Rank

"You look very nice, very professional.  I don't look half as professional as you".

Over heard conversation in the corridor between two lovely colleagues.  The speaker is a Psychiatrist greeting one of our admin clerks.  The admin clerk laughs sweetly in reply and says nothing.

I muse that this conversation can only be understood in the context of rank.  It would not work the other way round.  People with rank naturally find the difference in rank difficult to persevere.

I have made this error on a number of occasions.

My worst offence comes from trying to get it right so hard I make the error ten times worse.

A social work magazine got in touch with my project and requested an article.  The unique aspect of our project was that a number of services were working collaboratively together.  I volunteered an article about joint work with a family support worker and a Somali refugee family.  I told my colleague that I was going to publish the great work we had done.  When the article was published I sent her a copy.  She was shocked and offended about what the journalist had written.  She asked her manager to see me.  I realised that I had 'cut corners', and not fully involved her in the article.  I had assumed we were of equal or equivalent rank.  How wrong I was.  In truth probably the article could not be written.  My colleague was offended by referred to by only her surname.  Although I had tried to honour her, I had actually made her feel exposed and vulnerable.  I have used my status to assume I could describe the work without her specific consent (which she is unlikely to have given.)

I learnt a lot about the inevitability of rank, and how I can't just wish it away.