Tuesday, May 24, 2011

conned & insulted

The past few weeks have been incredibly tough, especially at the office. Working long hours and even on weekends isn't something I enjoy, so I salute those who have been doing it for years, and are still able to have a semblance of life.

I'm not a fan of work encroaching into personal life especially when I get to go home after the sun sets, and still work is on my mind. More so when I have to play catch up during the weekends.

Some of the things that have happened at work this month have tested my patience and thickened my skin. Just when I thought I've had it tough before, this is really much more than anything I've ever had to go through.

Can't say if things will get better, but at least talking to the right people and venting it out have helped put things into perspective. By knowing how to deal with difficult people and looking at the bigger picture, this has helped me to manage the stress better.

Not surprising that there is high turnover in the consulting line. Not only is the mantra to please the clients, but a lot of times this involves eating the humble pie and letting the client receive the credit.

I try to remind myself that being in these difficult situations help in character development, not to mention learning a lot about myself and how much I can be stretched.

But I think at the end of the day, I know this is probably not what I want for the long term. The consulting line may look glamorous on the outside, and even outsiders will say all kinds of things about consultants. But being one myself, I can understand why they are like that.

Let's see how things unfold; I just hope I can last long enough to preserve my sanity!

5 comments:

crownedfish said...

I put it this way. No matter how hard I work or how much time I put into my job, in the end when the company is doing bad, they are going to fire me. So why stress so much about my job? Why work so hard to get to the next level? I might as well go in, put in my 8 hours, and collect my check. After all, work is not my life. My life is outside of this 44 story building. My life is being with my family. My life is doing what God wants me to do outside of this corporate struggle.

classyadele said...

This was exactly what happened to me in my 1st job. I knew things were getting out of hand when I found myself going back at 12am+ every night, dreamt that I was still working, only to find out that it was only a dream when I woke up at 8am to get ready for another day of hard work. The mind never rested! So despite the promising future to remain in that field, I was smart enough to walk away from it all. Nine years later, I have a good academic career with a MPhil and PhD degree to boot :-)AND publications and research projects that I can call MY OWN. LOL So maybe if you're not enjoying yourself, you should be reevaluating your career decision(s)... :-)

LY Leong said...

"Consultant" is just a glamorous title ... The work, the stress, and the liability sometimes is just not worth it.
Could be just in Malaysia or it could be the same anywhere else.

SiowLan-Ally said...

Work stress and late nights is everywhere no matter which country you go. I think the key is if you are not being apprepriated and/or recognised for the efforts put in,then it is time to reassess your role in the organisation. no point working for ppl who don't recog the efforts you put in.

§nóflèk said...

thanks for the comments babes! :) actually even though my situation ain't that bad as some of you have gone through, like those in the audit line, or even the long hours in other fields, but since my first job was tops in work-life balance, this has been quite tough in comparison. if this was my first job then perhaps it wouldnt have been a big deal, but as we mature we tend to have different priorities. so this was a good time to take a check and evaluate how far i'd like to go in this...