Seven years

One of my colleagues has quit. I remember one day, not long ago, when I was walking by his desk in the morning and he suddenly said to me, "I'm very tired". He said a lot of his time had been spent running errands for his house, etc. Then he asked me, "Have you ever wondered what you're doing this for?". I was thinking, "All the time." But I remained silent. And he continued to say, "What's the point? We're just crafting papers to put up a recommendation for a decision that has already been made."

I agreed with him, but I also pointed out that I had just started out, but he had been here seven years. He must have had a good rationale to keep doing what he was doing. He told me that he had been asking himself that question since he first started.

Which really made me think. Would I, too, put up with the nagging questions for so many years, only to find at the end of seven years that I still hadn't found an answer to the same questions I had in my first year?

When we had that conversation, I didn't see his resignation coming. So many colleagues complain about how they dislike their work, but not many do something about it. But I'm glad for this colleague. cos I feel like he's on his way to finding out what he wants. Even if he doesn't find what he wants, he did try.