The Voice
It was somewhere in June, when I decided that it was time for me to leave the company. I’d been thinking about it thoroughly and I’ve stayed for a year to see the progress and possibilities before I made my decision. Despite what everyone said, despite how they tried to convince me that it’s a bad choice, I could no longer stay. Overall, it’s not bad, but I didn’t see any opportunity to develop there.
So one evening, I came to my manager room to talk to him about my plan to leave my position in the next three months. For me, it was a good plan because that would give enough time for the company to look for my replacement as well as for me to look for a new place to work. For everyone else, it was a reckless move.
People told me that I have to find a new job before doing it. They say it will put me in a safer position. But for me, if I no longer plan to stay, they better know it so they can start to look for a new employee. I think a relationship should be mutually beneficial even for the professional working relationship. I don’t want to put the other party in a difficult situation just so that I can be in a safe position. I don’t say that it’s wrong, but it’s a preference. If others think it’s good for them to do it, then that’s what they should do. As for me, I prefer not to. I respect their preference. I think it will be good if they can learn to respect mine too.
So that evening, I came to my manager and told him about my plan. Then the conversation going. After he found out why I wanted to leave, he asked if I’d be interested in moving to different team or do different taskwork. I said yes since there’d be an opportunity to learn something new and develop my skills. He also said that he would give me more opportunity to follow various training and even would like to send me for a few days to the processing team where I’d be able to learn more about business process and all. That sounded good to me.
But that evening, as I was listening to him speaking about all the plan he made for me, I got distracted by the voice I’d never heard before. A girl was singing! I had been there for more than a year and I had never heard anyone sing like that before. I never knew that there was someone on the floor who really love singing to that point.
My friends and my colleagues, even those who like to sing, would only sing inside the karaoke room where the music is loud. If it happened that their voice sounds louder than the music, they would get nervous and ask someone to turn the volume of music up and lower the volume of the mic. Sometimes it’s a bit funny for me. I mean, if you like singing then sing. Why let your confidence interrupt your joy?
But the girl I heard that evening, I didn’t get to see her and I didn’t even know who it was, but I could sense that she sang without a doubt. She sang like she really enjoyed it. My curiosity made me unable to focus on the rest of the conversation. So I was just hearing what he said and nodding. After he finished his talk, I said I was glad about the opportunity, thanked him and leave his room.
While I was walking toward the walk in room, I saw the sister of my colleague was there. She’s a fan of Kpop, so I approached her. “So it was you?” I asked. “It was me what?” she said. “The one who was singing” I replied. “No, it wasn’t me. It was someone on the other side of the room”, she said.
When I get back to my desk I took a peek to the other side of the room and saw only a few people left and it’s hard to imagine that any of them was the one who’s singing. Especially that girl. She had only been there for a month.
But at a later time, I figure out that it was really her the one who’s singing since she kept doing it after that. It was quite enjoyable to listen to her singing. Most of the time, I didn’t even know what song did she sang. But the way she sang.. she sang from the heart.