My daughter came home from school rather sad and asked me …
“Daddy, when my friend and I chatted in class, the class monitor reported us to
the teacher and we were punished but when the class monitor did the same, it is
OK … she (the class monitor) was not punished … why?” I asked her did anyone
report it to the teacher … my daughter said no as they were all afraid of
reprisal from the class monitor and worse, the class monitor is the teacher’s favorite.
So, what will you tell your daughter to do? Go seek justice
… be brave … stand your ground? No, I told my daughter … “Life is unfair …
there are times, in fact most of the time, we just have to swallow it and get
on”.
Almost two years ago I wrote an article titled “It is not fair!” (click to read) … in it, I said that the moment you were born, you were crying while
everyone else is smiling … you know very well that life is not going to be
fair.
Let me tell you something … an episode of my life not
many people know about … maybe it is
good to tell now and see what comments I will get.
In my younger days, I worked as a marketing manager in the
automobile industry and my boss was the Director of the Marketing Department. I
was enjoying a great career with a well known international company but after a
year and a half, things started to change. My boss employed a woman (who was
from the agency handling our PR campaigns) to take up a newly created marketing
position in the department. Very soon favoritism towards the woman was obvious …
to the dissatisfaction of many in the department. Really, it was very obvious
that there was something going on between my boss and the woman.
Because it directly affects me, I decided to seek
clarification … had a talk with my boss and told him that he is bias towards
the woman in many ways at work and I think there is something going on between
him and her. This was what he told me … his exact words “Shiek, you are just
jealous that someone is doing a better job than you”. I can feel the resentment
from my boss from that moment onwards. I was seeking fairness but got nothing. I
struggled to carry on because I wanted to get to the bottom of things.
Very soon the “hanky panky” was an open secret, everyone was
talking about it but no one dares to do anything. I then decide to escalate it …
brought my dissatisfaction to the MD (my boss’s boss), a female expatriate. I
thought I could get some sort of payback. And what did I get? Absolutely
nothing ... the MD told me that if I am not happy, I have to sort it out directly
with my boss.
Then I knew I can start counting my days in the company so I
went to “sort it out” with my boss. Reluctantly he admits that he is sleeping
with the woman but said it is personal and he is not at all biased during work.
Oh really? Not bias? Believing that is as good as believing there is a genie in
the magic lamp. Anyway, I already had my resignation letter typed out … was not
in the mood to say much when I handed him my resignation but I am sure he gets
the message loud and clear that I am f**king him off.
Maybe at that time, I have enough of what I called “f**k off”
money … so I can f**k someone off without financial worries. YES, I redeemed a
bit of pride, a bit of consolation but no matter what, I was at the losing end and that ended my career
in the automobile industry.
I worked hard, played by the rules and all I wanted was a
fair deal … I thought I can get a bit of justice but I was so wrong .
So what did I learn? I was David trying to fight Goliath
… I so wanted it to be like the David versus Goliath from ancient writings, the
one time in the biblical era where David won. But really, you can’t fight
Goliath and you don’t want to fight Goliath. In the real world … almost every time in those cases in the
likes of David versus Goliath, David lost.
Of course people want to seek fairness when they are being
bullied, when they lost out to favoritism and when they suffered at the hands
of those with power and influence. But the sad reality is … many just can’t do
anything because they have no financial foothold, they needed the monthly salary
so they have no choice but to keep quiet and tolerate the unfair, prejudiced
and biased situation.
Look, life is unfair … sometimes you just have to swallow it
and tell yourself it is OK to walk away with a bruised ego. But if you want a
bit of consolation, go save enough “f**k off” money … at least with that you
get to fire a last shot to show some pride and get some satisfaction.
