It Matters

March 2006

Have you ever felt insignificant in your life? Ever had the feeling that you don’t exist? That what you do doesn’t matter at all? Don’t fret. Everybody has felt this at one point in his life. As a human being, it is in our nature to toil with thoughts of insignificance throughout life. I had the same thoughts when I joined Scope a year ago. I had no friends. I knew nobody. And I was stationed in Menara Axis where there were no Filipinos at all. My work didn’t make me feel any better. I was working as a temporary administrator – which is just another word for a gofer. Go for this. Go for that. Email this. Email that. I was working as that because I had no choice. I had to or my husband and I would have nothing to eat – literally. It was the time when he got into an accident and he had to stop work and depend on me for a while. I felt so insignificant, so small since I couldn’t do anything more. My CV didn’t matter anymore. It didn’t matter that I was a Project Manager in my previous company or that I used to negotiate deals with executives from foreign banks. I could step no further. I was given this simple job and I had to do it right. But oh, I felt so small. I felt depressed. I had so little things to do then. I finished doing all those administrative tasks and don’t have anything to do so I surfed the Internet and came across this story. It was a story that changed my view on lowly jobs. It goes like this: One day the different parts of the body were having an argument about which should be in charge. The brain said "I do all the thinking so I'm the most important and I should be in charge." The eyes said "I see everything and let the rest of you know where we are, so I'm the most important and I should be in charge." The hands said "Without me we wouldn't be able to pick anything up or move anything. So I'm the most important and I should be in charge." The stomach said "I turn the food we eat into energy for the rest of you. Without me, we'd starve. So I'm the most important and I should be in charge." The legs said "Without me we wouldn't be able to move anywhere. So I'm the most important and I should be in charge." Then the rectum, or that little hole in the ass, said, "I think I should be in charge." All the rest of the parts said "YOU?!? You don't do anything! You're not important! You can't be in charge." So the rectum closed up. After a few days, the legs were all wobbly, the stomach was all queasy, the hands were all shaky, the eyes were all watery, and the brain was all cloudy. They all agreed that they couldn't take any more of this and agreed to put the rectum in charge. The moral of the story? There’s no such thing as an insignificant role. Everybody has a part to play in this grand thing we call life. I looked at my job differently then. So what if I did nothing from 9 to 6 but forward emails? So what? It was still a job that was delegated to me and I had to do my best. I believe that outlook has paved the way for where I am now. My supervisor then saw my potential and recommended me to RLS. In RLS, I also started that way. I did nothing but log problems, do minutes of meeting and attendance. It didn’t matter to me. It was a job that I have to do and I had to give my best. I didn’t think much of the fact that I was underemployed and underpaid. I was still in a stage that I had to prove myself to them. This year, they had renewed me and gave me more responsibility. I believe I have garnered their trust and confidence—enough for them to make me RLS’ sole business analyst. I have made friends within the team. I had made friends with other Filipinos as well. I can proudly say I don’t feel I’m insignificant now. But I would have never reached this place if I had dwelt on my feeling of insecurities and insignificance a year ago. This is what I want to share with you all. It is alright to feel insignificant, it is natural, even. But what is not right, is to let this affect how you work and how you deal with others. Honestly, I still have these feelings sometimes. It is a fact that I am a businessperson trying to survive in the world of programmers. But so what? So what if like the ass hole, we do the dirty stuff? Do you think we will survive if our cleaning ladies didn’t attend to our toilets? How do you think the city will survive without the garbage collectors and septic tank companies? Just think about this. No matter what kind of work you do. It matters. It really does.