How Are You Justine?

"The beauty of life does not depend on how happy you are, but how happy others can be because of you."

Photo by Noah on Unsplash

I worked in three multinationals for a total period of 15 years in Abu Dhabi. Almost every day a minimum of three senior European staff ask me " How are you, Justine?"

In the first 5 years of my career, I was programmed to answer, "I am fine, thank you. "Then I began to think, "The vast majority of people asking me about my well-being are least concerned about my health or wealth."

I started answering in two or three sentences like, "I am not feeling well" or referring to some problems in the office related to my work. That was the time when I heard nasty questions from the same people who said before, "Good Justine" or "Let me know if I can help you in any way?"

I realised in the later years that very few people in an office care about you. Most often people in your office are asking about your well-being as a perfunctory exercise only and not done out of real love or care for you.

But even then, very few senior managers are concerned about you. One such manager who helped me many times during my career was an Irish manager named, Pat Phelan. I am indebted to him for all the good things he did for me and remember him with gratitude at all times.