2020 Taught This Proud Planner To Take It Easier & Value Herself

Yes, 2020 was tough on many organisations; but that doesn’t mean your your employer can take over your life completely!

If the year 2020 had to be described in a line, it could be rightfully said in the cool millennial lingo, “2020 was the year, when life showed us who was the boss.”

Especially for all those humans who have prided themselves on their planning skills, 2020 showed us the need to pause and rethink and yes, we did ask ourselves: “Were we really as sorted to the T, as we believed?”.

The lockdown imposed to curtail the spread of COVID-19 brought life to a standstill and led to an economic downturn, but it also gave us an opportunity to pause, breathe and catch up on the lost time with our loved ones.

While I would agree the lockdown did give me much needed family time, it was the months which followed the lifting of the lockdown which came as a challenge to me. I was working with a start-up which had suffered considerable loss of business during the lockdown and with the businesses opening up, we were expected to put in the maximum effort to cover the losses. So far it was fair enough and like a diligent employee, I put in my best efforts to improve the Company’s position.

Loaded with work, taken for granted

I was given additional responsibilities which I tried delivering to the best of my abilities without much guidance or support from the management. But problems started, when I realised that I was being taken for granted. I was heading a small team which was loaded with far more work than was deliverable and I would be berated for any small mistakes created; I would be called for meetings on the weekend and neither would person who had called the meeting turn up, nor would the change in plan be informed to me.

Eventually, I started facing interference from people to whom I was not reporting and who just wanted to wield power with the attitude of a bully, because they were related to the person at the helm of affairs in the organisation. I questioned this interference which was met with further drama and I was told that I was not to question the volume of work or clients being rude and was expected to just keep working.

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The fact that I was putting in 13-14 hours of work a day for six days a week and sometimes even on Sundays didn’t seem like an issue and I was just expected to keep pushing myself. This led to me taking a spontaneous decision for my sanity and I sent my resignation letter. The planner in me was still reluctant about the decision and I kept questioning myself whether I had been foolishly impulsive. But when my exit interview was taken in writing through a word document which was never responded to, I could not have been surer of my decision. An organisation which does not value me and was ready to neither acknowledge their shortcomings nor encourage feedback is not worth my efforts or stress.

I learnt the importance of standing up…and walking away too

This incident in the past year has moulded me for the better in life. Those four gruelling months and the unsupportive bosses and the unwarranted inference in work taught me to appreciate my previous bosses who had encouraged me to grow professionally even more. It also made me realise the importance of standing up to a bully and most importantly, that not every battle has to be fought tooth and nail. Sometimes, the biggest victory we can have is by moving away from the negativity. The planner in me, surprisingly, has learnt to take it easy.

2020 was a roller coaster year and it was the year I surprised myself by making a decision which was not brooded over or meticulously planned, but a decision which I have felt good about.

As we enter 2021, I want to savour each day as it comes. I have been working at improving my writing skills and have decided to subject my readers to at least one piece of writing every week. I am joyous of this plan – whether the readers are, only time will tell!

I am also looking out for work in my core area, but I am not going to stress and berate myself over it. In this new year, I aim at prioritising the one person who is very essential to my existence: myself.

With this new year, as I wish for new beginnings and a life without the fear of Corona Virus and hope of stepping out without the face masks, I also wish to get calmer. The planner in me shall be working when required but will not get worked up when the plans do not get executed to my satisfaction.

Yes, the mandatory new year resolution stays, I am going to work on getting thinner, (no, this time it’s going to be healthier.) I have decided to embrace reality and have accepted that how ever much I dream of having the perfect physique like Shilpa Shetty or Priyanka Chopra, I am going to be myself, so its time I indulged in self-love and work towards making myself healthy.

I wish all of you reading this a happy and fulfilling 2021.

Image credits Wavebreakmedia/Getty Images, via Canva Pro

First published here.

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