Gone are the day when we thought we were indispensable not only to your organisation, but to the whole world. Gone are the days when we thought we had the best skills in the world, and nobody could match up to our capability..
I had quit a safe and secure government job about seven months back, with more than 14 years of work life remaining before retiring.. The security the govt job assured was neither interesting nor challenging.. The pulls and pressures of reservation and locals versus outsiders (sons of soil) made me feel uncomfortable. I do not have any qualms about it. Te best strategy would be to seek one's future elsewhere.. I decided to quit seeking a new job, where I can serve the society better and get my children some decent education and quality of life. I thought, elsewhere, I could get more satisfaction from the job, see the outside world and get to learn from new experiences.
So far, I had not taken great risks in life, was busy studying and teaching.. Now was the time to take the plunge. Take risks and the lessons we learn are worth all the pains..Having been away from the centre of action all these years, why not be a part of it.
I do not know whether I would have taken the same challenge now. As soon as I sent in my retirement papers, I started reading about the downturn getting grim and grim .
But one thing I can say is after taking the risk, I am learning lot more things on the job now, outside a comfortable and cushy govt job. I get to meet more people, from different backgrounds, have new experiences on the job, get to take up additional responsibilities and discharge them.
I do not think anyone is indispensable to the world. Our qualifications may not take us anywhere, unless we are good at applying the knowledge from the qualifications well. Recession times remind us of that.. It is a time to take some time off to resharpen your knife, get additional knowledge and experience..
One lesson we have learnt is, if one is satisfied with a realistic salary for qualifications and not run after fancy salary and job responsibilities, one can think of retaining one's job and feel confident of doing so much more than your compatriots. Unrealistic expectation of remuneration and standard of life is the cause of all worries and tensions.
Recession times is also a time for reassessing one's true worth. Were the benefits which we were enjoying really due to us given our efforts and qualifications or was it just a stroke of luck that we are on a job at a point of time and a place..?
Recession reminds us to be more realistic and to get to the level ground from the heights we were flying..
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George Easaw
