fatvegan

Rough Edges was pretty rough last night. The roughest I've had in years, and by far the roughest in my short history of team leading. One very bulky sort of fellow was threatening people (including me) most of the evening, and I had to decide if I should ask him to leave or not. In the end I didn't, although in retrospect I think I should have. He was abusing his physical power, and if he'd been smaller I probably would have asked him to go. You could say that any physical intimidation is too much, or that physical power shouldn't count. But it does count. I think that any sort of power needs to be treated with respect, even if you think it's illegitimate power and you're actively working to reduce it.

I think calling the police wasn't the right thing to do either, although I suspect a few people wouldn't have agreed. I never actually felt unsafe, and he was as angry at me as he was with anyone. He had quite a few friends there, at least one of who was trying to talk him down. He wasn't pursuing one individual, and the people he heckled mostly dealt with it calmly.

I probably should have tried to talk to him separately, because after a long night of talking loudly you can't really back down in front of everyone. I didn't really think he was a danger, but I was worried somebody would call his bluff. I had a chat with one of his friends at the end of the night, and she asked me if he'd threatened me with any weapons. I said he hadn't and she told me I didn't have anything to worry about then. That was oddly encouraging.

I think the other thing I've decided is that power is consistently difficult and unpleasant unless you want it. The minute someone else wants this job they can have it.

Overall, it was actually a really inspiring evening. No one else had any issues and virtually everyone dealt with what mess there was so peacefully. As one of the guys was leaving he was drinking a glass of fridge water and he said to me "One thing that is great about this place is that the water here is always so cold." That cheered me up a lot.