You're fired.

No, not me. But someone else on the team. It was so shocking coz it was done so quietly. We didn't even realize he left. I saw him walking with the manager and thought nothing of it coz the manager likes to keep abreast with how you're doing. The only thing that was different this time around was that they walked around my way, which was a longer route to his office. So I thought that was weird. Turns out they came around my way instead of going around the other way because they used the conference rooms, instead of the manager's office. Anyway, after I saw the manager and said colleague, I continued with work. A while later the whole team received an email saying that our colleague was leaving to seek other opportunities outside the company. No farewell parties, no thank you for his services. Nothing. I turned around to talk to my mentor and she explained that whenever an email as abrupt as that is sent out, it normally means that it wasn't the person's choice to leave. Bloody hell, my eyes were so wide and I was so shocked that a colleague and friend had just gotten fired! He was asked to leave immediately. He only got to take his keys and bag from his desk and leave everything else untouched. None of us even realized that he had left. No goodbyes, nothing! The team lead knew of course, that he was going. And she said that we were all so engrossed with work, that we didn't even realize that he was taking his stuff to leave. I saw the manager come around to the colleagues cubicle a while later to take his laptop and to lock up all the cabinets and drawers. I could tell my co workers were all trying to ignore the fact that the manager was at our colleagues desk and that, our colleague was gone. Man, what a way to shake up the team! It just seemed so abrupt and sudden! I'm sure it doesn't do well for the team's confidence. I don't know. We were all trying to continue with work... but it was just weird. I was undoubtedly sad since that colleague had been a really nice guy to talk to at work. He was more on the playful side, but I didn't realize that he was underperforming on his job. Apparently he had been given warnings to buck up since he was not meeting his job objectives. And they're been monitoring his internet usage for the past 6 months. Apparently he had his internet privileges taken away from him when he was using it way too much and leaving his work untouched.

How powerful the manager is that he/she can just fire a person without any notice. One day, you're at work, thinking that you'll have this job for a long, long time, and the next, you're asked to leave, escorted off the property and you have to explain to your spouse that you're out of a job. What about the friends you've made at work? Is it even worth the while to keep in touch? Or is it too embarrassing to even see any of them maybe at the grocery store, or at a basketball match? How crushed could someone be to be told that you're not good enough for us, and we're letting you go. It just seems so harsh to me. Some of the reasons are of course valid - for him at least, it seemed like the company gave him 6 months to buck up, but he wasn't interested in doing so. But what if you thought u were doing a good job, but you really weren't?

Anyway, it seems like the office can be really 'fake'. You're always told that you're doing well, your colleagues are more than willing to be friendly and helpful, but really you don't know if they mean it or whether they don't. It's up to you to stand up and ask the manager what you can do to be a better worker and to ask for frank feedback. No such thing as just doing your work and flying under the radar. Flying under the radar doesn't seem like a safe choice at all. In this country you have to stand up and make sure that people hear how hard you are working. In my department anyway, it seems that anyone could be stabbing you in the back. If it makes them look better, it's for their benefit to put you down as much as they can. I never knew it could be this way, but I just feel like I have to really protect myself and my job and not to take it too personally. At the end of the day, I'm spending time to ensure that the company is succeeding and I'm getting paid to do so. It doesn't dictate my personal life. Colleagues will always be colleagues. And I'm going to try as hard as I can to make sure that my personal life isn't shared unnecessarily.

So that's that. A long entry after such a long time of being away. It's so boring to write about work anyway. :p