Pritam's Blog
It’s Never Too Late To Start Saying No
A colleague brought her kid at work.
No sooner had he entered the office, then the cacophony of keyboards and printers with the occasional abuses being hurled at the associates by the pretentious bosses started to feel like a heaviness on his adrenaline-charged six year old body.
He started composing his own noises, which irritated the serious lot who were wading their time and waiting for the clock to tick six so that they could leave.
At the same time, it brought in some life inside the otherwise mechanical, corporate space.
I felt pity for the kid. This isn’t where he should be, I thought. The very next moment it occurred to me that even I shouldn’t have been here.
But we all have bills to pay, don’t we? So, I had to get back to work. But with the out of place noise, it was getting difficult to concentrate.
So, in an attempt to make the kid sit quietly, I asked him to play office-office with me. I handed over a notebook and a pen to him which he threw away.
And he said, “I don’t want to play office-office.”
“Why? Please play with me. No one plays with me here,” I pleaded.
At this point, he got really pissed off and literally yelled at me, “Why are you forcing me? I don’t want to grow up to work in an office like you people. I want to become an artist.”
A six year old kid, the way he said “No” amazed me. And I thought may be I wouldn’t be in that mechanical, corporate space if I had the courage to say no.
A week later, I gave my resignation letter and quit my job as a telecom engineer.