Saturday, May 21, 2022

Bigger Fish To Fry (MY Eng #50)

This is part of a running series about English idioms - less about language, more about life itself. Previously, we covered 'missing the woods for the trees', 'the elephant in the room', 'practising what you preach', blowing hot and cold', 'no smoke without fire', 'one swallow does not make a summer', 'apples and oranges', 'cut to the chase', 'leave no stone unturned', 'that's the way the cookie crumbles', 'can't have your cake and eat it too', 'old is gold', 'putting the cart before the horse', 'mountain out of a molehill', 'pot calling the kettle black', 'bite the bullet', 'go the extra mile', 'silence is golden', 'the devil is in the details', 'sink or swim', 'once bitten twice shy', 'don't count your chickens before they hatch', 'don't put all your eggs into one basket', 'chicken and egg', 'walking on eggshells', 'flogging a dead horse', 'better late than never', 'storm in a teacup', 'between a rock and a hard place', 'darkest before dawn', 'empty vessels make the most noise', 'birds of a feather flock together', 'separate the wheat from the chaff', 'let sleeping dogs lies', 'open a can of worms', 'light at the end of the tunnel', 'trial and error', 'look before you leap', 'lightning in a bottle', 'on the same page', don't judge a book its cover', 'reinvent the wheel', 'shifting gears', 'throwing in the towel', 'jump on the bandwagon', 'passing the buck', 'breaking the ice', 'cracking the code' and 'when it rains it pours'.

Why is the direct manager unresponsive to urgent emails?

Why is the team lead not giving any proper instructions on the next step?

Why is the boss not listening to me?

Deal with it. Suck it up. The world doesn't spin around you, kiddo. People have their own set of problems to settle. Your issue is miniscule, a drop of water in the vast ocean.

* * *

It's really that simple. You're not important in the greater scheme of things. People can't be bothered attending to your woes because they have bigger fish to fry.

In life, you just have to get used to being shunned, dismissed or even ignored. Especially when you're low in the pecking order, at the bottom of the food chain (two idioms in one!).

So how do you get people to notice you? To spare a thought for you? To care for your feelings and concerns?

You can try waving your hand, shouting, or even spam constant gentle reminder emails. But if that doesn't work, then perhaps you just have to face the cold hard truth - that you're in the wrong pool, swimming with the wrong type of fishes...

* * *

Yes, we just have to accept that sometimes, we're not high on the priority list of people close to us (or so we thought). We've been taken for a ride. We've been taken for granted.

There's only one solution. Cut your losses, swallow your pride, and move on. If you're treated as a tiny and dull fish in a pond, then that pond just isn't for you. Swim to another pond, find another home.

Life is too short being someone's small fry.

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