My Aunt has been planning for so long to resign from her work here in Manila as a Family Cook. She already had enough savings to do so and had already established her daily living plan when she comes home. Her business in our province is already running and has been managed by her trusted brother and nephew.
Last Monday, she finally had enough courage to talk about it with the boss. She asks for resignation and told our boss that she badly wanted to retire already. Well, she is already 65 years old and that is already a good age to start her retirement plans.
Her reasons are good but the boss didn't agree. She cried in despair. Truly disappointed with the boss' decision, she continues to plead. But the reasons that the boss' had given were also reasonable enough to stop her from leaving.
Here's why;
There's still Covid-19.
There's no replacement yet.
Strict travel protocols.
I'm not being biased but I agree with this. Even I also badly wanted to resign and go home because I also miss my family so much but in this kind of situation, for now, I think we should not tolerate our emotional desires to cloud our rational judgement.
Let me explain it further.
There's still Covid-19. Even though we say that we will be careful on the way, it is still not guaranteed that you will be perfectly safe from getting the virus. Since the virus is airborne, it isn't really safe to be outside for so long. Specifically that you are traveling, there is a huge chance that you'll be infected since traveling from Manila to Negros isn't just a 15 minutes ride on a bus.
It's a 45 minutes travel by plane and you have to take another ride with a taxi or bus from the airport to your final destination. Along the way, there so many people that you can encounter. You can't also be sure if they are carrying the virus or not, everybody can be a suspect. Considering my Aunt's age, she is highly vulnerable to be infected.
There's no replacement yet. My Aunt isn't just a family cook. She also cooks for all the people of our boss' company. Imagine, she will feed 40 people a day and she is just the only person to do the job without any assistant. She's been working here already for almost 20 years now and that's her job every day.
She isn't a professional cook, so she endured it just for the sake of her family. But now that her mother had passed away and her child had a stable financial income, she longed to resign so that she can rest and enjoy her retirement. Unfortunately, there's no replacement for her yet, so she had to wait until there's one available.
Strict travel protocols. Aside from expensive transportation fares, at this time that Covid-19 is still on the rise, strict travel protocols haven't been lifted. You have to observe safety measures strictly and do a SWAB Test before leaving. But before you can leave here, you should get a schedule of arrival from your local government in your place of destination so you can avail yourself of quarantine slots. You also have to get a travel pass from the local government here and medical certification.
You can't go home directly if you can't observe those protocols. It's 10 days of isolation in your local quarantine site and does a SWAB Test again before you can freely go home. It's a kind of a hassle to undergo many procedures. If you don't have a virus before you leave, maybe you can get it on the way, considering how long those procedures are implemented and there are also so many people to be encountered in the way.
Closing Thoughts
In my perspective, it's better to consider your safety more than your emotional will. Emotions can change from time to time, it just depends on how do you do and how influencing is the people around you. I'm also planning to go home but I think this isn't the best time to do so. Moreover, if I do insist, there's still no new job for me to apply over there. I think it's good to stay a little longer and wait for the right time.
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Thank you for reading until the end. Stay safe and God bless us all!
Lead image source: Rozee.pk
