24 August 2007

I Don't Belong to This Place

I was having a conversation with my friend the other day about my past experiences, and at one point, she said, " I cannot imagine any one wanting to harm you."

Sometimes, people hate us for what we do, no matter we do good or bad. Some people have hearts that could easily convert enviousness, jealousy and frustration into seeds of hatred. As the seeds start to grow, looking at the face of the hated person becomes so annoying, and as the hatred grows stronger, and the agony becomes unbearable, they would start thinking of harming the person in order to satisfy their intolerable dissatisfaction . At this point, the pain and misery of the hated person are something to be smile upon, a pleasure and satisfaction to the heart.

When I started working in this place about a decade ago, some people didn't like me and my style. These people thought that I was a threat to their income. I didn't do much overtime in a place where people quarrelled for overtime, people do all sort of things for overtime. At that time, normal daily overtime was 4 hours but I used to do 2 hours and knocked off, unless I was really required to stay on for some urgent tasks. These people passed bad remarks about me at my back, but I don't care as I wanted to live life the way I liked. After a while, a few other workers started to follow my way.

Some people had the impression that I had large amount of money, the reason for not having interest in working overtime. My answer to them was, "I don't have a lot of money, but I have enough money to live a happy life". Those are two different things, there are very rich people who are not satisfied with the wealth they possess, and having a large amount of money does not always ensure happiness.

After a few years, the company was going through some financial difficulties that they decided to reduce the normal daily overtime to 3 hours. At that time, a lot of people were upset with the decision, and a few even felt that, what I was doing might had influenced the company to come up with such an idea.

At one time, the company sent me for a type course. In order for an Aircraft Engineer to certify for tasks carried out on a specific type of aircraft, he has to attend a course for that aircraft type, do some practical training and sits for an examination. After passing through all this, he will be paid monthly allowances for that aircraft type and every other types that he has, more types means more money.

Even though that every Engineers would eventually be sent for type courses, just a matter of waiting, but the fact that I was sent first had set fire to the emotions of a few Engineers. The very sad thing was, most of them were my friends. They uttered unpleasant words to me and spread words of hatred at my back to satisfy their anger. One of them even refused to talk to me.

I never thought that jealousy could bring down the moral of an educated person to such a disgusting level.

When I was asked to perform a lead function for a few months, I did things a bit different from the way it was managed previously. I didn't ask people to do extended hours unless it was necessary, and people hated me for that as well, as they were so used to being fed with extended hours all the while by previous leaders. At that time, a lot of people questioned my approach of doing things, they didn't like my way. I was hated for trying to, in a very soft and slow approach, improve the working conditions towards better professionalism. After the period was over, I prayed that I won't have to function as a leader anymore.

"They" are just a small bunch of people, very few in number, and I'm quite sure that these type of people are in other places as well. They are the people who go around planting the seeds of hatred and disharmony. They seem to be good in their approach and the way they talk that people would sit and listen to them. They are the people who act like viruses that spread the disease around the place with their words. They are the experts in assassinating a character. They greet us with big smiles but deep in their hearts, lie some wild, ugly serpents.

As human beings, we are bound to feel envy and jealous, to feel uneasy or mortified with another person's achievement. We also encounter changes that disturb our routine, our tradition of doing things the old way and we tend to reject the efforts made for betterment. We also watch people and friends reaching something that we had been dreaming for long.

Sometimes, the feeling of hatred arise unexpectedly, shall we let it breed in ourselves, or shall we show it the way out and resolve our dissatisfaction in a more civilised manner?


12 comments:

  1. Oh, workplaces are tough... Work is still a huge part of our life and we want to be with nice people. Or if nice, at least understanding, or competent, or neutral.

    Sorry to hear your story... which is unfortunately very common. I've been in your position too and I got very sick of it.

    That's what I like with my new teaching job. Once in the classroom, I'm the master. There's no one above me (you understand what I mean !), no one below. It's relaxing for once.

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  2. Zunnur, when it comes to jealousy and - GREED, many would forget that in fact they are civilized human beings ...

    Keep hanging there my friend. Keep moving forward.

    Others would see integrity in you no matter how much seeds of hatred planted by 'them.' Now, some may be blinded by the lies but overtime people would see 'the truth.'

    Hope you and your family have a good weekend (isn't it already Friday there ? ^_^)

    ~ Annita

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  3. Zunner,the basic problem is that in a work place there are many people with many problems and like to lash out at people who are different,or don't seem to have any problems, it makes them feel they have some kind of control in their otherwise screwed up world. It's happened to all of us at one point or another in our lives. just have to turn the other cheek and feel compassion for them.

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  4. "Those are two different things, there are very rich people who are not satisfied with the wealth they possess, and having a large amount of money does not always ensure happiness."

    Well said!

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  5. I love your positive attitude and agree that money isn't everything. You have to be passionate about your life; if you're not, no amount of money can make you a happy person. Like you, I wish I had more time in the day to do all the things I want to do!

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  6. I don't have a lot of money, but I have enough money to live a happy life". I loved this phrase. It is really inspirational.

    As someone commented before, work places can be tough. It is a real blessing to find a good place where to work, where the environment is good and the people friendly and not back stabbers...I suppose one has to do one's best every day. Every single day is an adventure even in this jungle of offices.

    Have a great week Zunnur!!!

    Wen.

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  7. The jealousy scenario is alive and well on the female side as well. It's like a cancer when mixed with gossip not to mention its stand alone power.

    tsk tsk tsk, what a world we live in!

    ~smile~

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  8. “Those are two different things, there are very rich people who are not satisfied with the wealth they possess, and having a large amount of money does not always ensure happiness.”

    That is true. So many people have all the money they could possibly need; however, they don’t find happiness. It sounds like you are a happy person (even though you deal with so many problems). Just smile right on through the hard times. Remember, you only see those people at work. After work, you can relax.

    Thanks for visiting my blog! I appreciated your comment, and I hope to see you again :)

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  9. I love the way you think and write. Yes, these people are poisonous and it's easy to become infected.

    I also love the way you describe why people are driven to bad acts...what does on in their head. It makes it easier to sympathize with them...and the human condition.

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  10. To all my wonderful friends,
    Thank you very much for spending your TIME reading and commenting in this post, and for your kind and encouraging words. This post isn't complete without your words and opinions. I appreciate very much.

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  11. It was sad to hear this..
    but people generally don't like changes,,they want to live same routine life ....
    They hate the person starting something new..its the same thing everywhere

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  12. I agree with you, Sweet Girl. People hate and are afraid of changes, they always have negative thinking that changes would bring difficulties. Too bad that sometimes, I have the same thinking as well :-)

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