“Marianne… I made a mistake again in the meeting.”
“What happens?” Half way photocopying her document, Marianne looked at Joyce who hunched her back with her head down.
“Just now… In the meeting, I wasn’t able to catch the whole sentence of the question asked by the director. I asked him to repeat, two times… in that meeting…” Joyce, the newly hired temporary staff to back up Cici, i. e. Marianne’s assistant who went on maternity leaves.
“Oh… I think that shouldn’t be a problem. He speaks fast, with some slang as well. I, sometimes, need to guess his complete sentence too.” Marianne gave it a thought, then said.
“Really? I did apologize to him after the meeting. He said ‘No worries’.” Joyce finally shifted her gaze and looked at Marianne with little relief sparks on her eyes.
“If we were having conference call, it might be even worse. With the microphone and speaker quality on each other’s laptop, and top it off with the internet disruption, ‘Sorry I can’t hear you clearly, can you please repeat?’ can be heard many times. But most people understand that’s unavoidable.” Marianne added.
“I’d try to pay more attention to what other people said to me. That’s my weakness, to be honest…” Joyce admitted.
(There she goes again, head down when she feels insecure or small. But, she’s brave! Dare to admit her weakness in front of others, just like that.) Marianne said this in her mind.
Marianne gave a little pat on Joyce’s back.
“Keep your chin up. We are humans. No one is perfect. Everyone has weakness or in plural, weaknesses. Nothing to be ashamed of.” Her encouraging words successfully received Joyce’s admiring gaze.
“Thank you, Marianne! You’ve always giving me encouraging words. I can’t thank you enough.” Joyce reached out her hand and hold onto Marianne’s right palm expressing her gratitude.
“Come on… Let me tell you something. The me, last time, can’t look at other’s eyes when I talk to them, irrespectively of man or woman.” Marianne lowered her voice and said this to Joyce.
“Really? I don’t feel that from you though.” Joyce’s starred with her eyes wide opened.
“Ha-ha… Back then, I can’t look at other eyes at all. But I know I can’t keep going on like this. So, I went to search for tips to cure this weakness in me. I read from a book, the author said ‘try to focus or look at his or her nose; or another much optimal way, look in between their eye brows.’ So, I tried.” Marianne pointed to the centre of both her eyes when elaborating the solution to Joyce.
“Oh, I see. That way, I can’t really tell that you were actually not looking right into my eyes. Interesting!” Joyce tried it out while looking at Marianne.
“So, you see. At least, you and me, we are willing to face our weakness, acknowledging it and putting efforts to improve it. You thought everyone would do that? NO!”
“Some people, like my ex-boss, didn’t even realize his weakness. Or perhaps, I should say he ignored it. He has no intention to listen to honest feedback from others regarding his bad attitude at work. People like that, do you think he or she would improve for her own sake? If they can’t admit anything wrong within them, if they don’t have their own will to improve it, let me tell you, NO ONE IN THIS WORLD could make them change. No one. My past experiences led me to conclude everything into this quote.” Marianne was a little heated up when she recalled on the working experiences with her ex-boss. Her voice was calm and serious when she emphasized on her quote.
Joyce listened quietly. She tried to digest those words in Marianne’s quote.
Marianne calmed her emotion in the next minute. She looked at Joyce making sure that her anger just now didn’t frighten this young lady.
(She looks okay.)
“Are you joining us for lunch? Robert will meet us at downstairs, in five minutes.” Marianne tried to change the topic to lighten the atmosphere they were in.
“Yes, let me join you guys. Where are going today?” Joyce smiled and quickly walked to grab her wallet from her workstation.
“Robert wants to try the new chicken rice restaurant, two blocks away.” Marianne came back with her clutch bag; walked with Joyce towards the lift.
“Yeah, let’s go!” The foodie Joyce was cheered by that. “Can you tell me a bit more about the bad attitude of your ex-boss? How he didn’t admit his weakness?”
“You sure about this? It might damage your lunch appetite though.” Marianne frowned her eye brows a little.
“No worries! Nothing can affect my appetite. I love food. Ha-ha…” Joyce reassured Marianne.
“Alright then.” Marianne smiled at Joyce’s happy-go-lucky attitude.