A few years ago during the course of my work I met a boy and a girl at a karaoke joint in Seremban. They were singing like a couple in love. I knew the boy, so it was no surprise that he invited me for his wedding. Nevertheless I was surprised seeing his bride was not the girl who sang with him at the karaoke joint.
A few months after that I happened to meet the same girl at the karaoke joint. When I asked what happened between her and her boy friend, she just replied "He fell in love with me but married someone else".
Her fate was a bit similar to mine almost at the same time. I was an advisor of sorts to my boss. There was seldom a day when he did not call me to his room. If I want to equate with the Mafia movies then he was the Don and I was the Consiglieri. In other words I was the man who walked behind the man and the whole department knew that.
He would prepare letters while talking and allowed me to interrupt him if he made mistakes or if I want to add my own ideas. He would ask me for ideas in preparing working papers and if they were good and accepted by his own boss or by a group of committee members, he would claim that the ideas were his. But if the ideas were not accepted even though there were good he would say that the ideas were from his subordinates. Fortunately for the latter he seldom mentioned names. I even taught him how to book for a plane ticket from the internet.
Then came the time for a promotion exercise. The were only two candidates vying for one post and I was one of them. Before the decisive day I mentioned about it to a driver when he was driving me in the departmental official car.
He said I should not worry because I had an advantage. When I asked what was the advantage he said I was computer literate while my adversary was not. I replied that was problem I was worried about. The driver was confused by my answer and when he asked for further explanation I replied that our boss was computer illiterate too. So my adversary and our boss had or lacked something in common. So in this aspect I was an outsider.
True to my thought I did not get the promotion while my adversary who was one year younger that me got it. Not surprisingly many in whole department was not worried. The reason was they all thought I was younger than my adversary. Even my boss also thought so. Unfortunately looks did not help me in this case.
After the results were out my boss did the usual thing. He called me to his room for a discussion. So I took the opportunity for a pay back. I told him bluntly that he should not call me for further discussions. He should instead discuss things with his new officially designated assistant, meaning the adversary who beat me to the promotion. I simply walked off from his room.
So from that day I stopped being his Consiglieri and he was forced to accept the man he recommended for the promotion to replace me. But true to my thought the common thing that they lacked did not help. One day our chief clerk told me that my former adversary who had now become the Don's Consiglieri complained to him. He said who could not do like I did. When the boss asked questions I knew what and how to answer, but he could not.
It was a consolation of sorts for me, albeit a bitter one. I never know whether the girl I met at the karaoke joint had her own consolation.
Her fate was a bit similar to mine almost at the same time. I was an advisor of sorts to my boss. There was seldom a day when he did not call me to his room. If I want to equate with the Mafia movies then he was the Don and I was the Consiglieri. In other words I was the man who walked behind the man and the whole department knew that.
He would prepare letters while talking and allowed me to interrupt him if he made mistakes or if I want to add my own ideas. He would ask me for ideas in preparing working papers and if they were good and accepted by his own boss or by a group of committee members, he would claim that the ideas were his. But if the ideas were not accepted even though there were good he would say that the ideas were from his subordinates. Fortunately for the latter he seldom mentioned names. I even taught him how to book for a plane ticket from the internet.
Then came the time for a promotion exercise. The were only two candidates vying for one post and I was one of them. Before the decisive day I mentioned about it to a driver when he was driving me in the departmental official car.
He said I should not worry because I had an advantage. When I asked what was the advantage he said I was computer literate while my adversary was not. I replied that was problem I was worried about. The driver was confused by my answer and when he asked for further explanation I replied that our boss was computer illiterate too. So my adversary and our boss had or lacked something in common. So in this aspect I was an outsider.
True to my thought I did not get the promotion while my adversary who was one year younger that me got it. Not surprisingly many in whole department was not worried. The reason was they all thought I was younger than my adversary. Even my boss also thought so. Unfortunately looks did not help me in this case.
After the results were out my boss did the usual thing. He called me to his room for a discussion. So I took the opportunity for a pay back. I told him bluntly that he should not call me for further discussions. He should instead discuss things with his new officially designated assistant, meaning the adversary who beat me to the promotion. I simply walked off from his room.
So from that day I stopped being his Consiglieri and he was forced to accept the man he recommended for the promotion to replace me. But true to my thought the common thing that they lacked did not help. One day our chief clerk told me that my former adversary who had now become the Don's Consiglieri complained to him. He said who could not do like I did. When the boss asked questions I knew what and how to answer, but he could not.
It was a consolation of sorts for me, albeit a bitter one. I never know whether the girl I met at the karaoke joint had her own consolation.
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