Co-worker Was Shunned In Her Workplace For Not Believing In The Self-Help Book ‘The Secret’, But Now She Doesn’t Have To Clean Up After Coworkers
For every fan of a motivational book or speaker, there’s someone who isn’t.
Everyone is different. But what happens when the majority feels strongly about their inspiration?
This Reddit post below shows exactly what happens when a popular book takes hold of the workplace, and one worker’s opinion affects their job.
Let’s see what happens.
When “The Secret” backfires.
Around 2008 I was a radiology assistant in a mammography unit — meaning I was the person who ushered in patients, showed them where to put their belongings, gives them the gown and instructions.
Another part of my job was keeping the radiology station clean and tidy so that work surfaces were clear and sanitary.
Around this same time The Secret was huge and my co-workers were all WAY into it. For those who don’t know, it is a ridiculous pseudoscientific method pushed by Oprah Winfrey that promised you can get whatever you want simply by visualizing and asking the universe for it.
Ok, so like a dream board but in your mind, got it.
The ugly side of this fairytale thinking is that if bad things happen to you, it’s your fault because you invited it by putting bad energy out into the universe.
Yeah, dream boards don’t really tackle this side of things…
I found it wildly inappropriate that healthcare professionals believed that breast cancer victims had caused their own cancers through negative thinking.
I fought with a few of the radiology techs about it, but I was completely outnumbered, so I tried to just keep my head down, focus on patients, and do my job (which included tidying up their O magazines, Secret books and other Secret-related materials that they would leave strewn all over the counters).
Since they all hated me for not being in their Secret clique, they decided to hang up on me and go to the managers with complaints about my attitude.
Of course, the managers are brought into it. But are the managers Secret fans?
I was called out of work into a disciplinary ambush meeting where I explain my side of things. One of the higher-up managers totally agreed with me and actually defended me.
But at the conclusion of the meeting, I was told not to touch anyone else’s stuff because there were complaints that I was “shoving magazines into the corners” and threw away someone’s copy of The Secret (I really wish I had, but I actually did not do that — it was a complete lie).
Right, like — why throw it out when you could turn a buck!
So by complaining about me, my idiotic co-workers effectively took away the part of my job which was cleaning up after them.
I was no longer allowed to touch their magazines, so they piled up two inches deep on every surface, plus empty bottles and yogurt containers, used napkins, cafeteria trays, popcorn detritus, and all sorts of other trash.
The work station looked like a landfill.
Gross. How do people not pick up their own trash?
They would be absolutely seething about it and glaring at me, but I would sit there reading, happily doing absolutely nothing about it since I wasn’t allowed to touch their stuff!
Sounds like this person’s job got a lot easier.
Let’s see what Reddit had to say about this workplace fiasco.
Some users thought that the manifestations exercises did work — even if it wasn’t positive.
Another user had advice on how to remedy the situation.
Redditors were also wary of the blame this thinking can cause.
And a hospital professional weighed in, saying this line of thinking isn’t unusual, sadly.
These coworkers have taken their inspiration too far. Thankfully, it seems like justice has been served.
This group would’ve been more productive had they been actively working toward their goals rather than punishing their coworker for their opinion.
Sign up to get our BEST stories of the week straight to your inbox.
Sign up to get our BEST stories of the week straight to your inbox.
