To Compromise? Or to Stick to One’s Principle?
I have not been having an easy street today making a choice. The person in charge of the panel meeting called and asked me to go back to working for them. But my reluctance inside has been preventing me from taking the path tailored by him
for me, and running to my own path made according to my own principle of career:
If I choose to spend lots of my serious time to do something, it should be helpful to my personal development, and brings me closer to my personal dream. I should under no circumstances sacrifice the majority of my time to be a victim of the bureaucracy so long as I have the right to choose not to.
The fact is, he wants me to sacrifice ten more days for him, while the agreed opportunity of consecutive interpretation has been cancelled on me, while he has been too reluctant to pay me for my work. Then what’s the point of continuing this work?
Let me get it clearer for you.
I have been working for this panel meeting of the oncoming international conference as a translator through self-recommending. The first phase of my work was tough but fruitful. I was in charge of all the 103 abstracts of thesis of the panel meeting though I had to burn the mid-night oil continuously for half a month.
I remember getting up at 7am and sat in front of my computer screen, starting to
work, till 2am late at night did I went to bed. It was the greatest challenge to my body, as I reckon it. But it was done and I was humbly paid (one fifth to one fourth of the market price) and printed as one of the translators. I was satisfied.
But the work was such a daunting one, challenging both in regard of the body and
the mind, that I was unable to walk as steadily as usual and even got slightly
out of breath at the end of it. I took five days off after it was done and gradually resume well enough for normal activities and physical exercises later.
Be it influenced by my educational background as a medical student, I have been
considering a job a bad one if it deprives you of necessary time to spend with your family and friends, or time to spend on physical exercise, as the former makes mental health impossible and the latter physical.
If it does deprive of either of the two mentioned above, or both of them, one should get handsomely paid in money, as part of the make-up.
The fact is, the professor is depriving me of my opportunity to do consecutive interpretation (because they are not able to arrange enough time for consecutive
interpretation) as well as my qualified payment, while my work is a critical part for his panel and he has no other better candidates. Besides, he is neither my
teacher nor acquaintance, and there is nothing like business contact (Can business contact be all about one party wins all the benefits and the other none? The
answer is a “No” to me so long as the other part is not an idiot.). I do not
see any point why I should be doing things for him and neglecting my own.
Of course I could not speak all these analysis above to him, and instead I told
him I am unwell to go forward with such a stressful job. (The fact was, I was sleeping almost all day yesterday due to tiredness) One of the hidden rules here in China is that you never say the true reason to someone who is some kind of bureaucratic political leader, or someone who is depriving you of everything he could to safeguard his interests. Instead, you get some excuses and both of you understand the unspoken words deep down. In doing this, you are making sure he does
not “lose his face”, though it is a private talk and there are no other people around. It is indeed awkward, as I see it.
He demanded a quick reply at the end of the phone call, while I was holding my ground saying “I will reply this afternoon.” Squeezing from his teeth, he said
in an almost mean manner that I will suffer later in my work life for this character of mine. My reply was thank you and I will pay attention to that.
But as someone who takes everything possible as his interest out of even a poor
and humble student who has nothing but her aptitude through hard work, is he qualified to comment on me? Personally, I do not justify his doing so.
