|
|
Saturday, January 15, 2005
| |
0 comments
Post a Comment
|
|
I remember being in a pseudo organisation in HC council called Slackers' Inc. I remember sneaking out of General Meetings to have a lollipop with Zhao outside the toilet. I remember sneaking out of OTHER general meetings to share a pack of chips with Jianrong. I remember the few of us constantly raising doubts and objections (fully felt) towards the way things were done during evaluations. I remember protesting more than once how so many of us were simply making points for the sake of doing so and repeating the same mistakes over and over again. I remember being a "Slacker".
My appeal is "Slack (if it is considered slacking at all) in style".
Too many people i know slack for the sake of slacking. And i will be frank, i am now referring particularly to camp mates. They do not know why they are slacking, they lament the whole day away and they seem to have a major grudge with work and responsibilities. But if i were to ask any of them, what is it they can't stand about the army, I do believe none of them will be able to put forth a convincing argument which pinpoints the organisational flaws but probably say something like "its fucked up." or "i can't wait to get out of here."
Do not be mistaken. I too cannot wait to get out of the army. And i slack, too.
But i am not proud of it. THIS is fundamentally different. I believe my parents have alot of credit to claim for this. They have taught me to become an individual who believes that working hard and being responsible is not the ONLY way to go, but at least the CORRECT way to go. As i was telling paul once, I hate how the army makes us all become "off-grubbing", undriven, unmotivated oppurtunists. I hate how it makes us believe that shirking off responsibilities can be justified. I hate how it sucks the achiever out in me most of the time. But i realised its not its fault entirely (although the inefficiency and politics have alot to contribute), its all in the individual.
I wonder how they work and wonder why people are resting but never rest and wonder why people are working.
I wonder how they can proclaim that they are slackers and derive alot of self-pride from doing so.
I wonder how they do not understand how hard it is from someone in the 'same boat' to get their asses to budge and still persist in their unsympathetic inertia.
I wonder how thick skin can get.
You can see faces change quick as lightning when work is fairly (at least fair to public consensus) distributed to them. They go around as if some one poked a steel rod up their ass, throwing tantrums (YES. tantrums. 20 plus yr old people) all OVER THE PLACE, acting up when you aren't even talking to them and whining when their PMS tides over. How odd. I wonder how spoilt these people can get. Apparently, they have never been in a position which requires them to manage people before. And VERY apparently, they are not very suited for work. Decent work.
And many of them can (with the most earnest look on their faces) tell you that their behaviour (which implies that they ARE aware) is only restricted to army matters. That they have things outside of the SAF which they will willingly commit themselves to with PASSION, LOVE and maybe, ALL THE SEVEN CORE VALUES (snort).
I am skeptical. Firstly, i believe in basic responsibility. That when you are given something to do and you have (whether willingly or unwillingly) agreed to do it, you do it. And you do it well. Simply because you said you would do it. To me, I believe in , not perfecting everything i do, but at least giving personal commitment. Because only then, will you not INCONVENIENCE your colleagues. AND answer to yourself and YOUR superior. There is no shit like " I don't like so i don't do " or " I don't like so i'll jus do it badly ". Our every action in a workplace triggers off reactions. It is simply unbelievably IMMATURED to say "I'm not doing MY job only wat. I can ta1 e blame. Why bother me? " It influences morale. If they haven't realised.
Secondly, I believe that no work or in fact, nothing in the world can be done in complete enjoyment. There is nothing in life which doesn't contain obligations. And in our work life, it is going to be so much more then just the naive 'doing what i like'. We look forward to uni life, but we hate studying. In uni, we desire to work and leave our books but we hate working. And when we work, i dun know how in e world it can happen, but we MIGHT even miss NSF life. There similarly will be politics in the workplace. A hierachy. The inefficient people. Demanding superiors. Bootlickers. Unfair distribution of workload. BACKSTABBERS (snort). And our favourite, SLACKERS. So don't commit to the statement " I am totally different outside (i quote a campmate) " . Unless you're schizo, i am unconvinced how different you are or will be.
There are ,unquestionably , human factors involved.
The reason why my above argument sounds quite harsh is because :
there are human factors involved.
It is the most discouraging thing to see people who you can play with, talk crap to, wait to book out with , people who you too naively thought you can readily call 'friends' sit and watch you work. Or refuse to work when asked. It is disheartening to be their I/C. But it is even MORE disheartening to be a fellow campmate.
But of cos there are people who were slacking right before u asked but readily stood up when you needed help. THIS, on the contrary, is heartwarming. It is comradery. Because it just shows that the person is willing to temporarily alter his 'work style' (heh) to accomodate you. Like shaun volunteering to help me out when it was his rest time to c/o a vehicle. Like peh readily helping clean the outfield vehicle when he was only back for a day in his leave-clearing period. Like ivan who would help me out right after his noon nap when he looks like some sleepy troll trudging around.
There are people who are always there to offer assistance. Even when it is uncalled for. Like dennis my bud who took over night ops duty for me even tho i have no reason at all to not do it. Like kangwei and yx who will never say no when u need help.
I personally am guilty of not practising what i preach all the time. I can refuse to help out sometimes, not bothering to explain myself even when i have a valid reason. I might have refused to help these guys one time or more cos i was jus plain lazy but i try to minimise that.
There is no need to ask sometimes. When you see your colleagues in your department struggling, is there a further need to plead for you to help out? I owe noone. I was given an I/C job. I try to do it well. I am not willing and will gladly give it up but i WAS ordered to take up the job so i WILL do it well. As much as you are involuntary, i am too. As much as you will rather sleep, i rather too. But because i have a job, i have no choice. And i don't see why you think you have one.
This entry is not very well written. It is not objective either. But i think that it can probably give everyone an idea of how work life is like and maybe think through it a bit. The real people i am writing it for may never read this but nevertheless, it evaluates my one year and 3 mths of being some stupid I/C. I didn't do good enough but at least i tried and i am proud to say, I didn't let myself or my ma'am or who's taking over me - dennis down.
To KYZ :
Yes, this entry is triggered by you but not directed at you. Hope it gives you a better outlook of how your fellow colleague feel at times and although i doubt you will give it any more thought a trashy magazine deserves (since you ALREADY said you will never change ur ways - I'll write another entry dedicated to this, entitled : " Never make deadsure remarks like dat, it just leaves us with no backdoor and eventually embarrassment ") , i hope it makes you a better person (worker/boss) nevertheless.
|
|
|
|
|
|
