Seven - Seven

Seven years and seven months ago, I was handed a task from the youngest colleague in our department as she shifted to a bigger task that our department head assigned to her.

I wouldn’t lie that the task is extremely monotonous and I only have to do it every Monday as the main doer of the task reports to work from Tuesdays to Saturdays. Even if the Saturday team found someone to help them and the main doer of the task is shifted back on weekdays, I still do the task because it has been the norm.

For seven years and seven months, I learned to like the task. As someone who thrives on routine tasks, it was one of the things that I somehow look forward to despite the unpredictable nature of my other tasks. It wasn’t always rainbows and butterflies on doing this task, there are times where I wanna cry because the companies decided to mass send reports into a particular day that I was assigned to do the task.

Imagine during those years, aside from dealing with what we called the seasonal tasks, I’ve also encountered the mandatory change of phone numbers and contingency plan in the midst of COVID where the number would almost double or even triple.

I would sometimes pretend to cry or wail to the main person assigned to that task and then I would sometimes post it on stories (of course confidential info removed), she would just laugh about it as she knew the surge of reports on that particular season would either fall into her hands or into mine.

To be honest, it has been years already since my COO asked me to let go of the task and other tasks my department asked me of, I was the only one holding on… because I would always say people have a lot on their plate so it’s my way of helping the department as a form of a reliever… and this is one the task that I was holding on to.

As much as it sometimes takes a burden, I actually enjoyed doing it, especially a task that doesn’t require much thinking and would actually make you look productive.

Until the first Monday of December came, My COO and I had a very serious talk regarding my tasks in my department. If I wanted to help the company, I have to let go of the things that were holding me back… let go of the things and entrust to the people who would be better off doing it as you deal with more complicated tasks. Similar to that colleague of mine who handed the same task over to me seven years and seven months ago. Finally, I agreed to let go… knowing that it is for the betterment to let go of some things. I guess one can say that things don’t last forever and one should thrive in change… and if we don’t, we would be stuck and we are not only hindering ourselves to grow, but we are also hindering other people to grow or learn other things.

And so as the last working day of the year concludes, it is time to say my one last goodbye as I entrust the task to the next person who would take care of it… and this means I can now focus on what is ahead of me... particularly the tasks where I could help the company more.

So for seven years and seven months, I am saying my last goodbye to the tasks that despite its boredom and sometimes makes me go cray cray, I eventually learn to like and look forward to.