Robin's first task of the day was a routine session with the Corporation's personal development counselor, following which he was required to study a proposal for a new product marketing strategy, copies of which had been supplied for all Presidents and Senior Vice Presidents.. His input to the lunchtime meeting would be required to reflect the contents of the document. In other words he would, after his counseling session, have ninety minutes to digest the contents of the twenty five page document and come up with a feasible marketing strategy for the UK launch.
The counseling session, a regular occurrence every three months was something Robin did not enjoy. The idea of the sessions was to encourage executives to let out their feelings, to confront any inadequacies they perceived in themselves and, with the help of the counsellor, a quasi-psycho-analyst, to deal with their negativity, throw out that which was dysfunctional in their lives and nurture their self - esteem. If Robin was being honest, he would admit that he used to look forward to the sessions. Two hours of talking about his failings would act as a catharsis, leaving him feeling renewed and energized, empowered to deal with everything in a positive way, able to embrace change and be supportive to those who feared it or felt threatened by it.
The therapy had helped him cope with stress caused by career, personal and relationship issues. Counseling had once enabled him to identify a deep anger he felt was due to mental abuse he had suffered as a child when, unable to live up to his parents expectations he had felt isolated and inadequate. Robin had never realised that the love he had been shown by doting parents was in fact a form of abuse until he had talked it through with the counselor. Their love, the material support they had given him and the enthusiastic response to his meagre achievements had all been ploys to bind him to the controlling influence of their expectations.
The memory made him experience guilt and self - loathing because he had failed them. All that was in the past. Now he had found God the counseling sessions were nothing more than a meaningless journey through the lexicon of self analysis. Why should he want to talk about his spouse (the counselor preferred non gender - specific nouns but he knew his pastor would argue that if 'wife' was good enough for the Biblical wives like Ruth, Naomi and Mary it was good enough for any modern woman.) family or friends being there for him. His best friend, the only friend a man needed, was always there for him. God's love empowered Robin to love and to share his joy in having discovered the goodness of Jesus.
Robin mumbled evasively through the interview, waffling about how his beliefs gave his life equilibrium and helped him deal with his issues. He no longer felt a victim because he understood that everything in his life had made him a stronger person and prepared him to deal with what was to come. The counselor made a note that people who took refuge in religious faith were often covering signs of dysfunction by shifting the blame for their lack of self esteem onto a subliminal third party. Instead of saying 'I must face my problems and by working through them, improve myself' they were saying 'I am the way God made me and to change myself is to defy his will. My failure is not my fault.' Robin Jonson would need more counseling. A lot more counseling.
Robin left the session confident of having persuaded the therapist that those who were counseled by God had no need of human psychotherapists. Affirmation of his faith had, as usual, made him feel invincible. The counselor decided on recommending a course of personal intensive therapy at a hundred pounds an hour for Robin and congratulated himself of a good day's work.
New Olympus Pharmecutical Corporation had pioneered Personal Development Counseling in the corporate environment. The therapy industry was an wonderful concept, if therapy could be translated into mechanics it would be a perpetual motion engine, constantly fuelling itself. Like science, therapy creates a new problem for every problem it solves.
Corporations like New Olympus loved therapy just as they hated the social communities that divorced people from their corporations. If people were held within the embrace of the corporation, identified themselves with it, belonged to it and depended on it they would serve it well. So by promoting the culture of inadequacy and the isolation of the individual in an increasingly hostile society a corporation would gain a relationship with its staff similar to that of the all powerful medieval priests of Christianity and Islam.
Successive Presidents and CEO s of every corporation like to stamp their mark on the fiefdom and the incumbent at New Olympus was no exception. Soon after his appointment he had toyed with the idea of introducing a corporate uniform. There had been meetings with image consultants and designers, discussion papers had been drafted, consultative documents circulated and large quantities of paper wasted. No official uniform was ever adopted to attract the ridicule of liberals or the invective of freethinkers.
So anxious were the staff of New Olympus to conform that within months all administrative and management staff had adopted an unofficial dress code that became the de facto uniform. Everybody wore dark suits with white shirts or blouses. The men might have a contrasting self coloured necktie and the women a belt or similar accessory. Women also allowed themselves understated jewellry or make up. The president wrote in the Corporate newsletter that he was pleased to see staff took such pride in their appearance and within weeks the self imposed standards became even more rigorous.