On Appreciation

One of my friends laid down some wisdom recently, which they allowed me to post anonymously here with instructions that it was to be illustrated with a picture of ants. I hope it reverberates with you, as it did with me. We don’t talk about the slow fade of being ignored, being unappreciated. This is a glimpse of what you see behind you if you are fortunate enough to find something better.

Being appreciated is the opposite of being taken advantage of, which still involves doing good work, but someone else benefits without being willing to acknowledge they’re benefiting from your skills.

But in hindsight those are doomed relationships because it would kill him to acknowledge that — massive ego blow, his professional success rides on someone he doesn’t respect or understand doing important work he’s not capable of doing, and if he had to admit that to himself, his head would explode, so he never can — you can never fix this; at best you can hope to survive it and leave scent markers for the other worker ants to know to avoid the poison.