WHO HAS TIME FOR INJURED PEOPLE?
Two months ago, I wrote a piece called "Rushing and Listening." There, I asserted that the "single-player program for success in American life" creates ingrained cultural impatience. Because not everyone can be successful, there is unforgiving competition for limited resources. That leaves no time to listen to other people. After all, to truly listen to someone, you must suspend your own concerns, focus deeply on the other person's words and consider life from his perspective. For the American success-seeker, that is not an option; there is just not enough time. He has somewhere to be or someone to call. He might listen to another person, of course, but only if it would benefit him in some way. In my previous article, I lamented this because it bespeaks an acute lack of humanity on the "road to success" in America. If we cannot truly listen to others, we will never understand them. And without simple understanding between human beings, there is isolation, frustration, suspicion and emptiness. Yet impatience--and its concomitant burden on listening--prevail in our society. In my estimation, cultural impatience reflects our society's dominant view that "other people" are fungible resources to be exploited, not unique individuals to be respected.
I revisit this topic to consider a specific issue: Listening to injured people. Cultural impatience makes it difficult to listen to other people, even if they are physically and mentally fit. There is no time or energy to waste attempting to understand another person's perspective. Yet if a person is mentally or physically impaired, there is even greater incentive not to listen to them. Even if a fit person tries to listen to an injured person, how can the fit person truly relate to the injured person's predicament? At best, the listener walks away with a superficial understanding about the injured person's circumstances. He says: "Too bad for him. It must be hard." Or: "I can't imagine what he's going through." Then he returns to his everyday affairs: Going to work, paying bills, watching television, visiting family, commuting, eating dinner and doing his best to find some joy in existence. At worst, the listener simply does not care. He says: "Well, thank God it's not me. I need to go back to work." Or: "I'm in such a hurry to get these errands done. Wait--didn't I see some injured guy today? I can't remember anything he said to me. Doesn't matter...my wife is expecting me home, and I have things to do tomorrow." Then he completely forgets the encounter.
What does it take to truly listen to an injured person? I discuss this because I know someone who suffered a devastating accident last year and now suffers from incessant post-traumatic stress. He cannot sleep or rest. Nightmares torture him every night and he wants to commit suicide. He talks about his pain and despair. There is no way I can really feel the same pain he does, nor can I understand what it must be like to go months on end without sleeping at night. I try my best. I want to show him that I am genuinely concerned and that I will do anything I can to help him. Yet even in this I feel helpless. It is emotionally difficult to listen to an injured person in a compassionate way. It burdens the mind. To listen, you must set aside your own daily activities and even your thoughts. You must focus exclusively on another person's thoughts, impressions, words and actions. You must even remember who the person is, and--if you know it--consider his history. It is difficult work. And it is exhausting.
Listening to an injured person alone is difficult. Imagine what it is like to actually be injured.
Yet most people do not put in any work to understand others who have suffered misfortune in life. They either do not have time or they do not have the energy. There are "more important things" to be done. Success-seekers have a distinctly egotistic mental state. Their thoughts are regular and calculated. They follow familiar patterns. They do not deviate far from "the plan." In order to listen, however, one must put aside comfortable, self-centered thoughts to consider matters from an entirely different perspective. Success-seekers cannot do this, even when listening to uninjured people. They can never abandon their mental outlook long enough to comprehend an injured person's predicament. They may be successful, but they do not have enough simple humanity to lay off "the plan" for a few moments.
True, there are contexts in which success-seekers listen to injured people in a professional capacity. When I practiced law, it amazed me to see how little lawyers cared about their injured clients, even though they had listened to their stories with meticulous, technical precision. For a personal injury lawyer, clients become dollar signs with stories to tell. Trial lawyers make their fortunes listening, processing, grooming and retelling the stories of injured people, milking details likely to generate sympathy in unsophisticated jurymen. But this is all show. Lawyers listen to injured people with an ear only for money-making details. They do not listen for humanity's sake; they listen as detached, calculating technicians. There is something morbidly perverse in this; among many other things, it drove me away from personal injury practice. For example, I will never forget a highly successful personal injury lawyer who said: "I spent all that time listening and she didn't even have a fracture, just a sprain. A fucking sprain! Where are all the good clients with fractures? Don't people get permanently injured anymore? Now we're just stuck with these shitty soft tissue cases."
No doubt about it: Lawyers listen to injured people. For all the wrong reasons.
In my heart, I always felt deeply for genuinely injured people. In fact, my basic compassion for them led me to practice as a trial lawyer. I spent hours listening, even when my boss screamed at me for "taking too long with them." They cried when they told me about living with debilitating headaches. They cried when they showed me their scars. And they cried when they told me how violated they felt after someone sexually abused them. I did my best to consider what they said. I did all I could to banish my own thoughts in order to focus on what they were telling me. I knew I could never understand their anguish. But I never listened to them merely to shoehorn their words into a money-making legal formula. That is why I failed as a trial lawyer. I did not "manage my time properly" because I did not rush clients through their stories. Strangely, lawyers constantly listen, but they are also extremely impatient. Put simply, they "rush to listen," get all the information they need to win, then move to the next speaker before repeating the process. But this is not true listening. This is mere self-serving sorcery.
I do my best in life to listen truly. It is a difficult road, but the rewards are worth it. In our hectic society, ruthless self-interest and egotism win the accolades. Winning is everything; how you played the game really does not matter once you have the prize money. The race always hangs in the balance; there is no time to listen to a story that has nothing to do with the race. But even the winners sometimes face hardships in life. They may even suffer injury, knocking them out of the race. They want someone to understand their circumstances and pain when the bad times come. Should it surprise them that "no one has time" for their stories, either? This is the hard, lonely truth about American life: There is no time for humanity when you need it most. Impatience is the pulse of success. It is all well and good to be impatient while mercilessly pursuing success. Yet when misfortune strikes, who will listen to you? Who will have time to care? I think we would all be better if we slowed down a little bit, took some time out and truly listened to each other once in a while. After all, it feels good to know that someone else understands us and cares about us. Listening makes that possible. What a shame that more people do not practice it.
Showing posts with label Workplace Injury. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Workplace Injury. Show all posts
Monday, January 26, 2009
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
POLITICAL PARTIES FOR A CHANGING WORLD
Aggrieved Able-Bodied Americans Against Special Privileges for the Disabled
By : Mr. Martin G. Toyler, Able-Bodied Senior Employment Advocate & Party Theorist
Americans know what it means to work hard. They know what it means to get up before dawn, travel for over an hour, then begin hammering on concrete blocks at a construction site. They also know what it means to grind out 13 hours a day in an office finalizing a key finance presentation. At week’s end, they wipe the sweat from their brow and take home their honest pay. They pay their mortgages. They buy food. And they see their families when they can. This is how America works.
But in these dark days, employers can no longer afford to provide jobs to every American. Recent financial turmoil translates into lower operating budgets, and that means fewer jobs. Employers need to maintain profit levels to stay in business. As much as they would like to provide jobs to as many Americans as possible, they simply do not have the excess cash needed. To be blunt, if employers kept hiring, they would slip into bankruptcy. Sadly, this trend has thrown millions of able-bodied, hard-working Americans into the unemployment lines. Despite these developments, however, Federal and State laws coerce employers to continue employing cripples and geriatric do-nothings in the name of “age and disability equality.” When employers move to downsize these worthless parasites, government bureaus step in to impose fines for “age and disability discrimination.” This is both absurd and unjust. Worse, it insults every able-bodied American who wants to work.
Let us agree on first principles. To work, you must be generally healthy. You must have the physical ability to use your arms, legs, mouth and hands to perform economically worthwhile functions for your employer. If you are paralyzed or limbless, you cannot sew, type or enter data effectively. If you cannot speak, you cannot present daily oral status reports to senior managers. Additionally, if you are blind, retarded, footless or without fingers, you cannot drive a truck to the regional distribution center in St. Louis. Similarly, if you suffer from cystic fibrosis and incessantly cough up disgusting phlegm on your shirt, you cannot effectively render customer service, either in-person or on the phone. If you have an incontinence problem, you cannot consistently file court papers, run up staircases or quickly deliver messages by bicycle. And if you are a senile 85-year old, you will not be able to focus on customers’ complaints concerning their phone service. Nonetheless, Federal law mandates that employers continue to provide jobs to these worthless cripples while able-bodied Americans starve.
Able-bodied Americans deserve jobs because they are more productive than cripples and octogenarians. We, the Aggrieved Able-Bodied Americans Against Special Privileges for the Disabled, believe that it is time to restore reason in American employment. That means we must free employers from pernicious “special interest” laws that force them to hire armless workers. It is time for the government to put employers first, not cripples and confused old women. Without sensible laws favoring employer discretion, our employment dilemma will only worsen. Without laws that permit employers to fire injured workers at will, the job market for able-bodied Americans will shrink even further. For decades, the law has pandered to an economically worthless constituency at employer expense. The law forces property owners to “accommodate” Americans in wheelchairs by building extraordinarily expensive ramps, elevators and automatic doorways. These measures have forced countless businesses into bankruptcy, costing jobs, savings and profits. And for what? So some wheelchair-bound diabetes-ridden amputee can ask about a job in the mail room? This is economic foolishness at its worst. We need to reorder our priorities—and we need to do it soon.
Laws favoring old, disabled and sick Americans discriminate against young, able-bodied and healthy Americans. Young, able-bodied and healthy Americans carry this Nation’s economic burden, yet the law treats them worse than cripples who do nothing for the economy. Able-bodied Americans deserve preferences, not disadvantages. Able-bodied Americans get the job done for less pay. They can be fired when they do not perform their assigned tasks. Yet crippled Americans do not get the job done, cost more, and they cannot be fired when they physically cannot perform their assigned tasks. This is insanity. It is time to stop the war on able-bodied Americans. Able-bodied Americans drive this Nation, yet the law treats them like second-class citizens.
We must level the playing field. No more will we tolerate special advantages for senile amputees, deaf mutes, blind people or people on crutches. If you cannot physically do the job, forget about getting a job. And if you become disabled while on the job, well, too bad. We cannot all be so lucky to find a job, and if you get hurt while working, that was a risk you took. For too long, the law has placed the risk of work-related injury on the employer. This outmoded doctrine hearkens back to the communist workers’ movements of the 19th Century. But we must remember that it is 2008, not 1848. In today’s world, the worker should be grateful for his work, and that means he should bear the risk of any loss that comes from it. Employers have enough to worry about. They do not have the resources to indemnify workers who become ill, lose limbs or die on the job. When we reduce employers’ costs, we create jobs for able-bodied Americans. And when we do that, we invigorate our economy.
We do not have time to pity disabled people. Pity landed us in this mess in the first place. Advocates for the crippled say: “But for the grace of God go I.” They say that bad luck and circumstance can strike us all, and that any one of us may become disabled. They say that workers should not bear the ill effects of their misfortune. To this we respond: “Why shouldn’t they?” What makes it just to make employers pay for an employee’s misfortune? Yes, employers may create workplace risk, but employees are not robots. They have a duty to watch out for themselves. In many cases, employees sustain injury on the job because they were not paying attention. Why should the employer pay for an employee’s own carelessness? That is patently unjust; and it is too expensive. Able-bodied Americans are sick and tired of policies that cost jobs. That is why it is time to stop pandering to one-legged whiners. To injured workers, we say: “If you lose your leg, no job for you.”
America must focus on the citizens who drive the economy. If elected, we promise to restore faith in the able-bodied American worker. We promise to dismantle the legal castle that protects inefficient cripples and geriatric relics. We promise to restore employer discretion. When employers have discretion, they can lower costs. And when employers lower costs, they can hire more able-bodied Americans. We foresee a day when only able-bodied Americans will work. On that day, productivity will rule, not waste. No more will employers squander their capital on dead-weight employees who produce nothing. Our critics call us callous. We say that cruelty has nothing to do with it. In economic questions, there is only one inquiry: Are there more pluses than minuses? Today, pandering to the disabled represents a choking “minus” on employers. By eliminating that minus, we guarantee that the pluses will prevail. And when the pluses prevail, able-bodied Americans can work without fear, enriching the entire Nation.
Let us stand together against cripples, weaklings, amputees and tired Alzheimer’s sufferers. Let us proclaim with one voice: “You will not take our jobs!” In the new day of American employment, performance will reign, not pity. We can afford no other course.
By : Mr. Martin G. Toyler, Able-Bodied Senior Employment Advocate & Party Theorist
Americans know what it means to work hard. They know what it means to get up before dawn, travel for over an hour, then begin hammering on concrete blocks at a construction site. They also know what it means to grind out 13 hours a day in an office finalizing a key finance presentation. At week’s end, they wipe the sweat from their brow and take home their honest pay. They pay their mortgages. They buy food. And they see their families when they can. This is how America works.
But in these dark days, employers can no longer afford to provide jobs to every American. Recent financial turmoil translates into lower operating budgets, and that means fewer jobs. Employers need to maintain profit levels to stay in business. As much as they would like to provide jobs to as many Americans as possible, they simply do not have the excess cash needed. To be blunt, if employers kept hiring, they would slip into bankruptcy. Sadly, this trend has thrown millions of able-bodied, hard-working Americans into the unemployment lines. Despite these developments, however, Federal and State laws coerce employers to continue employing cripples and geriatric do-nothings in the name of “age and disability equality.” When employers move to downsize these worthless parasites, government bureaus step in to impose fines for “age and disability discrimination.” This is both absurd and unjust. Worse, it insults every able-bodied American who wants to work.
Let us agree on first principles. To work, you must be generally healthy. You must have the physical ability to use your arms, legs, mouth and hands to perform economically worthwhile functions for your employer. If you are paralyzed or limbless, you cannot sew, type or enter data effectively. If you cannot speak, you cannot present daily oral status reports to senior managers. Additionally, if you are blind, retarded, footless or without fingers, you cannot drive a truck to the regional distribution center in St. Louis. Similarly, if you suffer from cystic fibrosis and incessantly cough up disgusting phlegm on your shirt, you cannot effectively render customer service, either in-person or on the phone. If you have an incontinence problem, you cannot consistently file court papers, run up staircases or quickly deliver messages by bicycle. And if you are a senile 85-year old, you will not be able to focus on customers’ complaints concerning their phone service. Nonetheless, Federal law mandates that employers continue to provide jobs to these worthless cripples while able-bodied Americans starve.
Able-bodied Americans deserve jobs because they are more productive than cripples and octogenarians. We, the Aggrieved Able-Bodied Americans Against Special Privileges for the Disabled, believe that it is time to restore reason in American employment. That means we must free employers from pernicious “special interest” laws that force them to hire armless workers. It is time for the government to put employers first, not cripples and confused old women. Without sensible laws favoring employer discretion, our employment dilemma will only worsen. Without laws that permit employers to fire injured workers at will, the job market for able-bodied Americans will shrink even further. For decades, the law has pandered to an economically worthless constituency at employer expense. The law forces property owners to “accommodate” Americans in wheelchairs by building extraordinarily expensive ramps, elevators and automatic doorways. These measures have forced countless businesses into bankruptcy, costing jobs, savings and profits. And for what? So some wheelchair-bound diabetes-ridden amputee can ask about a job in the mail room? This is economic foolishness at its worst. We need to reorder our priorities—and we need to do it soon.
Laws favoring old, disabled and sick Americans discriminate against young, able-bodied and healthy Americans. Young, able-bodied and healthy Americans carry this Nation’s economic burden, yet the law treats them worse than cripples who do nothing for the economy. Able-bodied Americans deserve preferences, not disadvantages. Able-bodied Americans get the job done for less pay. They can be fired when they do not perform their assigned tasks. Yet crippled Americans do not get the job done, cost more, and they cannot be fired when they physically cannot perform their assigned tasks. This is insanity. It is time to stop the war on able-bodied Americans. Able-bodied Americans drive this Nation, yet the law treats them like second-class citizens.
We must level the playing field. No more will we tolerate special advantages for senile amputees, deaf mutes, blind people or people on crutches. If you cannot physically do the job, forget about getting a job. And if you become disabled while on the job, well, too bad. We cannot all be so lucky to find a job, and if you get hurt while working, that was a risk you took. For too long, the law has placed the risk of work-related injury on the employer. This outmoded doctrine hearkens back to the communist workers’ movements of the 19th Century. But we must remember that it is 2008, not 1848. In today’s world, the worker should be grateful for his work, and that means he should bear the risk of any loss that comes from it. Employers have enough to worry about. They do not have the resources to indemnify workers who become ill, lose limbs or die on the job. When we reduce employers’ costs, we create jobs for able-bodied Americans. And when we do that, we invigorate our economy.
We do not have time to pity disabled people. Pity landed us in this mess in the first place. Advocates for the crippled say: “But for the grace of God go I.” They say that bad luck and circumstance can strike us all, and that any one of us may become disabled. They say that workers should not bear the ill effects of their misfortune. To this we respond: “Why shouldn’t they?” What makes it just to make employers pay for an employee’s misfortune? Yes, employers may create workplace risk, but employees are not robots. They have a duty to watch out for themselves. In many cases, employees sustain injury on the job because they were not paying attention. Why should the employer pay for an employee’s own carelessness? That is patently unjust; and it is too expensive. Able-bodied Americans are sick and tired of policies that cost jobs. That is why it is time to stop pandering to one-legged whiners. To injured workers, we say: “If you lose your leg, no job for you.”
America must focus on the citizens who drive the economy. If elected, we promise to restore faith in the able-bodied American worker. We promise to dismantle the legal castle that protects inefficient cripples and geriatric relics. We promise to restore employer discretion. When employers have discretion, they can lower costs. And when employers lower costs, they can hire more able-bodied Americans. We foresee a day when only able-bodied Americans will work. On that day, productivity will rule, not waste. No more will employers squander their capital on dead-weight employees who produce nothing. Our critics call us callous. We say that cruelty has nothing to do with it. In economic questions, there is only one inquiry: Are there more pluses than minuses? Today, pandering to the disabled represents a choking “minus” on employers. By eliminating that minus, we guarantee that the pluses will prevail. And when the pluses prevail, able-bodied Americans can work without fear, enriching the entire Nation.
Let us stand together against cripples, weaklings, amputees and tired Alzheimer’s sufferers. Let us proclaim with one voice: “You will not take our jobs!” In the new day of American employment, performance will reign, not pity. We can afford no other course.
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