The PLIGHT of the SKILLED…

By experience, I am versed enough in the art of making people work towards the achievement of my interest. I have learned the art simply because I was in the past, a person who has worked for the interests of bosses who has (whether they admit it or not) benefited from my tenacity as a loyal employee or subordinate. From watching how my bosses went through their professional lives conducting the affairs of their machineries towards a goal, professional or otherwise, I learned…

In most organizations I know and have had the chance to associate myself with, there was and always will be an employee who stands out as the office martyr. Martyrs in the professional world are usually skilled individuals who lack the character to stand out but have the skill or the talent to get the job done.

When I entered this company, I had no plans whatsoever to become the office martyr, but inadvertently it is perhaps in my nature to be so. It is perhaps something that I can never change. I know that for the longest time, my life and my principles have caused myself and the people closest to me unnecessary pain, anguish and misery.

Mistake no. 01

Good deed = Good Karma

I have always said that if I don’t do anything bad to someone, then that someone will not do bad things to me. Even if they did, then I will be the only party who can say negative things about the other party.

That seems to make sense in the ideal world. However, this world is not exactly ideal nor is it a tiny-bit close to utopia.

Besides, how many “bad” people do I know that eventually ended up successful? ACTUALLY, A LOT! And how many times have I seen bad things happen to good people? --- A LOT!

So in my short-circuited brain, the correlation between deed and karma is perhaps overrated.


The day before yesterday, the Chairman wanted to fire my administration director and gave the order directly to his minions. I was called in for consultation and I shrugged off the order entirely and called it another “volcano” decision which needed no second look. All in all, it was another kinder garden meeting. The mistake did not merit a sanction of termination… even if it did, I wouldn’t allow one of my men to be a sacrificial lamb for doing someone else’s job.

You see, this is the relevance of my intro. My administration Director has followed my career path a little too much… He wanted to be “Jack of all trades…” he has polished his multifaceted skills over time and now he is being martyred simply because he does a lot of work.

I typically say… and such is life. But this time I say, life is what we make of it. The numerous amounts of incidents that I do not like has messed me up and this organization that it is time to make a decision…

Anecdote:

This year, I paid 20k for a mistake which was not mine while a Korean manager bought a car for himself and got a new office for making mistakes that I had to fix.


Listening to: matchbox 20’s version of closing time… dear joan, tired… nothing compares… hang… busted unplugged.