In My Life

Today was a great day at work.

It was busy, it was tiring, but there’s never a dull moment in this line. And there was that elusive sense of satisfaction present which I had not found in my previous job.

Somehow things fell very neatly in place today, and I really have to thank God for that. Indeed, His blessings are beyond compare. Things are looking up.

I’ve not, for a moment, regretted my decision to come work here since the day I left the Bank.

Yup, even though I took a four-digit paycut. (Cos it’s not always about the money.)

Even though it’s goodbye to the high-life, goodbye to nice classy lunches with colleagues, goodbye to the fancy dinners which bosses sometimes give (on the company’s account), goodbye to working in a sheltered & sophisticated environment, goodbye to having dozens of colleagues of the same age-group, goodbye to being part of a prestigious global corporation.

Yeah, I’m spending much less nowadays. Can’t afford to spend like I used to. Even my lunch expenditure is almost one-fifth of what it used to be. (I’m serious.)

I’ve never looked back since stepping away from the Bank.

It’s not what I felt I was cut out to do.

Didn’t like the bureaucracy (can’t imagine if I had worked in the civil service!), didn’t like the fact that my performance was determined solely by the boss’s judgement, didn’t like the fact that I didn’t see much value in what I did, didn’t like the fact that my department was merely viewed as an insignificant part of the company and frequently looked down upon, etc.

Anyway, to be honest, when working in a large corporation, most of your time is spent either wasting away server space by email-chatting with colleagues, or putting on a front whilst worrying about what the boss thinks of you.

Nowadays, now that I’m in this tiny little company, there’s absolutely no time for all that.

I’m meeting up with clients. I’m empowered to negotiate with them. It is my responsibility to find the best methods to provide the clients with the level of service they expect, and yet achieve profitability for the company. It’s up to me to find ways to grow the company’s business. It’s up to me to keep the existing clients happy.

Besides all that, I sometimes also get roped in to help out with miscellaneous stuff like finance, payroll, IT, HR, vendor selection, etc.

As I said, never a dull moment.

Yeah, we’re a small setup, nothing compared to an MNC. But it’s a decent trade we do.

I start to see how a real business operates, from the start of the workflow right till the very end. Previously, I couldn’t even figure out how my entire department operated (cos it was just so huge).

Somehow I’m more proud to tell people about my work in this little company than I was of my work in my previous Bank, even though the Bank was rather well-known.

Y’know, I don’t actually view what I do as “work”. I view it as “doing business”, and that I have a part to play in the success of the company’s business. “Work” is when you die-die have to perform certain tasks given to you (and usually has some connotations of “begrudgingness” associated with it…ok I couldn’t find a better word than that), whereas “doing business” is more of playing the game of Business where only the most entrepreneurial ones succeed.

Things are looking up.

…

Well, come to think of it, there are certain things I do miss about my previous work-life. These are the little things that really gave you the feeling of “being at work”. For example:

- Making the morning walk from MRT station to the office building, together with countless others clad in formal businesswear.

- Swiping your card at the turnstiles, and waiting to get into the (extremely full) lifts at around 9am.

- Hanging out at the pantry with colleagues (after secretly arranging the meetup timing via email).

- The sight of rows upon rows of workdesks with flatscreen desktops, and with plasma TVs broadcasting the news above every few rows.

- Seeing the Directors sitting in their own spacious glass rooms, and knowing that they report to an even higher ranking Managing Director who probably sits in another country.

- Live broadcast (via the plasma TVs) of the CEO’s quarterly company-wide update.

- Receiving glossy brochures (everyone in the company gets one) about things like adhering to compliance procedures.

- Being sent for a one-day training course on product knowledge within the company’s own training facilities.

- Receiving emails by the minute.

- Completing a mandatory company compliance online test every few months.

I do miss those little things now and then, cos I don’t get to experience such things anymore.

Or ever again.