Power versus the milk of human kindness

I had the opportunity today to chat with a colleague. She had just returned to work after being undergoing home quarantine for about 10 days. She told me that she was given 10 doses of tamiflu. Fearful on hearing that an acquaintance had died from influence A H1N1, she had gone for a checkup because she had experienced severe headaches and ‘cutting’ chest pains for some days. Though she has completed the treatment for H1N1, she still had to get further treatment because her lungs have been affected. She is worried. She is also upset because those in authority were neither sympathetic nor supportive when she needs to go off for further follow-up checkups. One even commented on her being away from work for so many days! Why am I sharing this? Because even while I was chatting with her, I could empathise with her. She is really very hardworking, putting in long hours at work. She has a great deal of responsibilities and paperwork so she is even willing to dish out money from her own pocket to employ an assistant to do the computer-work for her. Of course, one may reply that it’s okay since she can afford it. But that’s not the point. She doesn’t have to take this extra step to ensure that all the work assigned to her gets done on time. She could very well say that she does not know how to operate the computer well. So many people pour a great deal of time and energy into their work and career. When they are able and can contribute, their superiors seem to appreciate and value them highly. Sad to say, many feel let down by these same people when the situation is reversed, when support and understanding is needed in return. Why is it that when people are promoted to administrative positions they seem to forget where they came from? I know there are some good administrators but there are so few and far between of them. What George Orwell says in the Animal Farm is so true: "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely."