Dealing With Burrs at Work
Burrs can throw sand in your gears at work. What's a "burr"?
"Burr" has multiple meanings. The relevant one here: "a rough edge or ridge left on an object (especially of metal) by the action of a tool or machine." It's a good definition. But we'll need to expand on it a bit and give it a kind of spiritual overlay.
Our reference to burrs was inspired by a college philosophy professor. He used the term while teaching ethics. Burrs were not big things. As I remember it, they were small but irritating things that become wearing over time. We all had them at times, according to this professor. And dealing with them was a challenge.
If we apply this to the workplace, a burr could be a co-worker who gets on our nerves at times. It could be the way he or she looks, talks, walks, etc. Not a big deal; just irritating.
Or maybe we have a dread of too much detail. Our job requires us to deal with detail, but certain assignments really grate on our nerves. I get a dose of this from time to time in my work. It can drive me bananas.
Here's one that likely applies to us all: technology. I mean when things go awry, especially when they go awry at exactly that point in time when we need the technology to perform as advertised. As a self-employed person, I rely more and more on technology. It takes time to learn new versions of software and hardware. Maintenance is a not inconsiderable expense. At times, technology can seem like an intelligent being that's got my number. It waits until it's needed most and throws me a curve ball.
A small example regarding Zoom, a now ubiquitous bit of technology that's a common appliance in pursuing business these days. You've set up a Zoom meeting. You click on the application a minute before the scheduled meeting time. Zoom begins updating. Not the end of the world, but you've got to contact your Zoom-ee and let them know why you're late for the meeting.
That's tiny compared to the time when my email decided to stop working - completely. No downloading email messages, no writing new emails. Calls to the possible culprits (Apple and my website host service). Each blames the other. Call to my tech support who's not readily available. Hours of time spent on something that typically works like a charm. (Maybe we label this one a Big Burr.)
Back to philosophy professor. He thought burrs were things that could eat away at us, especially when we were trying to live a good life, according to our ethical beliefs. And what made them nefarious was their little size. He posited that the big stuff was in a way easier to deal with. Extreme example: Thou shalt not kill. Unless threatened by someone who's about to kill you, you simply don't kill other people. One hopes that not so hard for most of us.
But someone who annoys you, like the co-worker we mentioned that gets on our nerves, challenges our charity. We believe that we should be charitable to all, even those whom we don't find all that appealing. But this co-worker makes this a major challenge.
When I worked for a big company, we were all in cubicles. The guy next to me sometimes brought lunch that smelled to high heaven. (Never knew what exactly it was.) It got on my nerves. Indeed, this was apparently an issue on our floor. So naturally the company created a "rule" about food that smelled too much. It was verboten. (I forget what penalty accompanied bad-smelling lunch.)
OK. So burrs aren't big trouble. And they're not just an occasional mild annoyance. While small, they're persistent. We might compare them to the proverbial "Chinese water torture": The victim is tied down and subjected to steady drops of water falling on his forehead. Each one isn't much, but over time they say it would drive people mad.
The examples we gave are based on personal experience. Knowing what they are now, you might have identified burrs that have almost driven you mad, or off your spiritual rails. And while our focus here is on our work, you can imagine that burrs can torture us any day, any time, any place.
So with all this in mind, next we'll consider an appropriate antidote to burrs so they don't drive us mad.
We adore Thee O Christ and we bless Thee
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