Fred Chiu

Empty

By Fred Chiu
YOU contributor

SOMEONE resigned from her job today at the office, someone nice and sweet and funny and naughty and fun to be with. A friend, actually.

I was running late (again) for work and so I hurried to log in. Behind the table, just a few steps away, was my boss' room. I could see my boss talking to someone and I quickly realized it was Rita. I thought, "What the heck, it's early in the morning and Rita's already reporting to the principal? She must still be trying to get that Employee of the Year award."

A few minutes later, Rita went to my cubicle and I immediately kidded her about talking so early in the principal's office.

She smiled and signaled that she wanted to write something down. So I gave her a pencil and a pad of paper. And she wrote in neat letters the three words: "resign na ako."

"Ows?!" was all I could blurt out. I looked at her incredulously. My face was asking the question this time.

She was nodding and half-smiling, and I was stunned. I slowly erased the words she had written, hoping that somehow it would make her take them back.

"I told him that I'm planning to go back to school again," Rita said.

"Anong sabi ni sir?"

"Wala. 'OK.'"

Rita went back to her cubicle. I tried to gather my thoughts as a sense of helplessness started to grow inside me. I turned on my computer and sent her an instant message: "Napaka-unfair naman... only one person is going to be happy with this development, while 21 others are going to be sad."

She replied: "Binilang mo talaga, ha. Sira. dapat happy lahat."

I typed back: "Happy rin, in some ways... and quite envious, too!"

Sigh. Another employee is about to leave the company, most probably for good. Another seat will be left unoccupied, at least for a few weeks. More tasks will be headed my way for sure, and sadly, another friend will be leaving us behind.

I know that is how things are in the industry. It is but natural for people to come and go. I've been working for more than three years now, and I've seen people, friends, coming and going. But it is just now that I realize that once they go, they seem to fade slowly, gradually and become more and more distant. Almost daily e-mails turn to thrice a week, and then to once a week, to once every two weeks, to once every month... and finally to when you feel like it. Friday gimmicks soon become a monthly happening.

You know that your life will go on, and theirs, too. But sometimes you can't help but think about them, about the good and bad times you've been through together, about the silly stories and green jokes you shared, about the sometimes torturous tasks you've been assigned, about the ridiculous conspiracy theories you came up with to explain the latest moves by the management. And that's when it seems as if someone's missing, as if someone did not go to work that day. That's when you will feel an empty space inside you. That's when you realize, that you are already missing them.