Reindeer Games

December 22, 2016

So I was in Toowong Village with four hundred thousand other people trying to do all my last minute shopping on Sunday and I heard the glorious vocals stylings of one of the great local choirs they get have over the Festive Season. Delightful!

But then as I wandered along it struck me that Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was the victim of work place bullying.

“All of the other reindeer Used to laugh and call him names They never let poor Rudolph Join in any reindeer games”

Classic bullying behaviour. Doesn’t Santa’s workshop have a HR Department? Surely with all those elves and other personnel they would be required to have one?

I wonder if there should be an investigation of what exactly is going on up that workshop.

There haven’t been any recent songs about his staff being poorly treated it so hopefully it was a one-off case.

Exclusion is also a form of harassment according the bullying workshop I attended this year i.e. the exclusion of Rudolph from the so called “reindeer games” (*SIDEBAR: Does anyone actually know what constitutes a reindeer game? Apart from another really crappy Ben Affleck movie?)

What is good about this particular case is it sets a positive example of how victims of bullying can, like Rudolph, rise above it and not let the harassment hold you back from reaching your potential.

Rudolph did triumph in the end when Santa recognised his special gift and then fame and fortune and a song about him followed.

I would hope that in addition to getting on board with Santa’s praise and recognition of Rudolph and his red nose, the other reindeers apologised for their crappy behaviour.

The carol doesn’t go into any further details, just that:

“Then how the reindeer loved him

As they shouted out with glee,

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

You’ll go down in history”

I think Rudolph should be more widely utilised in the fight again bullying. Perhaps he could be an Ambassador for ReachOut.com or Bully Zero Australia?

There are some fantastic organisations currently working really hard to stamp out this unacceptable behaviour that’s rife on social media and unfortunately still in the school yard too.

You know who doesn’t have songs written about her staff who have suffered bullying? The Tooth Fairy.

AND she works 365 days a year – every year. You know why? Because she’s a woman and can multi-task.

I’ve often wondered why she doesn’t get the plaudits she deserves. She works her wings off that woman.

She runs a global empire that never stops. She deals with all different currencies, there’s the international travel and she’d have a huge number of dental transport and storage fairy support staff.

The Tooth Fairy also has a really good PR department.

A few years ago she wasn’t able to visit my nephew when he lost a tooth so she sent him an email the next morning apologising and explained she’d been caught up with the international time zones (he was in Hong Kong) and it was an unfortunate case of Fairy-error, but she would definitely get there that night. Which she did.

So over this holiday season Dear Readers, take a leaf out of the both Santa and the Tooth-Fairy’s book – recognise and celebrate those amongst us who are special in their own way and when things don’t always go according to plan, be kind and courteous to others.

Merry Christmas.

Alex will be soaking in a vat of mango daiquiri until early January 2017.

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