Accompanying a king is just like accompanying a tiger- 伴君如伴虎

As part of the life of a working employee, one must always serve the call of his or her CEO at all times. Sometimes, when the CEO is in good mood, the boss will throw in a bone or two along with compliments on how value adding you are to him. At other times, when the CEO is in a bad mood, he will grill you with questions to make you feel speechless and look stupid. Not that one likes to be made speechless but those who have been working long enough will know that in Asian context, talking back too often and making the boss looks silly will most likely result in being blacklisted as well as to suffer a miserable future fate. Or worse still, your CEO then begin making plans to remove you immediately. The prospect of losing your job and losing your means to service your housing loan for a decent shelter is not a joke. 

But I guess sometimes, life does throw up unavoidable shit at you. Most people have their own bottom line and dignity- same for me. If you believe something is bullshit, you have to speak up despite knowing the possible consequences. The last time I did that, I was blacklisted for almost 2 months until a team building event. I was sort of forgiven over a team lunch when the boss cut half of his fish & chip and suddenly shared it with me. But not before hearing an analogy about "Being smart is good but don't try becoming a Smart Alec".

Recently, I got blacklisted again. Sometimes, being an accountant has its own occupational hazard. You have to call a spade a spade which always irks the boss. No two ways about it. The only good thing this time round is that I do not feel as stressful as before probably because I have managed to built up some passive income from investment. I had once attended an ethics training course ran by a former chief financial officer of major international banks in Singapore. He told me that an employee must always either invest in property or stocks in order to achieve financial independence. Only with financial independence can one truly adhere to his or her own principles without undue pressure and stress at work. His words resonates with me till this day. To hear a menacing "ROOAAAR"" roar or a mild "Meow" like a kitten thus all resides in one's state of mind.

"ROOAAAR" or "Meow"