My girlfriend works in an office with about 50 other people. Because of this, she can’t keep anything personal in her cubicle. During her year at the company, she’s had coffee mugs, CDs, even a potted fern swiped off her desk. he same thing happens to her co-workers. This makes her unhappy at the job, but not enough to walk out. Her new way of retaliating against her co-workers is that she’s started taking small items from the office. She brought home some paper clips a few weeks ago, then some construction paper. Last night she actually swiped an electric pencil sharpener that no one was using. I don’t like this new behavior and don’t want to see her work environment turn her into a common thief. She says this is her way of getting back at a company that’s taken so much from her already. My question is, is she creating bad karma with her actions, or just repaying the corporate karma for her lost items? — Stuck with Sticky Fingers
We’re intrigued by the term “corporate karma” — surely a concept that would make many CEOs quiver in their coffers. Unfortunately, karma isn’t something we can take into our own hot little hands. Your girlfriend’s behavior is luring more hardship her way. Grafting a few paper clips is one thing, but her increasingly valuable spoils are only perpetuating the company’s culture of kleptomania.
Karma Cleanser: After several unfulfilling years working in a ruthless industry, I finally reached a breaking point and called it off. I threw my hopes into the wind to see where they would fall. For a brief period I tried the graduate school thing, then traveled some. Once the money ran out I took a menial job that pays a lot less than my previous industry. I’m left with a feeling of no purpose and no direction — a dull and listless sort of anger at myself for giving up what I formerly had for what might have been, but wasn’t. A friend tells me that I’m now repaying for the bad karma I built up in my last profession, but I think her answer oversimplifies the situation. If it is bad karma I’m facing here that’s keeping me from happiness, what do I do about it? — Blue at the Roots
Sadly, the Karma Cleanser can’t read minds, so we have no way of knowing just how ruthless your former vocation was. You, however, know good and well if it’s past sins you’re paying for now. Given your doubt, we’d suggest that this period of searching is the universe’s way of teaching you and toughening you up for future challenges. Be careful, though, not to let the new servitude become as life-draining as your former post. You’re in a seed stage now; be ready for the blossoming.
This article appears in Jan 12-18, 2002.
