Heather Stewart Poetry

Lesson #4

You only hold the power 
While you hold the pen 

Read carefully 
Turn over the words 
Be aware, there are 
Extra definitions 

Don't sign your life away 
Just to make your mark 

I didn’t actually learn this lesson at the time that I held the pen, but I was fortunate to be surrounded by people who had. You can’t ask for extra, don’t get me wrong, but while you have the pen is the ONLY time you have to make sure that everything is correct. Once you’ve signed it, you’ve agreed to what it said and not whatever someone told you in person.

I learned this lesson two years after I could have signed my life away when I was standing in an Admin Office, telling people who were not used to people getting bonuses that I was entitled to one. I’ll never forget the look on the supervisor’s face when he said that something about it being sweet that I believed the recruiter and that I would only get a bonus if it was in my contract.

It was SO condescending!

I suggested he at least look at my contract before decided that I was wrong. I wasn’t 100% sure that it was there, but I remember a few starts and stops in that office where I sat with the person who puts together the contract and my parents. Yep, my parents came with me and there were no errors in my contract. Everything that was supposed to be there was there. He felt a little sheepish. I felt vindicated.

And gratitude. I don’t know that I called my parents that night, but I know that I’ve mentioned it several times in the years since that it was fortunate that they were there. Their very existence kept me from feeling pressured into signing something I wasn’t ready for, kept me from having to do all the mental work on my own to make sure it was right, and gave me someoneto advocate for me when I wasn’t sure how to. Some people don’t have parents to take them, some don’t want them to be there out of some sense of independence. It’s always good to have an additional, experienced set of eyes on any contract.

I got a bit of a reputation in that Admin office after that too. I had spent a week in there arguing for what was already in my contract and being talked down to. When I turned out to be right and shouldn’t have had to fight at all, I was seen as someone who didn’t need an advocate and wasn’t gonna rail against the machine over nothing. Every time I walked in after that, the supervisor called me right over and handled whatever the situation was. So just remember, don’t you sign your life away just to make a mark. There are so many better ways to do that.