New Posting Possibilities Saturday, Jul 11 2009

A few possibilities for my next posting have arisen, and significantly one of them has me thinking long and hard about what I want to be or should be doing in the next 3/4 years of my career.

Should I go for exposure and cut my teeth in an environment that could potentially be harsh, and the work completely new to me, or got to an environment that is likely to be less harsh, for work that I know I can do and enjoy.

Its not so much about the intensity of the work, but really about the kind of work.

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End of the year musings Sunday, Dec 14 2008

Its been quite a bad 2-3 months at work since I last posted.  Well its not that I’m not enjoying it, I think I’m enjoying my work mostly more than earlier this year.  Just some rather terrible experiences with working with people at work that made it particularly bad.

If you aren’t quite bothered about your work, at least get it done so that your co-workers don’t have to stay back to pick up the slack while you go off on the dot at 6.  Enough crap about I can work late if “the need be”.  If you need to be told in those few words that “the need be”, then sorry, you can’t work late.  Nobody is going to tell you that the need be.  If the meeting deadline was monday and its already friday and the report is two reports are not ready, I would jolly well think “the need be”.  My goodness.

So your colleagues stay back till almost 10 pm plugging along, doing the report that has your name as the lead writer.  Struggle to find a time I’ve been more cheesed off.

Oh well.

The end of the year is approaching, Christmas season is upon us soon.  Looking forward to that holiday after Christmas.

The new year will probably pass as fast as this one has, and then it will be back to school again.  I truly wonder whether this career is the best for me, but the downturn is a rather bad time to go out anyway.  At the end of the day, teaching is something that I do enjoy, just wonder how much of it I will get to do going forward, thats all.  So I’m still on that wait and see approach, wondering if taking a MAF@SMU is worth the $$ too…

We’ll just have to see.

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After a very long hiatus Sunday, Sep 14 2008

Its been almost 6 months since my last post.  Then I was feeling restless and unsettled in my new position after having just stepped out of teaching. I can’t quite say things are that different now, I think I didn’t quite sign up to do what I’m doing now, but 6 months after that last post, I think I’m much better settled in, and am largely convinced I’m capable of doing this job properly and am contributing in some way.

The change in immediate superior has been good, with a better sense of vision and planning, though that might just be a direct consequence of it being ranking+work review season soon.

Either way, half of my stint is almost up and I’m quite happy to say I think I’m doing quite well, ask me again in March/April next year (maybe when I next post) to confirm that.

Hope to post again sooner than then.

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Post long overdue Saturday, Mar 15 2008

So I haven’t posted since early November, making it more than 4 months since.  The end of the year break was a blast, Hong Kong and Bangkok were fun. 

In mid January I had a minor op on my knee, to clean up a torn meniscus.  Up to now its still bothering me because my leg is very stiff from the muscular atrophy.

Oh well.  Since Jan I’ve also been out of teaching in a totally new environment and I can’t say I’m totally enjoying it.  I still think its a good break from teaching, and the work is refreshingly new, but I guess I’m not used to sitting down the whole day and staring at a computer screen for hours on end.

It reminds me of the end of year data crunching I used to do for school, but now its every day.  And don’t get me started on the boss.  More than once I’ve thought about buying out my bond and going to the private sector.  Lucky (for him) the financial sector is cooling off this year, heh, if before the subprime crisis and credit crunch I think I might have gone already. 

Oh well, I gave myself until June to like the job more, or dislike it even further, so I will leave it till then.

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Whats this? A post? It hasn’t been a month yet? Thursday, Oct 25 2007

Well, today I thought I should pen some thoughts down from all over.  Work has been rough these couple of days in a way that is not common in the sense that we’re doing process and programme reviews and so we have to express our opinions, and consequently there are agreements but actually most of the time lack of them.

Now perhaps I know why I’m so tired.  Over the past 3 days, I have had to express my opinions in a way that is very tiring, especially when the listeners don’t get your point.  Is my English really that bad?  Ridiculous.  I try to discuss on their terms, if only they could see the point.  Even if I put my primary concerns aside they can’t convince me how what they are doing could be good for the students.

Mollycoddling is bad.  It is not empowerment when you allow them to make decisions that will lead to oblivion, its called being irresponsible.  You’re abdicating your responsibility to ensure that these students achieve the best possible outcomes.  Empowerment is making them realise that they need to do something if they want it.  If they want a particular subject combination that they were not given they need to earn it, that is empowerment.

Suddenly my eyes are opened to the ineptitude around me.  How such people get where they get is rather surprising, and its very frustrating to work with.  At the end of the day, if you want somebody of my capacity working for you, I suppose you will have to value my opinions and not just the volume of work I can clear for you.  Find somebody else if thats what you need.

Lately I’ve been reading Wild at Heart, and I found that it really speaks to me.  Hopefully I can make the right changes in my life soon, and move on from the wound within that the book refers to.  By God’s Grace I shall.

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