Scary!!

Perhaps a bit of a background before I go into my gist.

I work for a multi-national company, which is currently in the throes of "right-sizing (read down-sizing) no thanks to the current global economic crunch. The bottom line is that there is a lot of re-structuring going on and nobody is sure whether they will be asked to stay or leave. Everyone is waiting with bated breath for the final report and the release of the new organogram.

So, you can imagine my horror when I received a text very late at night yesterday, from my company's "service desk" informing me that I had been scheduled for a one on one meeting with my director. The text was however, silent on the agenda of the meeting. Whoa!!!!!!

I experienced for the first time in my life, what is commonly described as cold sweat; you know, that feeling where you have chills running all through your body and break out sweating like a Christmas goat all at once. (do they actually sweat?)

Now folks, a meeting with my director would normally not even earn a second thought from me. But in this uncertain times, that sounded like a death knell. I mean this meeting is so important that they had to send me an sms at close to midnight rather than wait for me to get into my office the next day. This was definitely no ordinary meeting. I looked across at my little tot running around the living room happily screaming at the top of her voice; I looked forlornly at my heavily pregnant wife lying on the sofa across from me. Only one thought came to my mind: What do I do if my director informs me that I am one of those declared surplus to requirement by the company?!!!!

It is strange how minor things like a text message in the middle of the night can jolt you and cause your whole life to flash before your eyes. Make you realize that you are actually walking on thin ice that could give way any minute. I couldn't sleep anymore. What's worse, I couldn't tell my wife about my fears cos I didn't want her getting all worried and upset in her condition. My mind just kept doing somersaults into a future, which had suddenly taken on a grey hue. Questions were climbing over one another in my mind:

Am I out of a job?

Would I get another?

How long would it take before I get anothe rjob?

Do I still want to work for someone or should I see it as the hand of God and pursue my personal dreams?

How long will my grossly depleted savings last?

So many questions in my head but no answer was forthcoming.

Thankfully, I woke up a short while later, sweating profusely and heaving a sigh of relief when I realized it was all a dream. Or was it? I wondered as I reached for my phone. Sure enough, there was an unread text message on it: I was too scared to open it...when i eventually got the courage to do so, i realized it was just a text advertizing one of ur products to all customers...

Am I getting paranoid? You answer me.

I say I dey come...