Reflections

Reflections

It had started to rain some few minutes before I closed from work and the rain lasted for about twenty minutes. With my bag in my hand, I stepped into the light drizzle. On a good day, I would have waited for the heavenly shower to cease altogether, but it was not a good day. Something had made me angry in the morning before I left home. At work an update, the type that they hide under 'any other duty as may be assigned' in your contract, made me irate.

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I must have cut a dejected figure as I stepped out of the gate and marched slowly, trying to get to the junction to board a tricycle that will get me home. My head was hung low but it was the rain that made it worse. But oh, it further became worse as the light drizzle became a downpour again. I clutched my bag close to my body so it would not get soaked and the content destroyed.

At the junction, there was no tricycle in sight. It was then I began to reflect on my own actions. I realised that what pissed me off in the morning was so trivial that I would have laughed if someone else narrated the incident to me. Why was I angry? Unresolved issue from previous days! Yes, you read that right. Or maybe you're not surprised. Maybe you've flared up in a trivial situation like mine and realised that it wasn't that present issue you're mad at.

Another time I was pissed but I took pictures instead of reacting

Since I felt better a little bit regardless of the rain trying to drown me, I decided to see if I overreacted at work. No, I didn't. Yes, you heard (sorry, read) that right too. Most private employers want you to do more work for zero additional pay. Someone resigns or gets sacked, they give you their work to do, but not their pay. Sometimes, they even say that the extra work is only until they find someone to feel the vacancy left by the resigned/sacked employee, but they never seem to find anyone until it is time for Quality Assurance or inspection. Why? And all these for what? That strange undefined clause they inserted in your contract 'any other duty'...

Could I have managed the situation better? I still don't know. What I know is that at my next job, I'll ask that they define the extent of the 'any other duty'. Well, by the time I got home, I felt much better. Sometimes, all we need to do is to breathe and sincerely reflect on our actions and the actions of others with empathy so as not to lose our heads.