My Singaporean Friend

Last nite, I had a dinner with a friend from Singapore. She is a cancer survivor and she is monitoring it closely. For the best part of her life, she dedicated to her job and loyal to her company for almost 30 years.She is in her mid 50s'  and her retiring age is 62 years old.  A few more good years before retirement. But, something foolish happen.

Recently, her previous boss was transferred to another company and a new boss took over.  He seems to be friendly and a good boss in the initial months but he changed after getting familiar with the organization and business. He start to pick trouble with the old staff and start a 'rejuvenating' exercise to replace the old staff with young staff with higher salary package. This action frustrate many of the old staff and they leave one by one, either on a separation  package or voluntarily. My friend is in his pick list.

She told me that when she got the news, she was sleepless for many nights and wonder what she had did wrong to warrant such treatment. All her past contributions was not recognized  and her sacrifices was in vain. People can be so unappreciative and cruel and this thoughts persistently revive through her head.  She is so dedicated  to her job that she remained unmarried  which resulted in the cancer problem. This is a hard road and there is an agenda in her boss. It could be his agenda or the instruction from his headquarters. Lack of compassion and love for people.

In a big organization, this is a fact and in certain organization, all employees are paid salary monthly and bonus at the end of the year and this is remuneration and appreciation accorded to each employee and not more. You are paid for your contribution for that year and you start a fresh each year and show your merit progressively. There is no such thing of past contributions and achievements. A  clean sheet of paper at the start of each year. This maybe true if the remuneration and benefits is paid according to the achievements but it is rarely the case. Some bosses sees not and hear not or see what he wants and hear what he wants. Sins of  presumption.

I asked my friend whether she has enough finances to stay comfortably in her remaining years and she affirmed that and  I told her that there is nothing to worry and she should stay healthy and live a happy life ever after. Money is never enough and we have to manage it the best we can so that we live comfortably and well. I told her that health is the most important and living in the present moment , appreciating every little things in life is more meaningful than money in the our bank accounts. We come into this life without nothing and we are going back with nothing.  Everything is impermanent and changing. 

I hope that she gets the wisdom and understanding . It is no use worrying over something that we cannot control and if we think too much about it, it will only make us suffer mentally and physically and damage our health. The earilier we realize this wisdom, the faster we get the enlightenment to enjoy our life when we are around.

Namaste.