[Susan McLean]

Mary, "repair" was chosen to suggest that the worker is being treated as a machine.

Paula, I don't want to demonize MBAs (and they aren't actually mentioned in the poem, just in my discussion of it). I have a close relation who recently got his MBA, and who is fearful of losing his job because his boss thinks he isn't maximizing profit enough. I was just trying to argue that when the main goal of an organization is saving money/increasing profit, workers often suffer. If older, more experienced workers are pressured to retire so that they can be replaced by younger, less expensive workers, they will feel that their knowledge and experience is not valued.

I was interested to read that research is being done on how to deal humanely with workers who are terminally ill. It is always a challenge to deal with such situations, and some employers will do so more thoughtfully than others. Unfortunately, most people will know someone who was treated badly by people in charge. I thought it was actually better to satirize bad management in general than to go after individuals. That way, no one can feel personally attacked.

That said, I am not arguing that this poem is highly effective. I can't tell in advance whether a poem will be good or bad. I just have to write it to see, and my workshopping it is my effort to ascertain what works and what doesn't. I write a lot of different kinds of poems, but satire is one favorite genre of mine. Effective satire usually has an edge. I once wrote an article about Martial's Latin epigrams, which I tltled "Playing with Knives." Anyway, I know that some satire will offend some people. It goes with the territory. I try to listen to both the positive and the negative responses, because I can learn from both.

Susan