Crisis Comparisons

Two weeks ago, I had a horrid internet connection crisis. It first started out as intermittent connection but then it got worse. I'd only have suspicious patches of connection. Suspicious because there seemed to be a "schedule". I'd only be connected at around 10am, lose connection after lunch and then connection gets back around 3 pm. This weird internet connection schedule recurred for a week in spite of repeated calls to my ISP's customer service. The temptation to rant and rave was great but since I used to work in a call center, I knew those reps there didn't really know what was going on. They are given a set of spiels for the day or week depending on what's going on with the company that hired them. And so I resigned myself to filing a no connection report almost everyday. And as expected, they always promised some sort of action within 24 hours. (eyeroll)


Anyways, my connection crisis persisted for another week getting worse each day until I had no connection at all. Of course my boss had to call me, on a Saturday morning yet! And I found myself at the receiving end of another corporate version of ranting and raving. I think it's my third within my almost four years with the company. Hmm...I'm averaging one per year, aren't I.


What with my crummy internet connection, my work was lagging and my make up schedules were piling up. Not a very good impression on management or the client I was assigned to. I was fully aware of that. But my home-office situation is kinda complicated. Too long to explain here so I'll leave it at that--kinda complicated. Which meant I could not readily go out to some internet shop and continue my work there.


So the pressure was on and I resented the time limit. I had no control over my internet connection. It was my ISP's problem. I thought they ought to cut me some slack. Now I wanted to rant and rave about my ISP and boss. 


And suddenly perspective hits. My personal crisis gets swallowed by Japan's earthquake-cum-tsunami disaster. Talk about crisis! Have they got a biggie in their hands! And I'm suddenly thinking, hey ho! compared to theirs, my internet crisis doesn't even register on the crisis scale.


While I got annoyed over intermittent/zilch internet in my home, imagine how a lot of Japanese were not only annoyed over the sight of their cars and neighborhood being swept away by an angry rush of water. While I sulked over my boss' irate phone call, too many Japanese people were too numbed to discover they no longer had jobs or sources of income.


Even if I can argue that a crisis can be relative and any one's crisis can be real as real can be no matter how small it may seem to others, still you have to get the right perspective. See the bigger picture. Only then can you shut up and be grateful. =)