The world has hit a thin patch of ice on a frozen lake and I have never felt it as acutely as I have this past week.
Just last week a colleague resigned within 24hr. Was working in the night so I didn't get to witness what exactly happened but the story goes something like this:
The colleague's a foreigner and her husband who works in the IT field got laid off 24hr after his company announced that they were looking into a paycut.
Not sure exactly what was the actual scenario but to cut the long story short, the colleague's husband had to leave Singapore, and she had to leave immediately with him.
She actually could have probably stayed here while he left the country since her job's still intact but I suppose it had all happened in such a short span of time that there really wasn't much room for her to consider her options. To stay in Singapore and try to strike it out all alone must have left cold chills in her heart so there was really not much choice but for her to quit her job and leave as well.
This was the neon signboard that was finally being lit up right before my face. The world is really faring badly now and this is really the time to be cautious. All around us there are dangerous swamps, the lucky ones hang on to whatever they could to keep afloat; the unfortunate ones get their feet stuck in quicksand and sink in the blink of an eye.
Ironically, the world economy's slowdown is precisely the reason for my increased work stress. A million and one new promotions and initiatives have come up in the face of lowered demand and slimmer profit margins. There are stakeholders and shareholders to be satisfied and we are scrambling to bring up the revenue, so we are now chameleons in training, ever changing and always adapting to something new in the renewed efforts to increase sales and instill loyalty. Loyalty, now more than ever before, seems to be in focus. We can't help if customers don't fly but if they do fly, we pray fervently that they would fly with us and contribute to our revenue.
It gets really tiring and frustrating sometimes. If I go away but 2 weeks and come back it might actually seem like I went off for a year. 3 days is enough to create 100 emails and there are constantly updates about what's changed.
The challenge of coping up with changes was part of the allure of the job, but now, I'm not sure if the challenge is still quite as attractive for me.
It does not help that I now work at night. I realised one thing. At night I'm awake but not quite as alert, and definitely not half as efficient as I was before. There's a sloppiness in how I deal with cases that was not there before. I fear that the slugginess would one day do me in. Everything is starting to become a drag and I really have to work on it to bring some motivation and discipline into myself.
I can only hang in there now. Hang on for the ride and pray for the best. I hope the storm blows over soon, before I get swallowed by the storm and lose myself. I pray for the strength to carry on and I hope everything gets better before I lose the battle and decide to give up and move on, right at a time when I'm most needed.