Corporation in Workshop

No one can do it all alone, and the much needed change in the workplace cannot come unless we are more to demand it.

All the stories included in my book (interviews, getting hired, being fired or resigning) are our stories. You are not alone, we are more!

On the 8^th of October, at 18:30, the Carturesti Modul Bookstore welcomes us with open arms to talk about change. Come and join us while we talk about what demotivates us and what we can do in order to improve things and create healthy work environments.

To get the conversation started, you can watch again the interview I did with Derrick.

Interview about my book ‘Corporation. Typologies and Survival Guide’

This spring, my new book, ‘Corporation. Typologies and Survival Guide’, started the change movement.

Since I received a lot of questions about the book, I asked Derrick if we could film an interview and talk about them. Due to the typologies presented in my new book, people might get the wrong idea, that I think all colleagues, managers, and all environments are toxic. How better to prove otherwise than by having a former colleague interview me?

The interview is in English, but it has Romanian subtitles (when watched on YouTube).

Derrick and I talked about why it is important to talk about the typologies that drain us in the workplace, why we need the change and how we can initiate it so that we can work in a positive work environment, and what were my inspirations when writing it.

I hope you’ll enjoy this interview and do share your thoughts about it!

A Gift

Today, someone said to me something so beautiful that I want to share.

When you're young, do take care of your body because as you get old it will avenge the bad things you did to it.

Alexandru the Rabbit - Ana Barton

Norman recommends ‘Alexandru the Rabbit’

As soon as I received the book, I gently caressed the cover. I had seen before some of the works of Iulia Schiopu while browsing through Facebook, but it’s another thing to see it right under your nose, for there’s something with Mrs. Schiopu’s illustrations that makes one wonder if one looks at the drawings or the drawings look at one.

I gently opened the book and smiled at the author’s dedication because it reminded me of how my children’s story got to exist. My nephew is the one that gave me the idea for the Sugu the squirrel and Hapciu the dog, since squirrel is our conspirical.

Through the ‘Alexandru the Rabbit’, Ana brought me a loss joy because it reminded me of the magical powers we believed we had when we were children (and I don’t think that there ever were children not to believe in their magical powers). We were one with our favourite characters, all things had soul and reason, and communicating with them was complex and fulfilling. We ignored or we did not even care what others believed, since we knew that the connection with anything around us (be it invisible) was strong and real. Culcus, the domestic rabbit, reminded me of that magical connection we used to have and that we could not see differences between us and the animals. Culcus easily renounces its fears and wants to learn how to read, while the boy Alexandru starts to hop and to love the salad, and soon both of them learn valuable things from each other.

But the greatest lesson is learning about their own identity, about who they truly are inside themselves, and this lesson is by far the most beautiful one, whether you’re human or rabbit. 

If you're interested, I've got other books written by Ana Barton that I could recommend you - here and here.

Surprise

The August issue of the cultural magazine Arges arrived with yet another beautiful surprise. Special thanks go to Mrs. Simona Fusaru. 

Oana Ninica – Shaorma with ice-cream

Fall down 7, get up 8! (a line from a movie)

Every one of us fights their own battles. From outside, everything seems easy and we sometimes give ourselves hard times for not being able to deliver some things, make true some plans, just as easy as it seems for others, anyway. We have expectations, realistic or not, and they worn us down or their reflection wear us down when we look at ourselves in the mirror and ask about what we did wrong.

‘Shaworma with ice-cream’, Oana Ninica’s book, starts from there – faced with the reflection, after the fall. In hindsight, if you have courage to look, you can analyse what went wrong and you can choose if you are going to struggle some more or if you will give up. Fear is the embedded character, in all pages of the book. It does not do anything, but it is there, you feel it, you know it, you recognise it from the things that happened to you. Sometimes, you laugh at it and at the ridicule of letting yourself get carried away by it; and other times, fear seams a Colossus that laughs at you and your try to measure your strength with it.

 

‘Fear kills. The opposite of fear is not courage, as most would say. The opposite of fear is only the TRUTH.’

 

And at the end, something sublime.

Vlad lives on!

If it were up to me, Vlad’s books would be studied at school and mentioned in the Romanian language and literature handbooks, and also always be present in the bookstores in the section ‘Bookseller's recommendation’. 

But until then, my dear master still keeps on springing in his impish manner. I randomly ordered some books from an old books store, and the surprise of finding his and his wife’s names filled me with a tender joy. Vlad lives on!