood, sweat and tears to improve my lot in life.

Sometimes it’s tempting to think that I endure unique circumstances at work but then I’ll hear about someone else’s experience or catch a disturbing news report of unfair labor practices in some distant and sometimes not too distant parts of the world and I’m reminded that I’m not alone.  I guess I’m not that special.  Who knew!? I'm just another underdog in the pack.  Hold up! Where I come from, being placed in the same category with dogs isn’t really a great thing.  Nonetheless! What’s an underdog you may ask…? Well… an underdog is generally a term associated with sports.  It’s usually a person or group in a competitive arena who is expected to lose.  What I’ve found though is the word UNDERDOG is easily applicable to everyday work life.

While I’m at it, this would be a good time to introduce some of the other terms that I’ll use from time to time ..


To put things in perspective, underdogs are generally appealing, not simply because they beat the odds, but they overcome an INJUSTICE.  In the world of work that would look like things in the workplace being unfairly rigged due to privilege and power (the top dogs, the supervisor’s pet or office mole, news monger, fly on the wall… in short – THE BRINGERS OF NEWS would normally have the upper hand)

What I’ve learned over the years is people frequently underestimate the true abilities of the underdog.

Underdogs are often able to overcome adversity due to strong work ethics and hidden wisdom against the more powerful establishment.  I’m sure you’ve heard of David and Goliath (smaller, weaker opponent faces a much bigger, stronger adversary), Robin Hood (he robbed from the rich and gave to the poor), King Arthur (he carried out brave acts such as rescuing damsels in distress and fought against strange beasts. He also searched for a lost treasure, which he believed would cure all ills - this was the 'Quest for the Holy Grail').

Join me in Dog Eat Dog Chronicles where I’ll share stories with you that you may relate to.  Maybe you won’t.  Either way it’ll give you some insight into employment situations that lots of people around the world suffer through.  Some Psychologists say the first step towards achieving meaningful change is creating awareness of a situation and the second step is acceptance.  Except we the Underdogs are no longer accepting of the dog eat dog life at work.  We're here to say the toxic work status quo must go!


1 comment:

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  Hey Underdogs!  Welcome back to Dog Eat Dog Chronicles, a space for people of all walks of life who are sick and tired of being sick and t...