THE DUNGEON

What you are about to read is an imaginary product from my own imagination based on my personal view and life experience. This publication is fictional. Any resemblance to actual events or names or location or even people, alive or dead, is merely coincidental. It is neither a scientific, anthropological or corporative thesis. It might sound silly, maybe shocking, or even intriguing. Either way, this discussion does not intent to convince anyone to agree with it. The only outcome hoped for from the audience reading is, reflection and maybe analysis or constructive criticism of the content. You may or may not identify yourself with the context and may or may not, gather some insights from it. Any response is a positive response, if only laughter.

THE DUNGEON

KEY

Jailbird - Employees

Sentinel - Team Managers

Knight - Department Managers

Vassal - Operational Managers

Lord - Executive Managers

Queen - CEO

Dungeon - Work environment

Kingdom - Corporations

Noble Guest - Customers

I did it.

I escaped!

I can barely believe it, but I have just rescued myself and reclaimed my freedom. Sometimes, we only acknowledge the existence of something once it has gone missing or has been lost. Life can be challenging with potential entrapment never far away. We can find ourselves caught in perilous webs that restrict our vision to other possibilities out there even though we think our senses are fully alert. Such webs must not be underestimated. Some of them manifest themselves in various attractive ways, alluring us to do the "right" thing, guiding us to follow a "safe" path and progress to a hoped-for opportunity. The confidence needed at that decision-making moment does not always guarantee the success of the choice made. In reality, only time will tell. Often there are visibly bright signals reminding us that in life balance is essential yet many of us choose to ignore them.

The bigger the web, the bigger the challenge. The potential error is to think the bigger the web, the bigger the opportunity. In fact, that it is not always the case. In my own recent experience, a temporary solution turned itself into a potentially permanent one. The web was very convincing and attractive due to its reputation. In hindsight, my mistake was that its reputation had been built up by superficial observers and naive admirers and not by those who literally constructed and maintained its entire structure. Once you become trapped inside the web, it is a completely different story; a surreal and quite frightening one. I became one of them, entrapped in this particular web. I came to realise that the best way to describe it is: The Dungeon. It is underground but not necessarily in a basement. It is dark, despite the environment being far too bright. It is a prison, even though there are no visible cells or guards in uniform. However, when you look at it closely, an opaque regime starts to come into focus.

The Dungeon has its own hierarchy just like any other big web within any industry. Despite its contemporary context, the similarity to medieval times is quite shocking. The Jailbirds (the majority seeing themselves as allies) are treated as servants by their Noble Guests. They are the ones who have kept The Kingdom moving forward operationally at all costs, perhaps because they love The Kingdom. Despite all the sacrifices they make, most of those above them in the hierarchy just see them as cheap labour. The main duty of their supervisors, The Sentinels, is to manage and report the operational performance within all areas to The Knights and Vassals before it reaches its final destination: The House of The Lords. Only once The Lords have completed their appraisal is it sent to the tower and handed to the Queen.

Reporting accuracy relies on agreements made between Sentinels, Knights, Vassals and Lords. They are for the main part pretenders making part of the same cluster but in actual fact, their positions are quite distinguished. Sentinels are easily malleable due their weaknesses. They do not challenge their superiors, only The Jailbirds. The presumptuous Knights and Vassals dispute for visibility by the Lords. They add their final, arrogant touches to final reports, before handling them to the Queen. The Queen then blindly believes the reports so long as the results do not jeopardise her own agenda. She challenges The Lords to make The Kingdom profitable and successful. They in turn challenge The Knights and Vassals to get the work done and in turn, The Sentinels to ensure their "hard work" pays off. In actual fact, the key elements in this whole system are The Jailbirds, who have quite literally been treated as irrelevant.

The Queen rarely visits The Dungeon. When she does, she pronounces words in vain that many Jailbirds assume are promises of a better future…how delusional! Naively, I thought that I could make a difference within the system or at least, change my luck in The Kingdom. But once you have started in The Dungeon, in The Dungeon you will most likely remain. My confinement started at almost the lowest level that any Jailbird could ever occupy in that place. Along the way, I occasionally visited upper levels trying different doors. Some of the doors were open, some were not. Some were false and some held secrets. On the whole, I came to realise that I had been walking around in circles for almost the entire time I had spent there. I explored opportunities to work in one of those upper levels, as I thought the treatment would be a bit more humane compared to what I had previously experienced. Silly me!

Diversity is an important core part of each web’s perceived social responsibility. However, embracing it is a totally different matter. As long as diversity knows its place within the web, the operational system runs smoothly. Otherwise, the system might recognise it as a threat. That might sound a bit extreme or over sensitive for those who have never experienced fleeting glances at how you present yourself: a diminishing look suggesting that they may think you are in the wrong place. In fact, it was the wrong place for me. But if you take a closer look at the House of Lords, the members´ hegemony is crystal clear. Perhaps, due to my own frustrations I had fantasised about the context I was inserted into. Perhaps not. Either way, to keep a sane and open mind to survive in The Dungeons, it is paramount to hold yourself together and keep your head down. This way, you can avoid the spotlights that might interfere with your own personal journey. Once I realised that I was impotent within this system and incapable of changing my own fortunes, I started exploring possibilities to get out of there as soon as I possibly could.

One Jailbird in particular used to say to me: "you should leave this place when you still can." After that, some unusual manoeuvres in my surroundings started to catch my attention. Some Jailbirds had "succeeded", moving to upper levels within The Dungeon. Others had turned into Sentinels, if only for one day. A few others left The Dungeon in search of new Kingdoms. They had realised that they had become nothing more than jesters in the pack held by so many who were in pursuit of their own progress. That was the sign I needed to wake me up and see the unlimited possibilities out there waiting for me. I could no longer waste time so decided to plan my escape. Instead of working harder, I learnt to work smarter. The time spent in The Dungeon was actually extremely enlightening. I had learnt the whole process of how to rule a Kingdom with its many layers. I had learnt how other hierarchical levels perform as part of the system, including their battle and conquest strategies. Surprisingly enough, I was allowed to work this way by my immediate Sentinel. Tragically or even laughably, The Sentinel, oblivious as usual, had not even noticed how I had succeeded in my learning process with distinction.

Then, my escape plan was ready. I had gathered information from other Jailbirds: pioneers who had succeeded before me. Whist I was putting my plan into action, I shared it with those who were open to listen and able to see the possibilities ahead. I had given them clues, hints, guidance and signs about how to find their own way out of The Dungeon. Some of them said I was brave to leave and supported my plan, whereas others showed concern and fear for my future. I felt privileged to be surrounded by such an amazing and caring bunch of people. Many of them have had their souls broken and few have the strength to mend them. Others have lost all hope, feeling utterly helpless and more have been there so long, they have forgotten their own dreams. Some are scared to even think about facing what it is out there and more have decided to wait until their number is up. I can only understand and respect their choices and decisions, as no one knows how tight somebody else´s shoes are. I hope and believe that one day, I will meet many of them out there again.

Ironically, it seems we have forgotten that webs are made of knots and that when a single knot is undone, the web might completely lose its strength and shape and become unstable. That´s why so many webs are ruled by medieval style systems, pressuring the knots to their limits, stretching them, exploiting their flexibility until they have become stiff and steady enough to ensure the structural stability of the web. The knots are therefore deceived by the webs and fail to grasp how key they are in securing these structures. Does this not in some way describe what Modern Slavery looks like? As a result of this vicious cycle, when each knot has had its unique particularity ignored, both sides lose. We can but hope for a better future, one where people will recognise that they are an integral part in these whole web systems and make the changes so desperately needed to create more sustainable ones. When people realise that webs only exist due to knots holding each other hands, we may start to change how these webs operate. We can transform them into more humane systems, where all duties, rights, struggles and successes are fairly shared.

My relatively short period in The Dungeon felt like an eternity within a limbo. That said, I met many other interesting Jailbirds who I exchanged knowledge with, got insights from and was inspired by: Jailbirds from different Kingdoms and backgrounds with different projects and dreams; holders of different expertise and visions with fascinating life experiences. Even though I came to The Dungeon with my own luggage like everybody else, I was about to leave with much bigger luggage, this time filled with wisdom, friendship, love, passion, awareness and hope. These gifts all came from my lovely Jailbird companions: real partners in struggles and successes that we had all shared. I never imagined that I would take with me such extraordinary and unexpected outcomes from my experiences in this Kingdom. They had made me wealthy! The real treasures of this particular Kingdom are The Jailbirds who remains in The Dungeon and who sadly I had left behind. Without them, the Kingdom would not exist.

If only Queen could recognise this.

I made it out.

I am free!

Leandro Bernardes, 2021.