TRUSTING YOUR SUPERVISOR

Danielle from Seattle, Washington shared her dream with me:

I am at work and walking in the hallway.  There are closed doors on each side.  A co-worker joins me in my walk.  She is one of my co-supervisors who oversees my work.  She’s very hard to read.  On a personal level, I don’t know if she likes me or not, and I don’t even know whether I can trust her to support my ideas about the job.  She usually keeps her thoughts to herself, though she’s very efficient at her job and she always knows how to solve problems.

I’ve been asked to create a new organization chart, and I’m a little worried because of politics… one of the top VPs considers himself in a superior position to a second VP, but the second VP claims that the first VP reports to him.  It’s been an ongoing competition for about three months. The EVP treats both VPs equally and may or may not be aware of the competition.

In the dream, I ask my supervisor how I should position the two competing VPs.  Both equally reporting to the EVP?  One VP reporting to the other VP?  The first VP is new and his position has never been included in an organization chart before.

She moves to my left side and strokes my left arm, telling me that people respect my judgment and it’s always safe to treat the two VPs as equally reporting to the EVP.  I figure that’ll be a safe move and decide that’s how I’ll do it.  Then, as my supervisor and I keep walking along the hall, she moves to my right side, grabs my right elbow and pushes me into one of the rooms.  I am alone in the room and there’s a blackboard on one wall.  A chart is drawn on the blackboard and it shows the two VP’s being equal.  A big “X” is drawn over the chart, and at the bottom is my supervisor’s signature.

The dream ends and I wake up.  I know this dream is warning me about something, but I’m not sure what.

Usually when I interpret a dream, I do it in sections.  This time, since the psychology of Danielle’s work situation is so crucial to the message, I’m leaving it wholly intact.

For me, the message to the Dreamer is very clear:  Be careful in how much you trust your supervisor.  The left side of the body represents the abstract, emotional manifestation of your right-brain functions.  The right side represents the logical, rational manifestation of your left-brain functions.  This dream shows that even when the supervisor is “stroking” you (left arm) and making you feel good about yourself,  if her guidance ever goes against what the top brass want, she’ll consider it logical (right elbow) not to support your work even if she was the one who supervised you during that process.

I suspect you’ve been mulling over the dilemma of whether you should trust her or not.  Your psyche is telling you, “No, not necessarily.  Be careful.”

Since this woman in your dream is a co-supervisor, in your shoes I’d weigh what the other co-supervisor suggests if you ever have any doubts what to do.

PLEASE... pay attention to your dreams, snoozlers.  They're usually motivated by survival defense mechanisms.