the mask
There was a time in one of my previous jobs that I was walking into the office with a mask on every morning.
The corporate culture that I once thrived in had gotten so hostile that it was impossible to survive without a mask, you know what I mean.
Well, that’s not entirely true. I could’ve left my mask at the door but then I’d have been such easy prey for the backstabbers and scheming instigators.
My mask transformed me into this tough cookie with ninja moves who fought back quietly and steathily in self-defence. Never quite the person to take the offensive, I was almost always at the mercy of those clawing their way up the corporate ladder.
I wouldn’t say it had always been easy for me, being a woman, to manage a motley crue of men in the kind of stormy corporate climate we had. But I have a few good men who still swear that I was the best boss they ever had.
It was only with these few guys that I could put away my mask for a little while because I knew they valued my struggles and my support. I fought for them as hard as I fought for myself.
In the end, the mask got to be a little too much. Day by day, it was transforming me into someone I hardly recognized and liked even less. It was time. The mask had to go. I just couldn’t wait to be me again.
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Yes, masks imposed by external situations can prove tiring. Glad you got to abandon yours!
I can entirely relate to this, work is the only place where I feel I have to wear a mask. Anywhere else, though people may not see the complete me, they certainly get bits of the real me.
I, too, am glad you got to shed the mask.