life: acoustic & amplified

From The Back of the Room

Here we are
People in a room

Corporate speak
Has named you
‘Super Users’

That’s a big title to live up to
What does it mean?
Basically, it means
You have been given more to do
On top of having too much to do
The title given is all-important
to most people
Struggling to define their value
In the work that they do

I sit in the back and hand out smiles
And make sure you put your names on a sign in sheet
So the company can make sure you have accepted your new duties

I look around at this selected group
All so different and unique
Each face reflecting different emotions
It is so interesting to me
Some make me smile
Some break my heart
I sit and I watch
No one knows who I am
There is no respect for what I am doing at this moment
I have been here for many years
And yet now it is changing
And I feel the wrongness of my role
I think about the lives each of these people live
The families and children
Beyond this room
That matter so much

I met my best friend on a day like this
It changed my life in many ways
I wonder if this day will change any lives
Will connect anyone as best friends
Will make this world a better place
Or this company
Or just one person
Will it be me?

I think about all these things
From the back of the room
Knowing that
I am not in the right business
Or maybe it's not even that..
Maybe I'm just on the wrong side of the room....

AL
March 2011