I was chatting online with an ex-colleague recently, on an all too familiar issue. It relates to striking a balance between doing work which one enjoys and feels is meaningful, and work which is expected of you. Many of us do work which is expected of us – work which we went to university to be trained for, and work which brings home the level of remuneration – money, yes… – which provides us with more than the bare necessities in life. It is work which tells others we are “normal”, part of the crowd, and keeping ourselves honest by keeping our heads down instead of chasing our dreams. It is work which sees us battle each day and let the stress and little niggling unhappiness build up to become, some 10-20 years later, a pile of diseases. The often repeated saying that “one never lies on the death bed wishing he had spent more time in the office” is very true but seldom seems to have any effect on the valiant corporate trooper who trudges into his cubicle each day and crawl out 12 hours later, looking and feeling like a zombie.
 
Blessed is the person who loves the work he is expected to do and continues to have a buzz and unmovable belief that it is his calling in life to do that work. Many don’t.  Many ask this huge question after a while.
 
When I was in Malaysia I often asked myself if it was worth it – the long hours, the stress over unfinished work, unresolved issues and retention of clients. In Malaysia work issues often extend to matters which aren’t really work matters. There was a period of time when I was constantly harassed by government officials who had an agenda to pursue. Regulators came knocking on my office door not to check on the state of the bank but in a witch hunt, to canvass data to for use against persons in the course of a political putsch. That was extremely stressful and I wanted so much to throw in the towel.
 
I distinctly remember planning a holiday with the family, only to be denied the trip because these mongrels impounded my passport. When I confronted them and demanded that they return my passport as I had not breached any relevant (or any) laws and there were no ostensible grounds for their action, they just shrugged. Their excuse was they were in the middle of various investigations (read: they still needed to get more data to nail their master’s political opponent) and they needed me to be around to provide data, information or documents. Malaysia at that time (and to a large extent, in the present day ell) is simply lawless. There is always someone bloody inded enough to do as he will and he will get away with it no matter how unlawful his actions may have been. So, unreasonable or illegal as it may have been, they kept my passport and for a long time too. I recall going away on a trip to watch United play in Old Trafford, I was shaking when I approached immigration, not knowing if I was cleared to leave the country.
 
They may take my passport but unless they threw me in prison on some cooked up pretence I wasn’t going to let them have the pleasure of my company. I promptly checked into the National Park (Taman Negara) where I knew mobile reception was going to be next to non-existent. I stayed there several days, knowing I could in my own little way, get back at them by ignoring them. No one knew I had gone – Tress and Kiddo were on some cruise liner somewhere in Hong Kong and didn’t even know I wasn’t at home. My mother called my home number and my mobile but couldn’t get me on either. I must have been there for a week – walking jungle paths everyday and making friends with a guide. I returned to the park resort everyday however – no mood to be camping. No TV, no telephone, no internet – the only human contact was with foreign tourists, local guides and resort staff. That went some way towards relieving the stress.
 
Even without these distractions, work in Malaysia was always stressful. Unfortunately it is becoming like that here in Melbourne as well.
 
So that ex-colleague contemplated leaving the profession, perhaps for just a while. I don’t know if it would become a permanent move. I doubt it because this person is a good practitioner. It would be a loss not just to the profession but also to the community if the move becomes permanent. Still, it is a gain to the sort of work that would be temporarily be carried out, during this “sabbatical”.
 
 
Someone was sending around Anwar Ibrahim’s recent keynote speech in a business/investment conference in Singapore. He was his usual bombastic and flourishing self, not at all economising on words. His ideas were broad brushed, sound-bite grabbing yet, the delivery was very impressive. It was such a refreshing and novel thing to have heard such a speech from a Malaysian politician. He must have had read widely and perhaps in depth, during his time in prison.
 
Alternatively, someone must have helped him with that speech.
 
And so a mate (who is also an ex-colleague) and I started to exchange emails about the possible source of that assistance. We both thought along the same line as to who might have provided that help. Truth be told, I am so removed from the ground zero that there can be no reasonable guess, but we both toyed with the idea that a formal employer may have had something to do with it. After all, the idea/theme running through that speech sounded like the sort of thing that employer would have written about.
 
Purely as a matter of coincidence, about a couple of hours after that email exchange, I received another email from another ex-colleague. The news was that this former employer was in town and as he usually does, got a few former employees together for a meal. I used to enjoy being at such dinners – it was a great forum to swap gossips and poke fun at various business or political figures. Of course we ribbed each other as much as we do public figures and often, the food would be great as well. Apparently the last one took place just a week ago, where of course the topic abuzz was whether given the current political scenario, this former employer would consider investing in a financial institution again.
 
The ex-colleague who sent me that email sounded very excited. The dinner must have been one where the atmosphere was extremely positive. Apparently they talked also about the new member of parliament of a constituency in KL who recently got extensive press coverage for standing up for ordinary folks.
 
This new MP is a family friend. When he told us he was going to run in the recent election, I immediately put up my hand to support the campaign. Against all expectations, he won. I suppose no one really knew how badly the people wanted to register their protest against the government. Someone mentioned that even if you put a donkey to stand against some UMNO or MCA candidate, that donkey would have won. Well that family friend was no donkey. His late father was a firebrand and he is also proving to be one. When a road concessionaire put up road blocks to force residents of a certain neighbourhood into toll traffic, he stood up for them and fought the concessionaire to the extent of forcibly and personally removing those barriers. For his efforts, he was beaten up by the police. I’m sure the dinner amongst my former employer and my ex-colleagues wasn’t the only one where that brave young MP was the topic of conversation.
 
So, all these are positive stuff for Malaysia. Anwar’s recent speech had pointed out how far down Malaysia has gone in recent years, to the extent that politicians are comparing statistics with African basket cases to show how good Malaysia still was. Having people on the ground being positive is therefore a good fight back, and an essential one. I don’t know however, if conversations like the one my friends had would go anywhere apart from providing everyone with a good time. Nothing wrong with that for sure, but unless such sessions lead to a sustained drive to turn things around, good time among friends would be all that would be served.