Challenge or Conspiracy?

August 5 night is a big night. Yes. SGV 65th Anniversary… Promotions… It should have a party mood! But no… It was not. Because that night was the last breath of life. For me. For our cluster.

Our most senior manager will be leaving the firm for good on that night. Who will celebrate on that? He is one of the few persons I look up to. He’s one of the few good men in the firm. How can you celebrate on that night when he’s leaving?

The party mood that should have clouded the Mida’s Hotel Penthouse turned to be just one of the bad memories ever written in our cluster’s history. We are happy for him, of course! But having no eldest brother in the family, having no leader that will lay the foundations for our actions and our future plans, having no one to look up to – that makes the party mood wane so abruptly.

The party has just started, with the newly promoted partners jamming with the band one of the young partners founded. But the noice, the screaming, the wine and liquor, and the hundred others dancing with the music – all these – seem to not exist at that time. Our eldest brother is making his last message to the cluster. “Kayo na bahala sa cluster! Huwag muna kayong umalis!” Those were the words. And it is the most awful party I ever attended.

And yes, I was promoted on that night. It’s great, isn’t it. What I do not know is that there is a looming catastrophe.

Just two weeks after our most senior manager left, three more were leaving. That left me as the last soldier standing. That left me responsible for 30 younger people shaping their careers. That left me more than 20 audit accounts for the next busy season. That left me do quality control reviews for about a hundred financial statements. That left me the challenge to lead 30 younger people for yet another challenging busy season.

And now, I was really not decided what to call it. A challenge or a conspiracy. The idea of it being a conspiracy was that they all left at once. And they left me alone.

I’m praying that I won’t collapse at the middle of it. I know its the hardest test. But what can I do?

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