In my previous Life Lately entry, I ended with three words:

We’ll see.

At the time, I genuinely didn’t know what would happen next.

I had submitted my resignation, but because I was required to complete a one-month notice period, management decided to move me from Marketing to another department after everything that had happened with my direct report.

My new assignment?

F&B Host.

I wasn’t exactly thrilled about it.

But apparently, life had one more plot twist waiting for me.

Starting Over in a Different Uniform

Friday, 28 August 2026.

My first day in the F&B Department.

I was nervous, of course.

When I arrived at Bambu Indah, I went directly to the Staff Quarter, where my old office was located, to meet Ibu Nia from HR and collect my new uniform.

While I was waiting, I saw my former direct report.

She saw me too.

There was no friendly greeting this time. No conversation. We simply exchanged cold stares and continued with whatever we were doing.

It felt strange considering how things used to be between us.

People at work had often seen us walking around Bambu Indah together, whether we were hosting media and influencers, supervising photoshoots, or checking locations around the property.

From the outside, I suppose we looked close.

But things were different now.

And I didn’t feel the need to pretend otherwise.

Once I had my uniform, I changed and made my way down to River Warung.

And when I say down, I mean down.

River Warung sits in the lower part of the resort, which meant walking down steep stairs surrounded by bamboo forest, with the river somewhere below.

With every step, I was physically moving farther away from my old office.

In hindsight, maybe I needed that.

Welcome to River Warung

When I arrived, I met Tina, the hostess, who immediately made me feel welcome. I also met Pak Sara, the restaurant manager.

Some of the staff already knew me from my time in Marketing.

Naturally, they were confused.

Why was the Marketing guy suddenly standing at River Warung wearing an F&B uniform? And it was not even the proper F&B uniform.

Eventually, someone asked what happened.

So I gave them the shorter version of the story.

“I thought you both were close,” one of them said.

I couldn’t blame them.

Despite everything happening behind the scenes, I had remained professional while working with my former direct report. I never walked around telling people how uncomfortable I was with the way she communicated or gave feedback.

We had work to do, so I did it.

But that chapter was over.

Now I had tables, guests, orders, and an entirely different team to learn from.

And if I’m being completely truthful, I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy any of it.

Then Something Unexpected Happened

I loved it.

Like, really loved it.

I had worked in operations before, although that was more than ten years ago. Coming back into that environment felt unfamiliar at first.

But the River Warung team made it surprisingly easy.

They were solid, caring, helpful, and fun to work with.

Devi, one of the staff members, would proactively tell me what needed to be done. But there was something about the way she communicated that stood out to me.

She could tell me what to do without making me feel small.

Such a simple thing.

Yet after everything that had happened, I noticed it immediately.

Technically, my main responsibility was to interact with guests and ask about their experience.

But restaurants don’t really care about your job description when things get busy.

So I helped.

I cleaned tables.

Set them up.

Took orders.

Delivered food.

Collected payments.

Talked with guests.

Whatever needed to be done, I tried to do it.

And yes, there was another benefit to working breakfast.

Leftovers.

Once breakfast service ended, we could sometimes have what remained from the buffet for lunch or brunch.

I considered this an excellent employee benefit. 😂

Learning How to Talk to Guests Again

During my first day, I also noticed someone new interacting with guests around the resort.

We exchanged a simple “hi.”

By the second day, I learned her name was Yulitha, the new Guest Experience Officer.

I watched how naturally she spoke with guests. She was engaging, curious, and seemed to know how to keep conversations flowing.

So I approached her.

“What do you usually ask them?”

She gave me a list of questions she commonly used.

And I tried to memorize them.

I could have pretended I already knew how to do everything. I’d worked in hospitality for years, after all.

But this was a different role.

So I learned.

From Yulitha.

From Devi.

From Tina.

From Pak Sara.

From everyone around me.

For those few days, I wasn’t the Marketing person asking operational teams to prepare something for a photoshoot, influencer visit, or campaign.

I was part of operations.

And that changed something.

Seeing the Other Side

My River Warung shift ran from around 9:00 AM until 3:00 PM.

When my break started, I would climb all the way back up to the Staff Quarter and go to the canteen.

There, I met even more people who knew me.

And naturally, the questions continued.

“What happened?”

So once again, I gave them the shorter version.

Most of them already knew that my final day was supposed to be 12 September, once I completed the required one-month notice period.

They encouraged me.

Hang in there.

Not much longer.

You can do it.

And somewhere during those conversations, I realized something uncomfortable.

For the first time since joining the company in April, I felt genuinely connected to the operational team.

Before that, many of my interactions with them had felt transactional.

I needed something.

Marketing needed something.

A guest was coming.

An influencer needed to be hosted.

A photoshoot needed to happen.

Something needed to be prepared.

So I pushed.

Sometimes harder than I probably should have.

It wasn’t because I wanted to be difficult. Much of the time, I was simply passing down what had been asked of me.

But standing on the other side made me see those interactions differently.

So I apologized.

If I’d ever come across as rude, demanding, or difficult during my time in Marketing, I wanted them to know I was sorry.

Their response surprised me.

“It’s okay. We understand.”

There wasn’t some dramatic reconciliation.

Just understanding.

And strangely, that was enough to make me feel lighter.

From River Warung to Sunset Bar

My day wasn’t finished at 3:00 PM.

After my break, I headed to the Sunset Bar for my next shift at 4:00.

There, I worked with Bu Rini.

I already knew her because she had helped me countless times whenever I brought influencers to the Sunset Bar during my Marketing days.

Except now, I wasn’t arriving with an influencer.

I was arriving as part of her team.

She seemed genuinely happy to have me there.

And so was I.

One evening, I even managed to upsell our Balinese Night dining program to two guests.

Small achievement? Maybe.

But I was ridiculously happy about it.

Apparently, you can take Fery out of Marketing, but you can’t completely take Marketing out of Fery.

“Come to My Office”

Then came my fourth day.

Pak Made, the Director of Finance who also appeared in my previous story, asked me to call or meet him after work.

Immediately, my brain started creating scenarios.

What happened now?

Was something wrong?

Had I done something?

Was there another problem?

After finishing my shift at the Sunset Bar, I called him.

“Come to my office.”

Very reassuring.

I walked in, sat down, and asked what had happened.

I couldn’t read his expression.

Then he smiled.

Management had been discussing my situation.

They had also been paying attention to how I worked during my assignment at River Warung and the Sunset Bar.

Pak Made told me the GM had seen me working.

Cleaning tables.

Helping the team.

Doing whatever needed to be done.

According to him, the GM felt that some of those tasks weren’t necessarily things I should have had to do given the circumstances.

But I had done them anyway.

I showed up.

I worked.

I helped.

And management saw that as an act of goodwill.

Then Pak Made gave me the news I hadn’t expected.

They were releasing me early.

I didn’t have to complete the rest of my one-month notice period.

I didn’t have to pay the penalty.

I could leave.

I just stared at him.

After spending so much time thinking I had only two choices: complete the notice period or pay my way out, suddenly there was a third option.

I was free to go.

“Can I Work Tomorrow?”

My reaction probably wasn’t what you’d expect.

I thanked Pak Made.

Then I asked:

“Can I still work tomorrow?”

He probably could have questioned my sanity.

But I knew the team was expecting a busy day. We were preparing to welcome a Day Pass group of around 60 people, and I didn’t want my sudden departure to leave them short-handed.

Pak Made agreed.

Tomorrow would be my final day.

Just like that, 12 September disappeared from my calendar.

My last day was suddenly tomorrow.

Life really does enjoy changing the script without asking.

One Last Shift

When I told the River Warung team the next morning, they were surprised.

Then they were happy for me.

I no longer had to finish what everyone had jokingly understood as my “punishment.”

I told Yulitha too.

Her reaction might have been my favorite.

She was stunned.

Apparently, this entire time, she thought I was a new employee.

Which, to be fair, made sense.

I had shown up in uniform, asked her how to talk to guests, memorized her questions, and started working.

So I finally gave her the missing context.

Her face said everything.

That morning was busy, and I did whatever I could to help.

At one point, the GM approached me.

“So, I heard today is your last day?”

“Yes. Today is my last day. Thank you for everything, Pak.”

“Good luck at your new workplace.”

Simple.

But after everything that had happened over the previous weeks, hearing those words felt good.

At 3:00 PM, I said goodbye to the River Warung team.

I’d only worked with them for a few days. Somehow, leaving them still made me sad.

Then I headed to the Sunset Bar for the final time.

“I Think You Should Stay”

The Sunset Bar was busy that evening.

I told the team that it was my last day, and their reaction was almost exactly the same as River Warung’s.

Surprised.

Then happy for me.

Later, I met the GM again.

“You know what, Fery? I think you should stay because you’re good at what you do,” he said, laughing.

I laughed too.

“Thank you for the offer, Pak. But I can’t. I’ve already been accepted by another company.”

“No worries. I know you’ll shine at your new workplace. Again, good luck.”

The bar was packed, so even though my shift was technically supposed to end earlier, I stayed until around 7:30 PM.

I didn’t mind.

It was my last day anyway.

When things finally calmed down, I exchanged phone numbers and Instagram accounts with some of the team.

Then came the goodbyes.

Afterward, I went back to the Finance Office to thank Pak Made one more time for helping me through the transition.

And then, suddenly, it was over.

The Ending I Didn’t Expect

I thought my final weeks at the company would feel like a countdown.

Wake up.

Go to work.

Complete the notice period.

Go home.

Repeat until 12 September.

Instead, my last few days became some of the most human days I’d experienced since joining the company.

I entered F&B feeling nervous and, if I’m being truthful, slightly embarrassed about how everything had unfolded.

I left knowing Tina, Devi, Yulitha, Pak Sara, Bu Rini, and the other people I’d barely had the chance to know while sitting on the Marketing side.

I learned how different it feels to receive an instruction from someone who communicates with respect.

I learned what it feels like to be the operational person being asked to make things happen.

I learned that cleaning a table didn’t make me less of a Marketing professional.

If anything, those few days reminded me why I entered hospitality in the first place.

People.

Guests, yes.

But also the people working beside you.

And perhaps the strangest part of all was that I only truly connected with some of them when I was already on my way out.

I was sad.

But I was happy too.

Sad because I’d only just started feeling like part of the team.

Happy because the chapter I’d desperately wanted to close was finally over.

As for my former direct report, I don’t want to end this story by pretending everything is suddenly okay.

It isn’t.

Professionally, I hope our paths don’t cross again.

Personally, I wish her happiness.

I don’t need an apology.

I don’t need revenge.

And I don’t need her to become the villain of every story I tell about this chapter of my life.

Some working relationships simply don’t work.

Ours didn’t.

What matters to me now is that I left.

Not angrily.

Not by paying a penalty just to escape.

But after showing up, doing the work in front of me, meeting people I wish I’d known better, and leaving on terms I never expected to be given.

In my last Life Lately entry, I wrote that maybe being moved to another department wasn’t the ending I wanted.

Maybe it was just another plot twist.

Turns out, I was right about one thing.

It wasn’t the ending I wanted.

It was better.