Category Archives: Money and Work

3 Lessons Learnt While Working

Depending on the nature of your job, you could be hitting the door at 7am every day for five, seven or nine days a week. If you are like most people, chances are that you clock in 40 mindless hours of solitaire every week. Sure, some people actually DO the job they are paid for but that is, if they are Facebook or Youtube beta testers.

We’ve all heard how evil the corporate world is, which is why vigilantes like Batman or the Fantastic Four exist in a incessant battle against the mad scientists we all know huge empires are harboring in their underground labyrinth.
I’d liken working, to a seemingly innocuous devil’s deal; with a devil in collared-up shirts and stripy blue ties.In exchange for intrinsically worthless wads of paper with arbitrary numbers, or if you are Oliver Twist, some gruel (Oh sir, may I have some more gruel!), we sell our youth and souls performing abhorrently awful duties we wouldn’t have otherwise thrown ourselves into had the alternative option not be selling our kidneys.

Sure, not everyone works because they have to support themselves. Some practical, or in other cases, masochistic folks (you know who you are) trudge off in the ere dawn for job experience. Ultimately you’ll learn the same few things no matter where you sold your soul:

#3 It’s The Same People Everywhere At Different Workplace

===============

Quick, imagine an office of an IT company.

Now, visual the workspace of an advertising firm.

Difference? Huge.

But really, once you get past the initial façade of dynamism (or dullness) it will all look the same, like puppies in a basket.

All the same! Just less cute.

In a general stereotype, which obviously exists and persists for a reason, your colleagues (and YOU!) can be classified into broad, douchy classes. The elements from each of these categories are ubiquitous. The bootlickers are everywhere, presumingly licking boots. Or Pedro shoes. You’ll find the same gossip ladies (another stereotype there), who are always loaded and ready to go with their metaphorical bottle of red wine from the gossip grapevine. And thank god they’re always generous enough to fill up your curious cup. Similarly, you’d be fucked if it was your grapes she had used.

I know what you did last summer

“But hey”, you indignantly call out, “I don’t see any one who falls into the ‘Know It All’ class in my office.”

Really?

#2 Get Your Foot In The Door/ Fake It Till You Make It

In almost all career or self-improvement books, there is bound to be this one tip; the one treacherous tip of lies and deception. But again, we have previously established that shit happens in the corporate world, which by itself is full of fraudery and general crappiness.

Fake it Till You Make It.

This tip basically establishes itself using its own theory of affirming oneself as the model one aims to achieve simply through emulation and mimicky until one actually becomes (or becomes similar to) the model.

That, or becomes delusional enough, take your pick

The idea works like this;
Say, you want to be a baby sitter but yet the only experience you have with a baby is with yourself. What do you do? Convince yourself, or at least, pretend to be an excellent baby sitter during your interviews. Giving them the impression that you’re real good during the interview gets your feet in the door.

Things will work out, right?

Guys?

So you’ve gotten your foot in. When the parents go out for their old people rendezvous, you take your chances with baby problems by trial and error, or by googling for solutions then and there (after the initial bouts of panic screams and wrist flapping).

DEVIL'S INCARNATE.

After a long an arduous night, you’ve become that little bit more proficient at baby-sitting. This goes on for several sessions until you’ve become a really good baby-sitter, or when you’re rocking your catatonic self in a cold corner of the shower, wallowing in guilt for a certain baby’s death.

#1 Looks Matter

This is a no brainer.

Whoever says it doesn’t is obviously lying to you. Or themselves.

Look, it’s not that anyone is being superficial on purpose or anything. Hell, we are genetically wired to gravitate towards people who , under the acute judgment of our subconscious mind, we find generally more attractive.

Repeat: Initial brain scan suggests the absence of females. Visual Optics please advise

The primeval recesses in our mind still maintain that attractive people are generally healthier and thus foster better mate selection (read: fuckable). In cavemen era, this meant that male hunters, with their warped sense of flirting and seduction, probably saved their best bacons for the prettiest women gatherers in hope that they would carry their little cavebabies. Then again, no one is exactly sure if ancient women would put out that easily over a piece of bacon.

Translate that above scenario into a workplace or in school. A male recruiter gives priority to a dazzling interviewee. The popular girls in school generally fall to the right of the median line on a graph depicting attractiveness. It is perfectly understandable for people to gravitate towards beautiful people (without passing the line of perverse stalking).

We are genetically entitled to do so!

However, it must be asserted that in most cases, stunning looks are most impactful only during the first few impressions. Subsequently, as our logical mind overrides our primitive instincts, personality weighs in almost as much (probably because reality has set in that the chance of fucking is 0). Unless you are a Victoria’s Secrets model or someone rated 9 and above, chances are that you’ll still be fired after you have been caught peeing in your boss’s coffee.

2 parts coffee, 1 part sunshine and 1 part urea

So there, even though looking all hot and sexy makes things a hell lot easier, personality is the key to keep the deal going.

Pose!


16 May [Hello Tumblr]

Guess what?

I have a tumblr account!

@ bintheredonethat.tumblr.com

so come and follow me!

Anyway, my laptop has really got half it’s hardware into the proverbial graveyard. I could practically hear it’s internals running from my bed, and I’m only running MSN, Tumblr and Facebook on it. It’s really sad, because it just reminds me that eventually, everything gets old and we’ll all start breaking down. Really, I don’t think most people fear death, per se. What is really fearful is the process leading to death.

I think my myopic degree just shot up a few notches these few days. Most of my waking moments are spent on the computer, tumbling away or churning out reports. It’s sad really our lives are spent  so much on dredging out reports, earning for a living, that the all the beauty out there is left for none to appreciate.

Is it time to shift out perspective?

Maybe it’s time for work to stop being our whole lives, but only a small, but sustaining part of it.

I mean, why are we scheduling people, health, and life in general around work?

“I’m sorry, I have got work on Tues, can’t meet up.”

“I really want to go and exercise, but I really have got to get this report done first.”

“No promises. Need to study.”

These are the usual reasons why we put things off, why we lost touch, and why we need Facebook to keep in touch in the first place. I mean, sure, these are also good excuses to turn down a date with that dorky neighbor from next door, or to avoid doing chores, but ultimately, our misplaced priorities are gonna come crashing back down when we lie in our deathbeds, looking back on our lives.

Hell, what is there to look back on?

Work?

or worst still, you might still be thinking of the work you left undone.

Stop working, start living.


Party with the SGD

Awesome.

I’ve just got my salary from work at challenger. Being ever so meticulous with costs and finances, the HR department has made sure every penny is well worked for, which probably explains why I’ve got $xxx.21- that’s right. twenty one cents.

Like woah.

Anyway, pay made me really happy so I went on a random spree on random things immediately- and the cheque hasn’t even been processed yet, and won’t be until Monday.

Talk about spending on credit.

On a side note:

WHAT!?!? I can’t access MyIBLab on Chrome AND Mozilla??


4th April

Eric, my colleague from work, makes me wonder -

What the hell am I doing with my life!?!?


14 March [Whew, there's water left.]

Woohoo!

I just reached home from work, which marks the official ending of the first week of internship. There’s just 5 more weeks to go. Well, I used to dread work on the first few days, but I guess it’s becoming better.Or maybe I’m just getting used to it.

Either way, I’m kinda beat.

The bad thing about work is that the food nearby is terribly expensive. Based on preliminary calculations, it is possible that the allowance given for the internship is just enough to cover the expenses incurred, which encompasses food, transportation, attire (they only allow white long sleeve shirts. Who the hell has that many of them?) and other miscellaneous costs. Okay, there might be leftover spare change. I can feed them to my little piggy bank as snacks.

Oh well. I guess the experience is intangible in value.

I need to find somewhere to cash in this value. Piggy is hungry.

I mean, sure, most of the colleagues are fun to be with. Plus, I get to learn loads about softwares and get staff discounts if I get any stuff from their store. And the store is flooded with little white kids. They make my day. Somehow.

So anyhow, I think it’s true that having good colleagues and doing what you love is more important than the salary. Well, at least I have got half of the equation for a happy work life in my pocket. In the pocket of my checkered aesthetically-defying-but-attention-grabbing compulsory work vest.

Think half full.

When you spend hours talking to customers, the water in your bottle should always be at least half full.


22 Dec [Cry Havoc And Let Loose The Dogs Of War]

Strap up your gears and get things in check as we square up for the war tomorrow. It’s orientation again folks, and selling footwear in secondary school during this period is bloody insane.

Actually its not so much the crowd, but the lofty sales target. It’s challenging, yes, and maybe it’ll turn me into a miracle salesperson.

Oh well, I’m getting all messed up about dates and days this week. First, I’d thought my product retraining was on Monday since I thought it’s Monday on the 22nd. Then, I mistakenly thought that the st John Christmas party was today ’cause I thought it’s the 23rd today.

Gotta wake up my idea. LOL.

I’m still crazy over the songs covered by the Glee Casts. Especially their covers of
‘Don’t Rain On My Parade’,
‘Rehab’,
‘Dont Stop Believin’
‘Lean On Me’
‘Defying Gravity’
‘My Life Would Suck Without You’ and
‘True Colors’

Anyway, I’m starting on this new personal project.
Let’s hope it works- Knocking wood.


14 September [Catching you catching me]

It feels extremely liberating to be done from work. Gone are the hard to please, gift-digging or just-looking-around customers. Fine, to be honest, I don’t hate them as much as I claim to. I usually start to notice them when they stop to admire the electronics. I start to like them when they show signs of carrying through with the deal. I get fond of them when they agree and sign on the Confirmation Order. I love them to bits when they don’t back out or refund the laptops. Then again, I will promptly forget about them and continue with my next short-lived romance.

I’m a little less than a consumer-whore.

There were not much sales for Lenovo. It doesn’t have all the fancy gifts that the other more popular brands have. Neither does it have sleek designs that can attract the vain. Most people, including myself, doesn’t take the actual quality of the hardware into consideration. Either that, or they just value the number of gifts the promoters throw in. Such is the fatal folly that we make and pay for. Lenovo is actually a good brand. Too bad they didn’t have the Thinkpad series up for grabs. It would be a sell. Like me.

Then again, working at the fair was not that bad. There were certain perks here and there. Tsk, you know, like that person from the other booth. Get me some insulin tablets.

That’s the trailer for the movie ‘All About Steve’. In honesty, I’m not promoting the movie, I’m jst promoting Sandra Bullock. I like her. She is really funny. And mostly because I like that this video is of super high quality… for a youtube video.


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