Learning to Stand Up for Myself: My Experience with Self-Advocacy in the Workplace?

Have you ever experienced a situation where people change their behavior towards you as per their needs? Well, I have, and let me tell you, it's not a pleasant experience. However, I am not negative about it because I understand that people do what they need to do. Let me share with you a situation I recently went through.

I work as a business analyst in a reputed company, and when I joined, it was a five-day workweek. However, my manager requested that I support him occasionally when an emergency comes up from home. I agreed, and for months, I worked on Saturdays. One Saturday, I stood up for myself and said that I couldn't work on Saturdays anymore as it was interfering with my personal life. My alternate co-worker refused to take care of the remaining work, and my manager and HR told me that I had to work on Saturdays. After some discussion, my manager asked me to work for two Saturdays, and the remaining would be done by others. However, on the third Saturday, my manager called me and asked why I wasn't working. I explained that I wasn't assigned to work that day and that I had already worked for the first two Saturdays.

When I stood up for myself and refused to work on a particular Saturday, I was met with resistance from my co-workers and even my HR. It was disheartening to see how quickly people changed their tune when their needs were not being met.

I was frustrated and decided to resign. Despite the peak time of layoffs in my country, I was blessed to receive job interview calls from three to four companies. After a month of resignation, my CIO senior to my manager came and asked me about my resignation and the reason. He requested me to withdraw my resignation with an increment. 

However, just when I thought everything was going well, my manager came back with another request. He said that my project was about to end, and I would have to leave the company in 3-4 months. 

This experience taught me that people and companies can be selfish and that they will use you when they need you and toss you aside when they don't. However, I am glad that I learned this lesson because it made me realize that I should never trust anyone blindly, no matter how senior or sweet-talking they may be. It is essential to make our own decisions and not get influenced by others.

But I am strong enough that I can find a job better than this as I believe in my skills and abilities, I know my strengths and weaknesses, I have my goals to achieve, and strong enough that I can deal with any situation positively and I believe in taking care of myself and staying connected to my roots but I was feeling low on one
of those days and picked up a random chit from a bowl filled with positive chits written from the Quran. The chit read, "They planned, and Allah (swt) also planned, and Allah (swt) is the best of planners." This quote gave me strength and reassured me that everything happens for the best. 

In conclusion, I want to say that it's essential to take care of ourselves and not let anyone take advantage of us. We should trust our instincts and make our own decisions. And most importantly, we should always remember that Allah (swt) has planned everything for us and that we should trust His plan.



#WorkplaceChallenges #SelfAdvocacy #CareerJourney #StrengthAndResilience #LessonsLearned #TrustingTheProcess #PositiveMindset #SelfCareMatters #BelieveInYourself #AllahsPlan #FindingBetterOpportunities

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