The Reason

An inherent job for me is to be the sound board for the problems of your workers whether they may be job related or most of the time they are just personal problems of your people. I have counseled lots and lots of workers who would submit to me their resignation letters telling me of their sad plight and as a person I would normally believe their stories because I believe in the paradigm that “All men are generally good.” (No intention to be sexist but that includes women) so I would generally believe that they are not lying…but I have also met a good number of people lying through their teeth…complete with crocodile tears telling me how urgent it was for them to be able to go home…(Showbiz...or bollywood time...I even had one who knelt and was tugging on my trousers o be allowed to go home...geezz)

It is always not easy to resign your job here overseas especially with an OFW who is heavily in debt and had to escape the inert economy of the country that is controlled by oligarchs and big business that could not provide him a decent job on the first place…shame on them...because they wanted the poor to be poorer and the rich richer...couldn't care less as long as they have their starbucks and all...but alas the under privilege class where many workers belong arrive as migrant workers...exploited by big recruitment businesses (again) and many loan sharks (lending business again)...and what may have you...everybody seems to have a cut in his earnings even before he has arrived to earn his earning???what Irony is that!!!

He may be with the company of many other OFWs but he is generally alone in his own world here overseas…his life centered on how to provide with his family…with text messages incoming specially when the money sending time is apparently approaching…and all the money exchange centers are flooded with migrant workers sending their earning home...I could see them holding on to their money for just a few hours or days before it is remitted to their love ones...and I would also see some workers holding a blank stare at the people sending money because maybe he could not send any money because he lost it in a card game...as I have been told by one gambler worker...who was trying to double his money in a card game because he needed too much money to pay for a debt...and he ended up loosing all his earning instead....

Sometimes the people you love most…or your family they do not know that an OFW is not a worry proof person, He is not that strong emotionally although He may want to feel and think that way… I believe that he has strength and courage but likewise vulnerable to so many things that could have been avoided in maintaining a certain mind set here working abroad …I have encountered an OFW who is constantly bombarded with text messages and being miscalled by his wife who tries her best to tell him all that is happening in country as if he the OFW is just beside her …every teeny weeny bit of gossips and all ...we had one worker who was penalized for texting during work hours because he almost fell of a crane…and the people back home don' have any idea he was standing on one...that's technology for us now...and much of his earning go to pay for these sms and voice calls…

There are those who are always reminded of debts to pay needing money, family that passed away needing money, school fees that needs payment needing money, lights and water, telephone bills, grocery, school supplies, etc…all needing money… no wonder he was bound to get crazy…this other poor guy we had to send home because he lost his wits and gone bonkers

What are the main reasons why an OFW would want to resign his job and go back to his country and not finishing his contract?

Family problems is one major factors that I have always encountered and most of the reasons are that his wife left him for another man and abandoned their children, there is no one to take care of his child/children because extended family care takers such as in laws, brother or sister have gone, he wife got sick or met an untimely death and died, death in the immediate family, Lingering illness of wife or children, Mother or father is sick and dying but most of the time the reason is the mother most probably to have a more sympathetic excuse to go home, Health problems for the worker – physical and mental, medically unfit

There are those who say that it’s the working environment they are in, and an OFW might not like the company that he is working for due to poor management, working conditions, food, accommodation, salary, and a great many reasons one could always think of which may be genuinely true…to the believer

In my country we have a saying that says “Kung gusto may paraan, kung ayaw may dahilan.” In simplistic terms that would mean that if you want something there will always be a way or means to get what you want but if you don’t want or like to do something one could always a zillions reasons not to do it or want it.

There are also those who are genuinely afflicted by home sickness which is likewise psychologically incapacitating for workers who could not handle it…this is a debilitating situation that if unnoticed could lead to suicidal tendencies…If I notice a person with manic depressive behavior I would generally sound an alarm for them…

Generally it boils down to having a positive or negative attitude…When I am approached by workers I would generally sort them out between a positive person and a negative one… When I notice that he is a negative person I would immediately brush him aside and tell him direct I don’t want to speak to negative people…because nothing positive comes out of it…we will just be having a very unhealthy discussion that would most probably end in an argument…so I am sorry…I don’t deal with such kind of people….Only those people who have a positive outlook in life and in their jobs are worth talking to…I may be biased in this regard…but experience has told me I am right…and seldom wrong…

There was this person that I talked to and he was complaining about his salary, He old me my salary is very low compared to others, etc. and every where he went he was always bent making surveys by asking the salary of other people…and each time he finds one that has a salary higher than himself he would make a notch in his mind “See I am correct my salary is low” but he doesn’t count those people who have a much lower salary than himself which is quite more numerous…because he doesn’t SEE it!!! and he doesn’t want to see it…he only sees what he wants to see…same with a negative person, he will only see the negative things…and the positive things are not seen…

And praise goes to the OFW that I have met who is the embodiment of a dedicated worker and family man …I never heard him complain not because there is none to complain about but rather he has a different attitude…once I asked him any problems? And He told me…”Yung nasa cementeryo lang ang walang problema.” (Meaning only the dead people in the cemeteries have no problems)…How’s your job? “Ganoon pa rin mahirap pero kaya naman…Pinasukan ko eto eh dapat panindigan…Isang taon nalang uwi na ako…(Life is the same…its hard but I can manage…I wanted this so I have to stand tall and bear with it…one year to go and I’m going home)…I guess what’s keeping this guy’s spirit is He knows that someday soon he looks forward to the day that he will go home and be with his family again…rather than whine on the things that he cannot change…he chose to be positive and look towards the day I’ll be wishing him well as I take him to the airport on his way back to the Philippines… I believe I like this guy…and I know a winner when I saw one…