Tag Archives: Work

Feeling sorry for myself…

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I am in a very funky kind of mood today. This post is a semi rant cum self indulgence one!

The job I am with is not working out. I am not fond of the industry and want to go back to academia, which is where I feel I belong. Also I work on a flexible arrangement here, this was an experiment I wanted to do since I wanted to be there for BB & GG. But here, atleast, this experiment is not working.

Since I leave about 3 hours before the others, there are always things that I am unaware of, which people forget to update me when I get in the next day. I keep having this feeling of being in an island all alone. This is not very good for my morale.

The project I was hired for, has, for some reason not taken off. It has now been postponed to mid 2012, so I also have the feeling that my confirmation which would come in early January would be affected as I do not have anything concrete to show for the last six months, just preparations which went nowhere.

Last, this organisation is going to shift – no idea when though, but each time I ask, it is sometime by the end of the year – to the absolute other end of the country/island. Currently it takes me between 45 to 60 minutes to get to work and getting home takes around the same time, but I only need to take one straight bus and so most afternoons, I get on the bus and sleep till it’s time to get off. At the new place, I will need to change three different buses which will take me approximately 90 minutes to get to work and home (this is assuming there are no traffic snarls at any point in the journey). I will be spending 3 hours in the road and 6 hours at work – making it a 9 hour day altogether.

Is this worth it? When I joined here, I had great ideas and thougths, but the reality is way different. There’s been so much staff turnover, both before I joined and during the last 4 months, two people have left. When asked, the management talks about a ‘lack of fit’ for the reason why people leave. But I wanted to ask them, if there is an issue about the fit, then why hire the wrong kind of people? It’s either you don’t know what you are doing when you hire people, or that you give potential employees a completely distorted view of the organisation which makes the ‘fit’ questionable.

Well, I need to start searching for a new job pronto! What I would like in an ideal world would be to search, interview and accept a new position this month (aka November) and then serve my two weeks notice in the first half of December and finish my last day before I go on holiday and start a new place in the new year. What do you think? Will that happen? I want to do something that interests me and makes me excited to wake up on Monday morning, raring to get to work, instead of waking up on Monday and wishing it was Friday already 😦

If someone above listening to me, please, please help!! Also if God, you are listening or reading this, I wouldn’t mind winning some serious money in Toto or 4D, so that for the next few years, I can give up work and concentrate on BB & GG and do what interests me…

A picture to cheer me up! But does it? Let's wait and watch...

Changing Jobs, Changing Lives?

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I’ve written earlier about my previous workplace and how it forced me out of my comfort zone and into a new position. I’ve been here for the last 2.5 months now and so far it is fine. I am not sure if this is the place where I want to be in the long run, but it’s a living for the short term. I won’t name anyone here, because the president and owner of this organisation is a very high profile person and anything I write about this person will reveal the identity. This person is someone I am not very comfortable working for – I don’t know why but something just puts me off! I’ve learnt by now that I should trust my instincts!
Other than me, right now there are two other men and women each who work full-time and another woman who used to work full-time but has now transited to part-time with the intention of finally quitting by the end of the year. And then there is me who is in between working full-time and part-time.
I really haven’t formed many impressions about my co-workers except for one of the women who is feel is a drama mama and a man’s woman! The rest seem all right as of now, but going by previous experiences, I don’t want to get too involved with them and also make assumptions about them that may turn completely wrong as time goes by..
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Some new job funny videos to enjoy…

To Work or Not To Work….That is the Question…

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Another day, another commute in a crowded bus. To add, it rained last night and early this morning adding to the jams on the road. There are a couple of accidents on the expressway which I take so the bus is inching it’s way to the exit. You must have guessed that I am writing this on my way to work.

The past few years I am increasingly being asked by myself this question – Do I need to work?  The answer is not as simple as it seems. Based on my earning ability we upgraded to a bigger house about  18 months back so any decision to quit work has to factor that in. But now this question has been quite insistent and I look forward to the way that I can take a break from work. I want to take a couple of years off, concentrate on BB & GG and once they finish the dreaded PSLE exams, do something that enjoy doing. Maybe study further – there is a world of possibility out there. But all this will remain a dream unless I find a way to replace my income for the next four years at the very minimum.  I estimate I will need approximately S$ 120,000, give or take a few thousands to replace my take home income for the next four years. This is actually a pared down income level as for the past three months I have been getting around 75% of my previously drawn salary as I am now working less hours a day. Now all I need is to strike the lottery or get an unexpected inheritance and I’ll be set for my life of leisure.

While we are dreaming let me dream about that perfect life I will have when I am not working. I can wake up later than the 4:45 am I currently do, maybe around 5:30 am? Then get GG & BB, along with S ready to get out of the house by 7:15 am and start preparing my day. I would quickly finish my cooking and clean the kitchen. Next on my agenda would be some exercises say between 30-45 minutes after which the exercises would continue in the form of clew if the house. Once that is done, I can go and have a bath. By now the time should be around 10 am. After this would be some computer time or other general stuff – like ironing, clearing things etc. By this time, if i have not had breakfast, I would be hungry so time for lunch. Then rest till the children get home from school. Once back, they should keep me on my toes till it’s time to unwind and sleep! Aah, while I continue to dream about the perfect life, let me get to work!!

This and That…A Khichadi Post

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This post is a khichdi of different things. First things first though – a khichdi is an Indian lentil and rice dish which is essentially a one pot meal. You just chuck in rice, lentils, vegetables with some spices and create a fulfilling meal! The image is courtesy of Wikipedia.

Yesterday I went for my annual PAP smear test. My ob-gyn has recently shifted his clinic and somehow even though I kept saying the correct name, I landed in the wrong place! I had taken BB & GG with me since I wanted them to see the man who brought them into this world! BB & GG were very excited about this! The test was a routine one, but the Fibroid that I have in my uterus has apparently grown by around 20% over the last one year. It is still small enough to leave it for now, but over the last four years it has grown by almost 250%! Hopefully it stops growing any more and I am saved from surgery…

I also realised that I am seriously overweight! My scale at home is broken and I have not yet bothered to replace it. I weight 92 freaking kgs! I really, really need to do something. I also realised that this weight is very close my weight when I was nine months pregnant with twins! No wonder in the last few weeks, more than one person have offered me a seat in the bus – they thought I was pregnant!!

While coming back home from the clinic, we were talking about the fact that in my side of the family BB is the only boy in his generation – my sister has two girls and other married cousins with children also have only girls till now – and I said, “Because BB is the only boy in this generation, the grandparents tend to pamper him a lot”. For some reason, this set off GG in a fit of giggles and she wouldn’t tell me the reason. Then later when the giggling subsided, we realised that she associated the word ‘pamper’ to diapers or Pampers! Cue to continue giggling whenever the word was used, and believe me she used the word in many ways during the 10 minute drive home!

I also heard some other piece of sad news yesterday – an ex-colleague of mine JS who was just about my age (give or take a few years) expired on Sunday. I am not sure of the cause, but I heard the words Heart Attack. Even though he and me were not close and in fact I disliked him a lot, here’s a prayer for him and his family and may his soul rest in peace. I know he is the only son and has aged parents with medical conditions. May God give them the courage to go through this tragedy. It can never be easy for a parent to see his/her child go before them, this goes against all the laws of nature!