choice

My female owner had a sense of “reincarnation” yesterday. Now, I don’t mean it in a religious or spiritual sense (I don’t wanna get struck by lightning for saying the wrong thing!).

First, she had a MSN conversation with a friend who had been struggling with job satisfaction and career development issues. The current job offers a cushy remuneration but in career-speak terms, “the job sucks”. If he were to follow his passion, he would inevitably incur a huge pay cut, along with other career goodies which he had accumulated over the years.

Hence, it was a choice between monetary gains and pursuing one’s passion.

My female owner later realised that she was in similar circumstances about 15 months back. Then, she had to choose between the financial gains of being sponsored by her organisation for her postgrad studies (think sponsorship of school fees, stipend, flight/ winter allowances, monthly salary, yearly increment, seniority retained, job security, career advancement) and being bonded for three years afterwards, and giving up the certainty of financial gains to freely pursue her passion. By resigning, she was actually giving up close to $100k and on top of that, having to cough out at least $150k to cover three years of postgrad studies. In addition, she would have to rebuild her career again and possibly accept a lower starting salary. For whatever reasons, my female owner chose to be bond-free (but financially strapped).

Second, she had another conversation with Potahto, her fellow comrade in her previous office. As my female owner put it, only Potahto had the ability to bring out her true colours and my female owner turned bitchy as they recounted the incredulous behaviours of some of her ex-colleagues. Apparently, both of them still had unresolved issues with certain people and the unfair/ unethical practices they were subjected to as juniors in the office still left a bitter taste in their mouth. (It is of deliberate choice that my female owner recently chose to do an assignment on workplace bullying for her course “Counselling and violence”.)

My female owner mused afterwards that while the second conversation was cathartic, the greater achievement of the conversation was that it cemented the decision my female owner made 15 months ago, that she would not subject herself to three more years of mental and emotional upheavals. At the same time, she has to acknowledge that she has been blessed with strong family support. Without their unconditional support (except to accept this sponsorship from them as a gift of love and to enjoy herself), my female owner would probably have little choice but to take up her organisation's offer.