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Writer's pictureAngie and Solli

Invisibility in the Workplace

I am not an expert on superheroes. My family gets annoyed with me constantly asking, “What is the 1st Marvel movie?” in my feeble attempt to grasp the overall concept of the Avengers movie series. (I can already sense some of the answers being telepathically sent to me by some of you.) I did, however, grow up in the era of DC comics like Superman and Wonder Woman and remember as a kid having the serious discussion with my brother about what superpower we would pick if we could pick one. There were always the obvious ones like super strength and flying that Superman had, and breathing under water was always a cool thing that Aquaman could do. It also would alleviate the drowning fears of all the kids who were performing poorly at swimming lessons by dreaming of simply developing that superpower.


What were Wonder Woman’s superpowers? It is really unfortunate that I didn’t know off the top of my head considering that she was basically the only superhero young girls had. I had to Google it, and it popped up that she was athletic and resilient. She had a golden lasso that I am sure would have made her very accomplished at rodeos, and the lasso could force people to tell the truth. I even think she had super breath to cause windstorms….maybe I made that up. Seriously…that is really sad that I don’t know. I guess I will have to look into that later, and also research why I never cared enough to know.


One superpower that consistently would come up was Invisibility. There seemed to be intrigue in the ability to walk among people without being visibly seen. There was a desire to gain information that was viewed as honest and real, and be able to exist among people in the most honest and real way. Of course, you could also do things and simply not be accounted for or judged. It is a superpower that so many people long to have that many people practice having invisibility, and many achieve that skill unintentionally. There are also situations where this power is assigned by others. I have realized that giving someone invisibility is one of the most powerful things you can do for another person. Unfortunately, it isn’t always positive.


We can get into the weeds on this but I will try to reel it into a professional setting. There is always talk and serious analysis as to why a good employee would “suddenly” quit. Or why a student “suddenly” hates school, or more specifically, why a field of work or a large company struggles to keep good employees. We can blame poor pay, biases, workplace politics, uninspiring culture, or even bullying. All of these issues are very applicable, but how do you explain someone who goes through it for years, and then just had enough. Really? You would think after years they would feel like they have mastered all the crap. Many companies even offer to pay for professional and personal growth seminars; commit to team bonding activities; treat employees to free meals; etc.

Was that an appropriate use of semicolons? (Did you notice merit pay increases was not on the list?)


I want to challenge the thought that it could be that they felt invisible. Invisible enough to finally make the leap to go try something new. I am often asked what motivated me to start my own business. There is a specific series of events that led to the actual incorporation of Kajaer GeoConsulting. (I can’t wait to share that story as well!) But one of my biggest motivations was to fight the power of invisibility. I didn’t like the fear of being unseen. I was also prepared to regret my decisions if it meant I wasn’t going to be viewed as a constant. I wanted to make a difference in someone’s life, and maybe inspire someone to take the risk that is mentioned in social media memes. - Solli


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