Dear Crystal:

My heart goes out to you because I know, from very personal experience, how intense shame feels. And yet, here in my reply, I will not say just anything that may make you feel better. I will say only what I believe to be true.

“I’ve always been the model child and the ideal student“-  the question is how to be a model and ideal person in a world that is so far from being a model or an ideal world.

The company you worked for, the employers are very far from being model or ideal employers for “not giving their employees a single break for shifts that were quite long (6-8 hours)“. it is inhumane because people need breaks. How do you, as an employee, “stationed outside in the freezing cold without a single lunch or bathroom break… stomach started hurting“- how do you respond to this inhumane treatment in a model/ ideal way?

Before I continue, it just occurred to me to ask you: I am guessing that employees are allowed very short breaks to the bathroom; otherwise, they will soil themselves, right?

anita