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Thu 20 Mar, 2008 11:01 am
Have you ever kept anything that was either a reminder of something negative or perhaps a bad report card or review? Why do you keep these reminders?
I have one that I cannot throw away. Before I began to work where I am currently, I received a horrible review. I had never received a bad review on a job ever. I might have had some that were average and some that were very good or excellent, but I never received a review that pretty much said I was failing or doing poorly. I keep it now more for laughs and to reflect how much better off I am now. It was also a report that was full of falsehoods. Policies had changed in my company and they had to rate a percentage of individuals as poor and because of employees being hired in the past year and a few on leave at my level, I was the scapegoat. My boss agreed that I did not deserve the rating, but he had no backbone to fight it.
If I ever receive neg stuff, I march right over to the shredder and dump it.
Why keep it?
I kept a job rejection letter for almost 15 years. It was from an art gallery that still exists. The rejection was so condescending and snobby that I thought the person writing it must have been on drugs or going through a bad divorce. At the time it was painful (I was 22), but later I saw an absurd humor in it. I finally threw it out during a house cleaning purge, but I still remember a few of the more nasty phrases.
I don't keep anything (birthday cards, Christmas cards, even old photos) so I would certainly never keep anything negative. Read it, absorb it, learn something from it, if you can, then throw it out!
I keep some positive things, but who has room to keep everything?