the weekend is here

hallelujah.

this week has been slightly tough mainly cos i’ve been battling tiredness at work, but thankfully things eased up yesterday and today.

i’ve realised that work comes in peaks and troughs; we might suddenly get requests pouring in or an amalgamation of deadlines, whereas at other periods there might be nothing much going on. i think the difficulty with regard to deadlines is that while they are fixed, my work depends on the inputs from others, so there’s often a crunch nearing the deadline when i’m rushing work because the people in the upstream process were tardy, affecting i who am downstream.

*  *  *  *  *

a discussion today also revealed that the idea of “work-life balance” is a Gen-Y phenomenon; a friend recounted how an older colleague in her thirties felt really grateful to land her first job more than a decade ago. Gen-Ys are supposed to be more demanding, seeking meaning and balance in their jobs.

i think though, that employers are getting more demanding too. these days you need a degree AND good results, good cca record, internship preferred, community service scores brownie points, overseas experience often helps, many jobs require a certain degree of bilingual skills (take mine for example!), one needs to be well groomed, people-skills are valued, one has to write and speak well, there’s little room for newcomers to learn and make mistakes, etc….

i don’t think our supposed ‘increased demands’ are entirely unwarranted. for the record (and as i’ve mentioned before), Singaporeans already work longer hours than their ‘western’ counterparts, and i think i have the right to a LIFE beyond the office. as it is i don’t have enough time between reaching home from work and heading to work the next day to sleep (i need at least 6hrs, ideally 7 – 8hrs) AND do basic things i want to do (watch an hour-long show, read the papers, chat a bit with friends online) – and i’m really not all that busy yet.

*  *  *  *  *

i should find nicer/happier things to blog about. hard to do so when it’s nearly all work that i’m doing though! should put up some pretty pictures of Guilin tomorrow, perhaps.