RM0.50

I am not sure if I am supposed to be happy with what I have grown into especially for these past few years. Is it for the better or for the worse?

I used to be a happy-go-lucky type of person, doing my best to squeeze every single day dry as if there would no tomorrow coming. In short, I was like the grasshopper where daily fulfillment came first before anything else.

However, slowly but surely, I am changing. Working life has inadvertently introduced me to a series of acquaintances such as Ms. Responsibilities, Mrs. Loans, Mdm. Savings, Mr. Bills and many more. All these new colleagues of mine have one thing in common; they love James Bond movies. Their favourite? No, not Tomorrow Never Dies but Tomorrow You Will Die.

The grasshopper, finding the need to do so, transformed himself into an ant to make hay while the sun shines, all in the name of tomorrow.

Some of you might argue that this is in fact a personal improvement, something that I should be proud of. Well, I definitely love to hear that but too bad, everything in this world is packaged together with the pairing of pros and cons tagging along. Take into consideration the following scenario:

Recently, I discovered that my August pay slip was short of RM400.50. I emailed the HR department & CC-ed in my current team boss. A few days later, HR replied that it could be due to my boss approving my OT claim late.


Come red.

Now, do bear in mind that I have changed a few bosses for the recent few months so I was not even sure which boss HR was referring to. From what I have calculated though, HR was the party at fault. With so much ambiguities floating around, I decided not to point fingers around and consulted my current team boss.

For your information, my company will allocate employees on standby an amount of RM50 per day. Boss advised me to claim 8 days of standby in my latest OT claim to clear the debt.

8 * RM50 = RM400.

But hey, company owed me RM400.50! Sensing my dissatisfaction, boss advised me further to forget about the RM0.50. Give and take, he said.

Give and take? Sure, I give company RM0.50 and company take it from me. That is the only give and take going on here!

One of my colleagues even teased me about the RM0.50 and offered to top it up for me from his own pocket. Somehow, I got the impression that no one was able to look at the injustice from my very own perspective.

-sigh-

I do not mind treating anyone to a meal if I feel like doing so for it is a voluntary intention. Heck, I do not even see any problem giving away RM100 to some charity bodies for it is my freedom. Robbing me off my RM0.50 when I worked for it is another issue altogether! It has been my philosophy that if it can happen once, it will happen twice. This time, it is just RM0.50 but how about next time when it involved more than that?

To most of the people out there, I am a damn calculative and stingy person. Yes and no. I am calculative but I am not stingy. At least, I have yet to stoop so slow as to tell everyone that I only have RM8 in my wallet all the time. :D

Frankly speaking, I do not know whether my response to the RM0.50 would have been any different had I continued being a grasshopper. Grasshopper or ant, to be or not to be?