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May the Almighty be kind and merciful to my fellow countrymen currently languishing in pain and homelessness due to Ondoy's flash floods that drenched Manila last September 26.
...on Corporate Discontent
I am having this conversation with a colleague of mine about the recent appointments that have happened at my firm, in relation to a recent take over by another firm. For lack of anything better to do, we denigrated ourselves by cribbing about life in general, but more in particular about the rank-restructuring that have happened recently in relation to the take over.
The crux of the discussion is why a colleague is being given a higher band when he is junior in all aspects of years of experience and even in tenure in our company relative to others. Whose decision was it and why are we not given the same...blah, blah....
It is a classic case of corporate discontent, one that I have seen, and had my share of being on the side of the advantaged as well as being disadvantaged, in my 13 years of working.
Yes, disparities in the corporate are both driven by supposedly objective and HR-vetted criteria and the subjectivity of the people who are influencers and decision-makers on who gets promoted and who does not. The latter being always suspected (but never proven) as the driver of discontent breeding malcontents.
It is not to say, having experienced it before, that the disparities are easy for me to swallow nor the explanation of people who may have a hand in the decision. It is always difficult. But probably age and experience have taught me more creative (and not necessarily better, and some people may say lame or sourgraping) ways to transcend these disparities.
1. You can ignore these things and move on with life with a little bit of bitterness and hope you will forget it.
2. You fight for your own recognition, and make a case for your own, which is oftentimes a double-bladed sword.
3. You shift your mindset and stop benchmarking yourself with others and compete only with yourself and move on, either within the same firm or outside.
I tried the first 2 in my first 8 years of working, with satisfactory career results but oftentimes traumatic emotional consequences. In the last few years, I have taught myself to use only the approach #3.
It is more practical and pragmatic with my own understanding of my capabilities and aligns well with my personal life values.
I guess a better and a more eloquent way of explaining the mindset in approach #3 was well put by my colleague, and I quote (in verbatim sans the specific references)...
"Life has a path. I have a destiny. A few less dollars or more, won't count...I have to make my life worth it beyond any material...how I value family, relationships, friends, live a balanced existence, no foes, no jealousy. There is more to life than XXX or XXXXXXX or XXXXX or Band X. I have many years to go and this will be some insignificant speck in the scheme of things. Who cares? I must make an honest life out of an honest living."
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