Tuesday, January 16, 2007

In Your Dreams!

Meeting Madness In Our Dreams
This may be the most silliest of all propositions, even though it was only just a dream.

I have a friend whom I go for tea and lunch breaks together in a group of 8 people. He is probably the least known person of all as he hardly gives himself away from beyond his car plate number.

This morning, while we were eating our breakfast, he suddenly blurted out that he dreamt of me the night before!

Ahh... I was in his thoughts. What happened?

He dreamt that the whole office was in the meeting that was chaired by me. Nothing strange about that, though I do not normally call everyone in, just by project basis maybe. ... but I was their boss! Our Operations boss and the manager were laid-off and I took over operations!

In the meeting, I was stern-looking and serious, listening to their presentation, but not being impressed or happy with it.

He suddenly woke up at about 5:00am in the morning and could not fall back to sleep afterwards... either probably from a distraughting thought of me being at the "helm" or the fact that we are facing another "restructuring." The latter is evident.

I burst out laughing spontaneously. Honestly I thought it was one of the most absurd thing that could possibly happen in real life. Impossible and silly!

Meeting To Justify Our Existence
I was told that superstitious Chinese believe that whatever happened in the dream will happen in real-life; only in the opposite manner. That probably translated to me being fired! Yikes!

The good thing about it is that it was just a dream and I am not Chinese. I am also far from being superstitious. Phew! Hopefully Phew?

Well, eventually time will tell if any of us will become redundant once one of our Customers has finally pulled out starting end January and if there is nothing new to justify our existence there.

To me, this dream is one manifestation of our worried minds since the shocking revelation that one of our biggest customer had to pull out for a much lower cost manufacturing in China.

I knew how the Americans and the Europeans felt when we went over to do project transfers to Singapore. With that, they lost their jobs to a lower cost country. That was then.

And now, we get to actually feel how they felt within my lifetime, that such thing is happening to us in Singapore; projects migrating to China. A vicious cycle, I guess.

I have to admit I harbour fear of loosing my job too with a recent dream of mine.

All Caved-in Nowhere To Go
I dreamt I was trapped in a cave with another colleague that I have the least contact with. He and I, and two Caucasians were all in our office attire, trapped in a leaky cave with a big boulder blocking what it looked like an entrance... or our exit?

We were all trying to find our way out, but my colleague was the most panicky; climbing up and down the big boulder trying to find a crack for a way out. I was there looking at him helplessly and trying to console him that things are going to be alright.

I take it that the two faceless Caucasians were our Customers that came here to announce their pull-out, and maybe that big boulder is something that could force them to stay put.

If I leave it to the Chinese interpretation of the dream, it would be the opposite. I would be the one panicking! Maybe I was trying to convince myself?

I think that many dreams are silly and meaningless to me. The many past events and lingering thoughts; fears and happiness all fused together in a haphazard way to form a somewhat, silly sketches in our dream.

I know my mind tells me to go take a piss when I dream of going to a very dirty toilet that I cannot go. I had to find a cleaner one to do my business... that sort of silly triggers.

Then again, if there is that one chance in a million years that his dream came true, and I was the helm of operations, wonder what kind of a boss will I be... hmm...

Yeah right! Dream On!

8 comments:

  1. Dreams are really intuitive. I find the interpetaion of dreams to be quite interesting.

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  2. Hi Imran, I agree with your thought that the dreams are a manifestation of the anxiety you and your co-workers are feeling about the future of the company and your jobs. Maybe the dreams will help you talk to yourself and each other about your feelings. They may also provide an opportunity for rehearsing things that might happen, and envisioning your responses. As for the idea of a dream predicting the opposite, I think I am with you in not sharing that superstition.
    I hope you and your friends at work have some happy, funny, silly dreams, and that the scary ones have some kind of benefit for you as you go through this anxious time.
    mp

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  3. Everyone at your office probably has the same fears that you do. I hopr your company can stat afloat Imran. Make sure plan B is ready, just in case.

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  4. I really hate it that you're having to go through all of this. I hope that things will calm down soon.
    Don't worry about the dreams, though. I'm sure that they are happening due to your worrying.
    You're still in my prayers.

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  5. I think that dreams are a way for us to express our fears and for the subconscious to try to figure out a solution.

    Just a wild try at interpretation but perhaps your co-worker trust you ande would like to talk to you about his job concerns.

    Your dream sounds like a response to his. (Him being the panicking co-worker)

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  6. Hello All,

    Thank you for stopping by. Appreciate your comments and thoughts for me here.

    C-Dell | Sometimes it intrigues me, sometimes it seemed so very real and at times it was just plain ludicrous.

    I find that I have more rested sleep when I don't dream. Then again, maybe because I was just too tired.

    MomPoet | Thanks for the your thoughts. I know I don't think it is opposite.

    It somehow is a replay of the events that happened and the response of what might happen. I totally agree with you. You put it better and clearly for me.

    We are very practical on this issue and we are preparing ourselves psychologically for whatever that is going to happen or not happen at all, good or bad.

    Everyone has some kind of a contingency plan for the well being livelihood-wise. Hopefully it get executed and planned well enough if really any of us had to use the contingency plan.

    Barbara | The company as a whole is doing incredibly well. This subsidiary is weak on getting new accounts.

    Maybe premature to mention, but something good is brewing with another account that may just save all of us. Looks good so far.

    Andrew | My last project transfer was in Huber Heights, OH a few years ago.

    The completion of the transfer means the loss of jobs from some people there.

    I didn't feel good doing it at all, and I am feeling the same as what some people in Ohio felt. Can't help it, it is just how the way of the world goes.

    Carol | Yes! It seems a perfect puzzle piece matched.

    Thanks for the analytical approach to these weird dreams that we've been having. We know that our anxieties brought on these dreams, but your explanation actually makes sense to me. Hey you're good! Thanks.

    Weekend is coming soon. Have a great one with your family and friends! Thank you again for your thoughts and prayers.

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  7. Interesting observations- as always imran!
    I heard a radio program one time about a guy who did a study about what you eat before going to bed and how it relates to the kinds of dreams you'll have. He specifically studied cheese. He found that depending on what kind of cheese the people ate, they had different types of dreams (for example, one group ate swiss cheese and they overwhelmingly had some form of flying dream....etc)
    It was a weird but interesting program!!

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  8. Dreams can be very strange. I have had some doozies in my life. It's true that it is usually because I'm stressed about something. But not always. There are times I wake up laughing wondering where in the world that dream came from. I pray all will be well with your job.

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Hello Everyone,

Thank you for stopping by and leaving me your messages. I will also try to answer any questions you may have for me.

Thanks again and have a good day.

Regards,
Muhd Imran
PAL Blogger