On sports I know nothing about, and employee morale

I'm the first to admit I know nothing about any sport that is not cricket - and there too, interest has dwindled over time. If it wasn't for Google Now's helpful alerts that we're losing another match to Australia or Sri Lanka, I wouldn't even know we're playing any more.


So usually, when I see any headlines or tweets that appear to be related to sports, I ignore them, apart from the occasional wondering which sport they're talking about. But there's one type of sports-related headline/tweet that tends to make me think a little more.


I saw a tweet just now that some team is open to trading one or more of its players - and I think the players were named, but I'm not sure. I also think the sport in question was basketball, but again, I'm not sure. Let's just say there a lot of words that I did not recognize in that tweet.


AnyWAY. The thing I always wonder is, what do announcements like this do for player morale? To have the world know the team you play for is willing to let you go so that it can find someone who might do better than you? I mean, I'm sure very often the players are willing to be traded as well, and I'm sure there's plenty of money involved to make them happy-ish about the trade, but... still. Doesn't it create some kind of awkwardness and/or tension among players?


Can you imagine this happening in any other type of job? To come into work and see a company-wide or department-wide email from your manager saying they're perfectly happy to be rid of you if another manager offers them someone better from their team in exchange? (This may or may not be something I have occasional nightmares about.) As someone who worked in HR in a previous lifetime, I'm not sure I would recommend this.


It just... makes me wonder. Y'know?

A sense of wonder

Motivations can be a funny thing. What makes anyone talk the way they do, behave the way they do, think they way they do?

While my sense of outrage over the Ruchika Girhotra case is as real and and strong as anyone else, I haven't so far put down my thoughts on it anywhere. But apart from the outrage, I have a very strong sense of awe and curiosity about two key people in the whole messy saga:

The woman who has not only stayed with her ass of a husband all these years, but continues to defend him in court even now.

But most of all, the girl who has continued to fight a lonely and difficult fight in the memory of her friend, for nineteen years.

You have to wonder what makes such women take the steps they choose to take.