2017 Week 36 Update

This week has been a very intense week for me, especially at work. We have our signature event two days from now and the last week has been busy at work, so much so that I’ve had a chance to even think!

The place that I am now working in, is pretty notorious for doing things at the very last minute! If you are efficient and do things ahead of time, you are penalised for it because things change between the time you do it and the time it has to be ready. For someone who always (and I mean always) is ready ahead of time, this is serious anathema to me! Every time this happens, I wonder what I am doing here!

I’ve been here for slightly over three months now, but I still have not gotten the confirmation letter from them. I am going to wait until the end of this month and then check with HR to see what they say about this issue. Maybe also speak to my manager (who still hasn’t done the one-on-one with me, even after three months!) to see what is the process here.

This week is also going to be a super intense week, what with the event and then the after the event, we have to pack up the office because we are moving the very next day! No rest for the wicked here!

Have a wonderful week folks!

 

2017 Week 35 Update

This week went off quite quite fast for me and before I knew it, the weekend was here!

I had a work offsite this week which was why the week went very fast. The next few weeks are very hectic work-wise with a signature event and an office move, all happening this month!

Work has been both good and bad, and I am all the more determined that once I complete a predetermined time here, I will start looking for a new, better position. My manager sent me some ‘feedback’ which I felt could have been handled much better; maybe speaking to me first and trying to see it from my point of view. Since we’ve never had a one-on-one since I joined this organisation, three months back, this could have been a good time to sit down and speak with their feedback on how I was doing. Anyway, these are the issues which leave a bad taste in the mouth. But I have not given up completely – once the way event and move happen, let’s see if the one-on-one happens.

I will have a hectic and possibly stressed out week, but I hope you have a better one!

2017 Week 34 Update

This week was a relatively short week with the long weekend as Singapore celebrated the feast of sacrifice or Hari Raya Haji as it is called here. We are now in September and counting down to the last few months of the year!

This weekend, we went out together as a family after a long time. I needed to buy a jacket for work and so decided to make an evening out of it. We went and shopped and then had dinner. It was an enjoyable evening.

I am looking to buy a fitness tracker and am quite confused about what to buy. I looked at the Fitbit Alta and the Flex but also like the Charge. Also, I want something which is discrete, by which I mean I don’t want to advertise the fact that I am using a fitness tracker. I used to have a Fitbit Pebble (is that the right name?) and used to clip it to my clothes or even into my pockets and nobody knew I had one. Is there one like that in the market now? Anyone with more information, please comment below so I can decide soon. My current fitness tracker is my phone and I am using the Argus app to track steps, water, movement etc. The only downside to this is that I have to make sure I am carrying my phone in my hand or in a pocket all the time and sometimes that becomes cumbersome, which is why I am looking for a new tracker.

Work-wise, I am reaching my three-month mark here and this should end the probation period. I still haven’t had any one-on-one with my manager, in spite to asking multiple times, so this is something I probably will have to give up on. Maybe when the time comes to do your annual goals, my manager will finally find time for me.

Something happened this week and I realised that this organisation was willing to spend hundreds of thousands on an event, even provide tickets which are worth thousands free of cost just to fill up seats, but would not spend a few few hundreds to allow staff to take taxis home after a 15-hour work day, because the time would not yet be 9 pm at that point (which is the official policy to  allow taxi claims)! So all the posturing about staff welfare, including having staff fun clubs is just that – posturing. They don’t put their money where their mouth is.

The other thing I am excited about is my parents coming to Singapore. I  just applied for their visa over the weekend and think it should be approved sometime this week. I have also sent my list of items to buy from Mumbai and am waiting for the goodies next month!

Have a wonderful September and an awesome week!

 

2017 Week 33 Update

As I’ve mentioned before, now that I am working, life has become quite monotonous. I have not had time to do much, the weekends are taken up with completing chores around the house or just catching up on sleep.

August is almost at an end and it’s just over a month to my parents coming to spend time with us in Singapore! I am really looking forward to spending almost three months with them. Not that there will be much spending time together, what with me being out of the house for more than 12 hours, but it’s a lot better than being apart by nearly 7,000 kilometres and an ocean between us!

Work-wise, while I am not very happy here, I have made my peace. There are some people who (I believe) share my wavelength and I look forward to getting to know them better. The others, especially some whom I have to work with closely, are not worth knowing outside the office and I doubt we will become even friends; the best we can hope to be is to be colleagues.

This is shortened work week for us here in Singapore due to Friday being the Hari Raya Haji or Bakri-Eid holiday. So I for one, am looking to a nice long weekend before the next few hard weeks at work due to a big project coming to fruition.

Have a blessed week folks!

2017 Week 32 Update

Life is going on as usual. I really don’t have a life anymore as it’s now Wakeup – Work – Come Home – Sleep routine.

In fact, I am quite behind in my reading these days. My 2017 Reading Challenge has been stalled since I started working and I need to start reading more if I want to complete it and on time. So I have been thinking of eliminating screen time at night and reading for an hour at least before bed. Will this work, well I will update it next week.

Work-wise, things are as they were, no real improvements there. But I am still optimistic that things will change and for the better.

It’s the start of a fresh new week and I hope this one is better than the previous one for everyone! Have a blessed week folks!