BUS 520 - Reflections: Strengthen Others Part II

This incident occurred when I was doing translation work for a food company. At the time, I was the Japanese translator that the company had used to communicate with their clients from Japan. As always, I had given my 110% to my work. At some point, the CEO of the company recognized my contribution, and promised me that if I stayed on with them for a while longer, he would promote me to general manager in one of the field offices that will be located in China. To demonstrate that I have what it takes to be a general manager, in the months that followed I was given more work and more responsibilities. In fact, I was doing everything from making copies to making business trips to meet clients overseas. Again, I sacrificed a lot of my personal time to making things work

When the field office opened in China, however, I was NOT given the general manager position. In fact, I was no given anything. There was no promotion, no raise, and no time off. When I approached the CEO of this matter, he simply denied that the promise had ever taken place. His exact words were: "I didn't promise you anything. And besides, I think you are fine where you are right now."

In my mind, I felt really really pissed off. At the same time, I felt really powerless. When he made that promise, it was a verbal agreement between me and him, and there was no way to confirm this agreement ever took place. I remember feeling really disappointed, and thinking to myself: "I made all that sacrifices for nothing..." The next day, however, I quit. I mean, if the CEO isn't a responsible and respectable human being, then I do not wish to work for that company.

I guess that the lesson that I learned from this incident is that in everything that I do, I should always protect myself first. Although I will still devote myself to my work, I am definitely not going to let this incident happen twice.