casual girl

The emancipation project takes a back seat for now. Its better this way than to be a speeding train that cannot be stopped in its tracks.

I originally have as a target, a writing post at another office in our department; for which i already got a marginal note from atty. kimberly telling director chuvakelz that i be interviewed and tested immediately for said post. Acting on said note, director chuvakelz asked me to provide a copy of my resume to our human resource department.

Seeing the magical marginal note, director eklavoo of human resource immediately wrote to chuvakelz stating that i lack the required four years of professional writing experience needed for the post; and for that i cannot be considered—even the magical powers of atty. kimberly’s marginal note on my letter looses its powers at some point.

Though that might be the case, chuvakelz later tells me that there is a position lower than the writing post i was aiming for, but still a notch higher than my current position. The job description: same as what i am currently doing, only there, over the rainbow, i will be much better paid. Plus, there’s an actual chance to be trained for the writing post, so when an opportunity presents itself again, i will be in a much better position to apply for it.

Chuvakelz told me that there is already a casual employee under their payroll targeting said post. Its an established culture in the company that position openings are announced for formality, but in reality, casual employees doing the requirements of said posts are already groomed to clinch em when they are finally approved by the management to be opened. I dunno her reason for telling me such; it might be my credentials, or it might still be the kimberly note—she told me it wouldn’t hurt to have a go for it, seeing that its a ‘level playing field anyway’, in her own words.

Those were her words to me. but doing my research, it seems that the whole office already knows that the position was already ‘meant’ for casual girl; meaning, naipangako na ni chuvakelz. Even my sanggang dikit in that office thinks it so.

But since desperate times, er i mean, krissy times, call for desperate measures, i decided to fight it out with casual girl knowing my college degree is a perfect fit for the job. And so i did my research on casual girl, before plunging head-on with the fight. What i discovered froze me to death.

i turned out that she was the same girl who approached me at the flag ceremony a month ago, encouraging me to apply for a writing post in their office. I mean, i didn’t know her personally—i see her walking along the corridors, a little smile here and there, and that’s it. So to approach me like that—that gesture made me so thankful; because the information she shared to me came at that point in my professional life when i needed it most—a means to fly away from krissy.

But what is the good in flying out of krissy’s grasps if i land in some place else where someone would harbor ill-feelings toward me for having stolen a regular position that was promised to her? Getting that post will not cause her to loose her job. Casual employees in our office are permanent fixtures. They just renew their contracts the minute they expire. But still, a regular post would mean a lot to one’s self esteem, and one’s benefits upon retirement. i know that for myself, as i too, had been a casual employee for three years before getting the regular position i hold now. Its a hard life.

I already decided to wait a little longer. Let casual girl have the post. I just have to toughen my krissy defenses a little more.

kaya mo pa? : the emancipation chronicles

Voice small and cracking, i tentatively recounted to atty. chenelyn Kimberly the now famous “i will go to great lengths para sirain kita kay [state position here]” line that krissy seductively whispered to my ear in that not-so-long-ago scene of five years, now pushing six. I told him that it was precisely that line, told with so much venom that turned me to this frozen delight; always thinking of that scene before ever taking one single step to self advancement in times of great opportunity, like position openings in other offices.

Hearing this, and being krissy’s superior several notches up in the hierarchy, it was quite understandable that his reaction be “baka naman sa kanya wala lang yon; i mean, we say things pag nabibigla tayo. Ganon din ako. Pag nasabi na, wala na. Baka ikaw itong nagdala ng hurt for that long, and we know its not good”. As a response, I thought of reciting all the things she has been notorious of doing in the office but i decided not to, for fear that it may come across as character assassination. As parting shot, i just told atty. Kimberly that i didn’t have anybody to talk to, as regard this thing that’s been bothering me; i thanked him for lending an ear, and proceeded to get my resume with marginal note from him telling director chuvakelz of [state office name here] to schedule me for an exam to try out for a writing post.

Later that afternoon, my immediate boss who was also pissed off with krissy told me of her trip to atty kimberly’s office to air out her grievances regarding krissy’s diva attitude. Whereas i was able to hold back and keep to myself the litany of sorrows, my immediate boss went to the extreme of telling atty. Kimberly : “e masama naman po talaga ugali nyan, sir. Umabot nga po sa time na pinitisyon yan na mapaalis sa ofis e.”

Hearing her gush out in seeming girlishness of her accomplishment that day, i told her “kala mo ba ate, ikaw lang?” then i proceeded to tell her of my earlier trip. I finished the tale by asking her, “hindi naman tayo nag-usap sa lagay na yan, di ba no, te?”

Two major points for krissy.